Detailing my truck box, need help identifying this (wear or corrosion?)

I have had a Weather Guard Truck box on my Tacoma for several years and its been great.

I am looking to polish up the aluminum and I have noticed these hard, slightly raised, whitish spots that can not be easily removed by metal polish, car wash soap or even elbow grease.
I am not sure what they are.

I can't tell if they are a kind of corrosion that can be cleaned away or even some bird droppings that have hardened on the metal..








Does anyone have experience with this problem and know the best way to remove this blemish?


Regards!


PrerunnerSD
http://divesummit.com

 

Since I would only be guessing as to what that is let’s try a safe method to take it off. Soak each spot with WD40 and let it sit for 15min then wipe off.

Let me know how this works.

Great thing about WD40 is it will not hurt anything at all and it is amazing what it can remove. Use it on paint all the time remove sticker adhesive residue.

 

If that doesn’t work, and I would be surprised if it doesn’t, maybe some bug and tar remover?

 

Aluminum doesn’t “rust”, at least not in the way iron/steel does, it corrodes. That looks a little like aluminum corrosion but I’m pretty sure it isn’t. I think some chemical was dropped or splattered on it. I can’t tell from the pics exactly what it is. I doubt wd40 will resolve it but it’s worth a try.

 

Maybe as suggested, try some WD40 so it can soak and hopefully soften up and using a plastic scraper you may be able to remove it. Are these stains only on the diamond plate?