And from the reverse side:
The remaining spots where not paint. The platter was corroded under the paint. And at this point the nightmare started. I tried various metal polishes, lots of elbow grease. Nothing helped, the platter got better, looked shinier, but the countless spots remained.
As I didn't have too much time, the platter went to the storage in the cellar, a week or so later I started to polish again. That procedure repeated several times.
One weekend I did another search on Google: "aluminum cleaning". Various tips and recipes turned up. Like using a mixture of salt and vinegar to polish. Serious.
One of the recipes was using lemon juice. I gave it a try, like the salt and vinegar thing before. I realized that at least something was happening. But not enough. In my desperation I tried a few things in combination with lemon. What worked finally, was the following:
Starting position
Rubbing the platter with a lemon half for a couple of seconds
results in this
Now use a brass brush and loosen the corrosion:
Which looks like this then, as a result:
Don't try to weep the platter clean now, as the lemon juice is too dry and you'll just rub the loosened corrosion back into the metal. Use the lemon again for a few seconds
and then quickly wipe the juice and the corrosion off with a clean piece of cloth
which gave me this result
Amazing, isn't it? It took me about 2 hours to polish the platter to as new condition.
results in this
Now use a brass brush and loosen the corrosion:
Which looks like this then, as a result:
Don't try to weep the platter clean now, as the lemon juice is too dry and you'll just rub the loosened corrosion back into the metal. Use the lemon again for a few seconds
and then quickly wipe the juice and the corrosion off with a clean piece of cloth
which gave me this result
Amazing, isn't it? It took me about 2 hours to polish the platter to as new condition.
