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The rapid increase over the past few years in the use of aluminum closure panels on vehicles is anticipated to continue well into the next decade. Along with this increased usage comes the need for a greater amount of cosmetic repair of these closures in after market body shops. Although paint repair systems for aluminum have been available for some time, their effectiveness on newer alloys needed to be demonstrated. Some work in the recent literature has also questioned the corrosion and paint performance of aluminum closures after sanding. In this study, extensive surface analysis of AA6111 closure sheet material was carried out in the as-received condition, after phosphating and after sanding, cleaning and pretreating with selected paint repair systems from major automotive paint suppliers to determine the effects of surface residues or contaminants on subsequent corrosion performance.