Added Custom Bed Rails to My Truck

[sick472]

I'm just showing off a bit as I am proud of my work (and sore from it too). It's been a long time coming and not finding what I wanted in the aftermarket world...I made some bed rails for my build. It all started when I split the bedsides many years ago to de-rust the hidden inner areas and buggar'd up the inside lips of the bed rails. They needed covering up. These started off as 1/4" x 3" x 2" 6061 aluminum angles. I spent about 4 or 5 hours making them to fit and sanding the extrusion lines and minor scratches out, but soon realized that I was not going to be happy with a dull finish...then I sanded, sanded, sanded, polished, polished, & polished (20 hours worth) to get the results that the truck deserved.

A friend suggested clear coating them to help reduce the maintenace, but I have decided not to for fear of poor adhesion on the polished surface and creating an ugly peeling mess later on. Anybody have experiece clearing polished aluminum?