My CP-E intercooler is corroded. Any ideas on polishing it up?

[LilPocketRocket]

So.... I bought a used CP-E intercooler for a great price, and now I'm finding out that it was probably a great deal for a reason. Despite the intercooler coming off a car from Arizona, it looked like it was taken off a car from New York. All the brackets and screws are either completely rusted through or corroded to the point to where I'm spending a lot of time trying to clean it up. While I'm going to have to order some new screws directly from CP-E, I have to find a way on how to clean up the intercooler itself.

I'm not worried about the bent fins or the fading stencil. Those can be easily fixed. But what's the best way to clean up this rough aluminum? I got some Duragloss and Simple Green on-hand, which I've been using alongside a heavy-duty cleaning brush to scrub the darn thing, but some of these blemishes are just not wanting to come.off. my next step is a brass wire wheel, but I don't want to have to go that route if I don't have to.

Here's what it looks like after spending an hour cleaning it:

 

[sonicmn]

You will have a hard time "polishing" the fins, but the rest of it can be cleaned up fairly easily with sandpaper/polish.

pick up a multipack of some wetsanding sand paper (3M wet or dry is an option, but other companies make stuff too), use a small amount of water to help keep the sludge washed out of the paper so it doesn't clog up.

Start with a coarse enough grit to remove the big "chunks" and rough texture (maybe start at 400, or if its really bad try something around 300 grit) then just keep stepping it up finer and finer, go up to 1200 or finer, then move to rubbing/cutting compound, and finally go to a polish, even something like gel gloss or any other fine grit polishing compound will work.

Just keep in mind that as raw aluminum it wont stay like that forever, give it another year or two and it will look rough again.

If the car sees any amount of road salt it will go bad really fast. it sits in the front of the car and gets sand blasted, it takes its toll.

Here is a quick video on an aluminum shock body that does a nice job. if you just want it to be bright aluminum, you dont have to go crazy with the sandpaper, just go till you are content with the depth of the sandpaper scratches and polish from there.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q8cbcja0ns&t=180s


Good luck and have fun! its real rewarding when its nice and bright polished in the end.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

So.... I bought a used CP-E intercooler for a great price, and now I'm finding out that it was probably a great deal for a reason. Despite the intercooler coming off a car from Arizona, it looked like it was taken off a car from New York. All the brackets and screws are either completely rusted through or corroded to the point to where I'm spending a lot of time trying to clean it up. While I'm going to have to order some new screws directly from CP-E, I have to find a way on how to clean up the intercooler itself.

I'm not worried about the bent fins or the fading stencil. Those can be easily fixed. But what's the best way to clean up this rough aluminum? I got some Duragloss and Simple Green on-hand, which I've been using alongside a heavy-duty cleaning brush to scrub the darn thing, but some of these blemishes are just not wanting to come.off. my next step is a brass wire wheel, but I don't want to have to go that route if I don't have to.

Here's what it looks like after spending an hour cleaning it:

View attachment 47266

View attachment 47265

View attachment 47264

View: https://youtu.be/DC8kuJ4slHU


It's a starting point*

Sent from my SM-N975U1 using Tapatalk

 

[M-Sport fan]

Someone once mentioned (on here, I believe) that Simple Green is corrosive to aluminum alloys.

I'd research that further before using that stuff any more.