[Bill Wallace]

Kevin, every 3-4 months the polish will tend to take on a very slight tarnish. Perfect Polish sells a range of Nuvite metal polishes that will help you maintain the shine. Nuvite F7 and F9 are used to repair heavily oxidized, scratched or pitted areas. They are best used with separate compounding pads on a variable speed buffer. (I forget which order the two polishes are used but Perfect Polish has that information on their web site). Then, after repairing any oxidized or pitted areas Nuvite S polish is used to acquire the final shine with a polishing pad. Alternatively, you can acquire dual-headed Cyclo oscillating polisher with fleece wraps covering the polishing heads to apply the Nuvite S compound. The Cyclo polisher is a real handful to use, particularly when trying to manage the fleece wrap that they recommend to use. Perfect Polish also sells the Cyclo polisher and fleece wraps.

If the shine becomes tarnished over time (not oxidized or pitted), you can use fleece wraps to apply the Nuvite S compound by hand to bring back the shine. That process is closer to waxing a painted finish by hand with paste wax.

All the polishing needs to take place out of the sun as it dries the compound too quickly.

I would recommend staying away from micro fiber clothes to perform any polishing as they will leave fabric marks on the polish.

I haven't used any protective waxes. I just use the Nuvite S applied by hand with a fleece wrap to restore a tarnished shine and/or to remove slight scratches.

Youtube has several videos on how to polish aluminum, including using the Nuvite compounds, using compounding and buffing pads with a variable speed buffer, and using a Cyclo polisher.

All this sounds intimidating, but it is more tedious and dirty (when using the polishes) than difficult. I ordered my car from Kirkham sanded to a 300 grit level and sanded it an polished it using the foregoing techniques so it definitely can be done and once the initial polish is achieved it isn't too difficult to keep it looking good...it only takes about a morning or afternoon every 3-4 months.

As far as great drives in your area I would recommend going to Telluride from Moab, then down to Durango and up to Ouray over Red Mountain pass, then east to Paonia, north over McClure pass to Aspen, then over Independence Pass and down to Buena Vista, then back to Pine. Take pictures for the rest of us who aren't as fortunate as you are to live in the great state of Colorado.

Good luck Kevin!