what do you folks use to get the mast all shiny and new looking ? cabin fever here and have the mast in the basement figured might as well throw some hrs on getting it cleaned up best I can..
mast polish
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While I've painted wooden masts, I've never cleaned an aluminum one. There are plenty of aluminum cleaners available. Not sure how scrubbing a mast with them will affect cabin fever though 
If your mast is painted a good wash and wax is all you need. If paint touch-ups are needed, of course do this before waxing. More probably your mast is annodized, a chemical process which converts the outer surface of the aluminum to a ceramic like composition. You do not want to polish away this coating as it is your corrosion protection. If you have scratches where the bright aluminum is showing through you can seal these some what with a conversion coating wash available from auto paint or aviation suppliers. It wont match the dull color or thickness of the origional annodized surface but it will give you some corrosion protection.
Here's what I did:
I use Collinite Fleetwax on my boat, both wax and cleaner, so that's what I used. The mast was off the boat ( like yours ). Collinite Fleetwax is a paste and the cleaner is a liquid. I saturated very fine steel wool in cleaner and went over the mast, spreaders and the boom ( aggressively ). That removed a lot of "crap" but didn't appear to effect the finish. I then applied two coats of wax and the results were amazing. That was three years ago and it's still looking good.
I use Collinite Fleetwax on my boat, both wax and cleaner, so that's what I used. The mast was off the boat ( like yours ). Collinite Fleetwax is a paste and the cleaner is a liquid. I saturated very fine steel wool in cleaner and went over the mast, spreaders and the boom ( aggressively ). That removed a lot of "crap" but didn't appear to effect the finish. I then applied two coats of wax and the results were amazing. That was three years ago and it's still looking good.
I was an aircraft mechanic in the Navy. I got very extensive corrosion control training. (Salt water, stack fumes, and aluminum don't mix). Never use steel wool on aluminum. It embeds steel into the soft aluminum, then the steel rusts! You also get dissimilar metal issues.
Scotch-Brite was invented to fill that role.
Scotch-Brite was invented to fill that role.
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