Alloy cleaning

[Angus gentleman]

What's the best non mechanical cleaning agent for reviving my casings so I can get all the oxide off them ?

[Chaos]

A teen age son who wants to borrow it!  Sorry for being a smart ass, but I stoop to this level with various amounts of success.  Don't know of any way that doesn't involve some kind of scrubbing

[Angus gentleman]

So you don't know of any nasty acid product that you can spray on it and scrub off ! ?

[Grim]

Might see if you can find some a/c coil cleaner. Be careful it's some tough stuff and will remove skin. I use it to clean mag wheels and it dissolves brake dust like nothing else. It can remove paint. I dilute it a good bit.

[rocket23]

simple green straight with a stiff brush, rinse clean before it dries though..........nasty stuff if left too dry.

[BGadds]

Try Alumabrite from NAPA.  spray it on, rinse it off....throughly!

[JamesInCA]

I've tried one of these acidic aluminum cleaners on a spare crankcase cover. It was from Autozone, active ingredient either oxalic or hydrofluoric acid; I don't remember which at the moment (HF, I think).

I didn't care for the results. It wasn't "bright," and it was a bit blotchy, even with careful application and liberal rinsing. Big downside risk here, I think.

[BGadds]

This will definitely brighten that old looking aluminum.  thinks its phosphoric acid.  I tried everything on the market and am totally happy with the results.  if anything, it looked too bright at first, but after a couple of weeks it seemed to mellow.  The marine guys swear by it for their aluminum hulls.

[JamesInCA]

I'll give that a try. I see NAPA has a few varieties under their name and DuraGloss, with different phosphoric acid  concentrations, and in perfect spray-bottle sizes.

[TIV]

This is what I use on alloy. Makes it like new. You can use a damp cloth and your hands or use electric tool with suitable pad.
http://www.autosol.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=1824

[mac]

I've used Wurth's aluminum brightener. Probably the same as the NAPA stuff, just more expensive because it says Wurth on the bottle. I wasn't blown away with the results, but hey--they're aluminum castings...A super clean, super bright piece of cast aluminum isn't exactly gorgeous anyway.