Aluminum vehicle body

Abstract

A method is disclosed for the decorative finishing of automotive vehicle bodies made of aluminum alloys. The manufactured aluminum body, or an un-assembled set of aluminum panels and components for such a body, are cleaned and otherwise pretreated as necessary and then subjected to a suitable anodizing process to form a durable, porous coating of microscopic aluminum oxide on all the visible surfaces of said body to be decorated for consumer acceptance. The anodized surfaces are then colored by coloring processes such as adsorptive coloring, electrolytic coloring and/or interference coloring.

1 . A method of making a decorative aluminum automotive vehicle body or decorative component parts for assembly into a said body, said method comprising: 
 making an automotive vehicle body structure or a set of component parts for a said body structure where visible surfaces of said body structure to be colored for consumer acceptance are formed of aluminum or aluminum alloys;    anodizing the surfaces of said body structure or set of component parts in an acid solution; and    coloring the anodized surfaces of said body structure or component parts in a process selected from the group of processes consisting of adsorptive coloring, electrolytic coloring, and interference coloring.    
     
     
         2 . A method of making a decorative aluminum automotive vehicle body or decorative component parts as recited in  claim 1 , said method further comprising dipping the colored vehicle body or colored component parts in a solution of fluoride or silica compounds in the presence of nickel salts to cold seal the colored surfaces of said body or parts.  
     
     
         3 . A method of making a decorative aluminum automotive vehicle body or decorative component parts as recited in  claim 2 , said method further comprising immersing said colored and cold sealed vehicle body or cold sealed and colored component parts in deionized water at a temperature of about 90° C. to about 100° C. to hot seal the surfaces of said body or parts.  
     
     
         4 . A decorative aluminum automotive vehicle body or decorative component parts made by the method recited in  claim 1 .  
     
     
         5 . A decorative aluminum automotive vehicle body or decorative component parts made by the method recited in  claim 2 .  
     
     
         6 . A decorative aluminum automotive vehicle body or decorative component parts made by the method recited in  claim 3 .  
     
     
         7 . A method of making a decorative aluminum automotive vehicle body or decorative component parts for assembly into a said body, said method comprising: 
 making an automotive vehicle body structure or a set of component parts for a said body structure where visible surfaces of said body structure to be colored for consumer acceptance are formed of aluminum or aluminum alloys;    cleaning, if necessary, said body structure or said parts for said body structure to remove natural oxide and other materials inhibitive of the following anodizing step; and    anodizing the surfaces of said body structure or set of component parts in an acid solution to form to form clear porous oxide surfaces about 10 to 25  m in thickness on surfaces of said body structure or parts.    
     
     
         8 . A method of making a decorative aluminum automotive vehicle body or decorative component parts for assembly into a said body as recited in  claim 7  comprising coloring the anodized surfaces of said body structure or component parts by electrolytically depositing metal particles in the pores of said oxide surfaces.  
     
     
         9 . A method as recited in  claim 8  comprising coloring the anodized surfaces of said body structure or component parts by dipping said body or parts in an acidic aqueous bath of one or more inorganic salts of metals and electrolytically depositing metal particles in the pores of said oxide surfaces from said bath.  
     
     
         10 . A method as recited in  claim 9  in which said inorganic salts are of one or more metals selected from the group consisting of cobalt, copper, nickel and tin.