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Chequerplate cleaning woes'


J Kelly

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Hi,

I am hoping that someone may be able to help me with a product or method to clean the aluminium chequerplate on the kedron.

I have been trying to restore that new showroom look that was there when the topender was picked up from the factory but try as I may, this Nth Qld bulldust and mud seems to have stained the aluminium.

So far the strongest chemical that I have tried is truckwash with lots of elbowgrease .... just hope that there may be some solutioons out there.

Regards, JK.

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G`Day jk

Try a couple of products called Wicked or Purple both very good on the checkerplate.They are an aluminium polish.Used to be sold by Supercheap or similar stores. SWMBO says Repco.:)

Cheers

Rick :thumbsup:

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Thanks Tom, I am going to Kedron on Wednesday and will see if I can track down a bit more info on the pink powder.

Hi Rick, I will be paying SupaCheap a visit in the morning to see if I can find the products you mentioned; although I get the feeling that it might be more pertinent for me to wait till Monday to check out repco first :biggrin:

Thanks again, JK.

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Sorry John the rest of the gang got it right, I'm just a colour blinded QUEENSLANDER,

I shall order a bottle for Jackie, it will give her a job when she finishes mowing.

Tom. :thumbsup:

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jk,

We took our ATV on the Gibb River Road and all places between Derby and Kununurra last year and accumulated lots of red dust staining.

When we got back to Perth we had the major task of cleaning the outside of the van back to new. I used Diggers Stain and Rust Remover, which is Oxalic Acid. This product is often used for removing bore water stains. I bought it from Bunnings at about $16:00 for two kilos.

It worked a treat. It cleaned the galvanised chassis parts to like new, the chequer plate is back to shiny and I also used it to clean red dust stains off the awning.

I made around a 10% solution (100 grammes in 1 litre of water. I put the solution into a spray bottle, sprayed on small sections at a time and left for about 5 minutes before washing off with water. In areas that were badly stained and around areas where there were rock chips, I scrubbed lightly with a small brush before hosing off.

Hope this is of use to you.

Regards

Col & Debbie

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Thanks for the info kingy ....... I went to kedron's today and bought a bottle of 'purple' but Tom I agree the stuff looks more like pink to me too ....... must be al that ba-mia-ba and wood alcohol that they fed us in the funny farm; anyway the bride has finished mowing the block today so she can start using purple tomorrow after she comes home from the market :whip:

Col, thanks for the tip on oxalic acid .... have bought a bottle of 10% and will be starting on the chasis shortly!

Now ... I wonder if anyone canhelp with a remady for removing all the black mould that we are getting on the roof & gutter sealant on the roof of the van from all this wet Qld weather?

Regards, JK

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  • 4 weeks later...

G'day John,

How did your external cleaning of the van go,with all those hints from the forum?

About to start Jackie on her mission, any thing you would or would not do?

Up the Old Red Rooster,

Tom :helpsmilie:

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G'day Tom,

.... we ran out of time before we had to head off on our trip to Albury/Adelaide so all of my good plans to have a spotless Kedron on the road went out the window.

got all the stuff though so she will be able to get to work as soon as we get back home! :confused: :smile:

Regards, JK.

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JK, what parts of SA are you visiting? Are you coming through the Barossa (which is where we live)?

Well, we are in Melbourne at present, on a couple of weeks trip away with teh van, but normally we are in the Barossa, so if you come nearby call in! Just PM me.

Chris

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JK

Re mould on sealant on roof. I have used a bleach soution with success. Not too strong and a soft brush does the trick. Leave it on for 5-10 minutes before hosing off and make sure you wash down where the water/bleach runs down the walls etc.

Regards Geoff

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  • 7 months later...

Hi Col,

THANK YOU so much for the tip on oxalic acid. I can truthfully say I have never used a cleaning product that worked SO well.

I have been putting off what I considered was going to be a bitch of a job for some time now....anyway today I bite the bullet. Mixed up solution as per your directions applied with a 6 litre pump spray pack (garden sprayer).

I did the checker plate first about a sqm at a time, spray on, scrub with a course scrubbing brush so you dont cut your fingers on the sharp edges then rub over with a rag soaked in the mixture, left it on for NO more than 5 minutes & then hit it with a Gerni. Amazing results!!!

I mixed up a slightly stronger brew for the chassis & all those ingrained red dirt stains just disappeared brought the chassis back to 'new'.

Would advise the use of rubber gloves & eye protection.

Thanks again :)

Edit 6/11

The polish may be the 'bees kness' in keeping the shine up on the chequerplate but when you get what I will call 'acne damage' from flying stones on the chequerplate the only thing I think you will find that will get rid of the ingrained dirt is the oxalic acid.

I recently had to have both sides of the van reclad at the factory to recify damage caused by erant trees on our last trip round Oz. The original locker doors were refitted. Picking the van up at Brendale the difference between the new & the old chequerplate was VERY obvious. With the acid mix the rear/back panel & locker doors came back to what I consider a very good finish considering the age & distance it has travelled & I expect once the new chequerplate weathers a little you wont be able to tell the difference.

The front panel that suffered 'acne damage' well thats another story, thats beautifully clean now,(& NO amount of polishing would return it to its former state) but has permanent damage due to flying stones not stopped by the stone screen. The undamaged parts of the front panel after washing with the acid mix have the same finish as the locker doors & the rear panel. :)

Each time I walk past the van & look at the chassis I'm amazed at how clean it is!

