when I was passionately working on the Silver Streak I discovered something about anodized aluminum. When anodized aluminum is exposed to years of exposure and the effects of being towed, it does start to dissolve for a lack of a better word. That milky, chalky appearance is the anodized part of the aluminum wearing off. Even so the finish is incredibly hard.
On this particular day of frustration with getting nowhere, I was working on the crown of the SS, on the right side of the trailer. I was 5 rungs up the ladder with my body twisted to reach the round part of the roof so I still had leverage to rub with all my might. I still remember my reaction when the rivets I had been rubbing across started to reflect the suns light, like sparkling jewels around the neck of a King or Queen. The brightness and sparkle of the rivets in contrast to the rest of the trailer was so inspiring that soon the pretty rivets were no longer enough. Like all good Americans I wanted more! I just had to keep rubbing. And when I started to see the shadowy reflection of myself I was almost uncontrollable. I yelled to Stef and he came running in disbelief. On the tightest part of the curve, where the wind and weather would have been at its worst, I managed to polish a large patch to a brilliant shine. See I said " I knew it could be done ".
This of course was all to good to be true. Although
it was a real back breaker to get the results I got we were determined to continue. So we started to take on more of the roof line when we quickly came to the realization that the area I just polished happened to be the only area that was going to give up the anodized aluminum due to its location. The wind and weather had beaten the curve so hard that the anodized layer was very thin and easy enough to remove. This left us with a real big problem! And a real big shinny spot on the front of our trailer. Now what are we gonna do?
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| Silver Streak Travel Trailer first days of removing anodized aluminum |
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