our fellow member here, Pappy, has some very nice
polished aluminum boats. He talks about a lot of elbow grease,
Brillo/SOS Pads,
Phosphoric Acid, more elbow grease, lots of "hands on" work.
His quote from Oct/2015:
"Mix with water and use in a sprayer.
Start from the bottom up to keep from streaking the hull. Have a water hose handy.
Third was using SOS pads on the inside and outside to remove what oxidation was left.
Use water with them. They leave a super fine finish on the hull.
You will feel the oxidation being removed as, all of a sudden,
the pads get very easy to move on the hull. I never used sandpaper with these methods".
from what I have read on the interweb, there are only a couple
of treatments of the "spray on/wash off" variety.
JJV's Best is a common aluminum cleaner. https://www.jjvsbest.com
Their video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlkuS5jnMDc
if your canoe was used in a rocky environment and has a lot of deep
scratches and gouges on the bottom, you may have to address that
issue with an orbital sander then finish up with hand sanding
with wet or dry papers. The amount of work that is involved depends
on your vision of the end result. Of course, "more pretty = more work".
I would suggest you build two saw horses to the size that you can
rest your upside down canoe on with the comfortable height for you to reach the middle
while holding tools. the saw horses should be about a foot wider than the resting points
of the canoe and a wood block screwed to the ends of the sawhorses so the canoe won't accidentily slide off.
Avoid those plastic folding sawhorses, that is just asking for trouble.
Hope this helps you some - - - -
Looking forward to your journey !!
.