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I recall from somewhere else on this forum that the newer vans have a chequerplate which is sealed by Kedron and retains its shiny as new look with only washing with water. Kedron's advice was not to wash it with any chemicals because that removes the protective coating.

Anyone else remember that advice?

Chris

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Greetings all.

On a previous topic I made the comment that the alloy plate was sealed and should not be polished (as advised by a van manufacturer).

Since that revelation I have done a lot of research and find that that was totally un tru please forgive me :rolleyes:

Unaware of Kedron factory process but the manufacturers of the plate definitely do not treat the alloy.

We have had to use "purple" polish on our new van due to the stains acquired from much mud running,red dust and other normal use abuse :D .

So far it is the best that we have found but are open to recommendations.

Cheers to all.

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Greetings all. On a previous topic I made the comment that the alloy plate was sealed and should not be polished (as advised by a van manufacturer).

Since that revelation I have done a lot of research and find that that was totally un tru please forgive me :rolleyes:

What a bummer! Do you mean we have lost our excuse for not polishing the chequerplate? It has stayed remarkably clean - despite some very rough dust and mud.

Chris

post-45-0-37739600-1320543566_thumb.jpg

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Since my original request for help and many helpful replies, I have been hesitant in attempting to polish the chequerplate on my van as I consider that the original finish has stayed good in spite of several off road trips.

A few weeks back I decided that it was time to try out the "purple polish" and settled on the shower alcove floor as a test run ..... in my opinion the polished floor did not achieve a sheen any where near that of the original or pre-polish finsh. I also consider that the polish is difficult to remove even when freshly dry which would make the job of doing the whole of the van very tedious.

I will be looking to maintain the original finish now with detergent and a microfibre cloth for as long as I can.

Regards, JK.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi,

I am hoping that someone may be able to help me with a product or method to clean the aluminium chequerplate on the kedron.

I have been trying to restore that new showroom look that was there when the topender was picked up from the factory but try as I may, this Nth Qld bulldust and mud seems to have stained the aluminium.

So far the strongest chemical that I have tried is truckwash with lots of elbowgrease .... just hope that there may be some solutioons out there.

Regards, JK.

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Hi jk I have just been on a 6 week trip out to Longreach, Roma, Carnvan gore,Cania gorge,Sunshine coast, Emerald, Mackey,and back to Townsville, our van was pretty dirty when we got back home. My wife even had to wash it down at Cania gorge before we even set it up ,after traveling in to Lake Nuga Nuga between Injune and Carnavan gorge. When we arrived home in Townsville the van was very dirty. It took 2 days with a tooth bush and a lot of elbow grease to bring it back to clean. After cleaning all the aluminiun back I went out and bought some polish which was brillant , It's called 3M chrome & metal polish it's in a 10oz tub,I purchased it from Russco paints here in Townsville Duckworth st $32.00 each. The polished alluminiun came up better then the day that with picked up our topender 1 year ago.Only used elbow grease no puffing machine. very happy with this product It's the shinnest topender in north queensland. Happy wife happy life Richard :lol:

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I have been busily polishing our Keddy in readiness for its big trip next March, early start I know but once I leave here in a week I will not see it again until we come through to pick it up and go. Point of post - I paid $59.95 on a Powerball for Ians drill as it came highly recommended for checkerplate - if you think of doing the same don't bother. It works no better than our Mothers buffer on the checkerplate, it has an if you don't like it send it back thing on the packaging but I noticed now that they are in the USA! On the positive the Mothers aluminum cleaner is superior to the Autosol one I was using and slightly better than the Meguires that our son was using on his bullbar. We did a comparison check. Hmmm... Ian probably will not be impress when he reads my credit card statement this month better take something nice back home with me eh.

Sue

Karratha WA

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Richard,

thanks for the tip on the 3M polish, I was unable to find a stockist here but did finally get our local paint shop to order it although they only do a 3M order about every 3 months (nothing happens very quickly here in Maryborough)

Sue,

I followed up on your suggestion and found some "mothers" aluminium polish and also a set of Kenco applicatiopn pads and am happy to say that the polish is easy to apply and buff off leaving a good finish on the pock marked aluminium on the front of the Kedron.

I see what you mean about the Mothers power ball there was no way that I would part with $60 for that thing but I have bought a Black & Decker auto buff ($50) from supercheap auto which I haven't yet tried

The next trick will be to try and get Pauline interested in a bit of van polishing :rolleyes:

Regards, JK

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jk,

We took our ATV on the Gibb River Road and all places between Derby and Kununurra last year and accumulated lots of red dust staining.

When we got back to Perth we had the major task of cleaning the outside of the van back to new. I used Diggers Stain and Rust Remover, which is Oxalic Acid. This product is often used for removing bore water stains. I bought it from Bunnings at about $16:00 for two kilos.

It worked a treat. It cleaned the galvanised chassis parts to like new, the chequer plate is back to shiny and I also used it to clean red dust stains off the awning.

I made around a 10% solution (100 grammes in 1 litre of water. I put the solution into a spray bottle, sprayed on small sections at a time and left for about 5 minutes before washing off with water. In areas that were badly stained and around areas where there were rock chips, I scrubbed lightly with a small brush before hosing off.

Hope this is of use to you.

Regards

Col & Debbie

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