VW Bus - Jail Bar Clean-up

Being a Deluxe Transporter, the Bus has some funky little guards that protect the rear hatch glass and the last, rear-most side glass from cargo in the luggage area above the engine. These little aluminum fittings and bars are affectionately called, in the VW world, "Jail Bars".

In this family bus, a bus that saw duty toting kids and dogs and greasy VW parts and all sorts of other things, the jail bars came in handy. A few were pretty bent and wobbly in their mounts, and the aluminum finish was pretty pitted and corroded white with oxidation. As part of my efforts to tidy up the rear luggage area, I took them down and gave them a little polish.

Now, I don't want to polish these little things up to mirror finish. I just want them to look like they've been well used and cleaned. So instead of going for Zaskar mirror, we're shooting for 60% polished here.

Jail Bar ends, dirty. The white chalky oxidization is apparent here. Funny, but this sort of deterioration only comes around when a car sits. I'm sure that the bars weren't polished on a regular maintenance schedule when the car was used more, but they still didn't get like this until the car went unused for a few years. Use, it seems, is a pretty good tool to keep the goo at bay.

And finished. Again, if you look at the bars and fittings closely, you can see pitting and some scratches and such, but they gleam more, and they add a very snappy look to the bright red bus when done up with a little polish.