Looking for a Magic Wand for use on annodized aluminum grills

[Jeff Wilk]

Short of finding a magic wand, is there some "quicker fix" to clean up the annodized aluminum grills on the late 50's Cadillacs?  Mine is a 59 and I DO NOT want to attempt to disassemble the entire thing at this point.....that will be another project in a few years.....just looking to see if anyone has found some clever way to spray these down with something, scrub them up a bit with the assembly off the car, and then return assembly to car. 

Buffing with a dremmel while on the car maybe??? With what?

Chrome cleaner and a toothbrush???
 I've used chrome cleaner with a rag and that does a decent job but takes about 10 minutes per 2"square!!

I don't expect magic, just some way to give these some shot of newness, as they currently are looking sad.

Anybody try anything before that does a decent job?

[R Schroeder]

I did a Google search = How to clean anodized aluminum.

This was one thing I found.

http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/665.cfm

[curly]

I have a 59 and I cleaned the grill (off the car, assembled) using a dremel and a soft, bullet shaped tip. I used regular automotive chrome polish on the tip and just took my time cleaning each square.  It was a long time ago, I don't remember how much time it took, but the grill did look better, especially the side grills in front of the tire.  They were almost black to start with.
I did burn out the dremel tool from over use.  Not to worry, it belonged to my brother. 

T Lewis

[Ed]

Try Autosol or Flintz, I have good results with these two products. In some area where you can use a large cotton ball, I would use it. Cotton balls cut, but don't scratch. Hope this helps. I use it on this car (see picture).

Ed Nieves

[David Greenburg]

The most through polishing I've ever done on my '59 was with toothbrushes, lots of flannel cloths and Happich metal polish.  It took my wife and I several hours with the grille off the car, but it looked real nice when it was done.

[okccadman]

I used Barkeepers Friend and glass cleaner with a toothbrush on my 67.  It is time consuming but I was very happy with the results.

[Jeff Wilk]

WOW WOW and WOW......based on the below string of replies......AND THANK YOU.......we tried one small hidden section with some BRASSO and a tooth brush.......MAGIC WAND....well almost...

I am going to switch to AUTOSOL with a drill/dremmel type small buffing tip next and that should do amazing work......Just cant get into a full restoration of the grill at this point after winding up as shown below after simply starting to clean up the engine bay WHILE we simply replaced the brake master booster!!!!

[R Schroeder]

You will probably find that the buffing wheels on a dremmel wont last long.
tooth brush will probably work the best.
 Good luck, you have a lot of teeth to brush.........ha
Roy

[eldo59]

You may as well pull the grill apart seing as you've taken the front clip off.
It's not hard to do trust me. Once it's all apart it's reall easy to clean with autosol.
I did my grill and side pieces in one weekend.

[Ed]

Autosol does a good job and if you want to give it a nice final touch, hit it with Zomel.