The journey begins - purchased a truck.

My Western Star came with DuraBrite wheels and the finish didn't last 6 month and it started to peel off. Going to Alaska probably didn't help either. I just had my tanks sanded and polished. It took the guy 5.5 to 6 hrs for each side @ $400.00 a tank. Not cheap, but he comes to my place and I can do other things in the mean time. Also the tanks where off the frame to be polished all the way round. He has one more day left to do all the diamond plate and steps.

 

I considered jyst paying someone, but to get the mirror finish i wanted it was going to be pricey and take a long time. The polish shop in wildwood quoted me 2500 and 5 days to do the entire truck. I'm not baby sitting my truck 200 miles from hone for five days, and I'm not leasing it sit unattended and unsecured over night in a high crime area next to 3 truck stops.

 

I don't blame you a bit. I have spent $1575.00 so far for getting tanks, 7 wheels, air cleaners, exhaust shields, grille surround and chrome bumper polished. In the picture you can see the difference since the steps are not done yet. The truck came with polished everything, but three years of running to Alaska took care of that.

 

All of my aluminum liked like your steps. Dull white. No shine at all. I snapped a picture this morning with only the little bit i did last night sinning. So not a complete "before" picture but course enough. I'll get another when I'm done for the "after" picture and one of you guys can help me figure out how to upload them.

 

Back in my youth I had a black 359, I kept wheels and tanks polished. But the secret to make it manageable when I was home I would polish one side then the next time do the other side. Don’t get burned out that way.
I did have some kind of sealer from Alcoa that helped keep the shine but a good car wax can do the same.

 

Ya once i get it cleaned up and shiny it shouldn't be anything more than maintenance. Something to kill time on those weekend loads i don't make it home. 3 days to go 1k miles kinda of loads. Wipe on, wipe off type of polishing. Getting the wheels and rouge bars out should only be a once a year thing. And even then if i kept it up during the year i can probably skip right to the secondary cutting process. At least that's the hope.

 

Loading pics to here from your smartphone is quickest/easiest. Look below at the "post reply" there is an "upload a file" button. Click that. Then you'll see a few options and on my phone (droid) you click on "documents". Once you click that you'll have a long list of options to choose from. "Gallery" is what you're looking for, click that. Then just pick out whatever pic from your smartphone gallery that you want to post. You can only upload one pic at a time. And you can only put 4 pics, or maybe it's 5 maximum, in a single post. So click "upload file", "documents", "gallery" and select your pic.

 

If its a comfort issue the next time we get together we can pull the valve cover and ill show ya what needs done/ how to do it.

 

How is the wrist? If you find yourself with loads like that in the future, I might consider taking a trip to the local home depot to hire a swamper for the day. Make them do the tasks that might aggravate that injury (under supervision). Who knows, it may even speed things up enough to allow you to grab an extra load per day.