Thomas,

Aluminum dust? The hinges are steel, with electroplated galvanized coating ( zinc) . The hinge bolts steel too.
But I do agree that the dust is from the mechanism rubbing.  If you don’t want to paint the hinges, try some hard car wax.

Alistair 

> On Jul 6, 2021, at 2:26 PM, Thomas Casal <thomas.casal@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> That’s what I thought it was but it looks so black. Anyway to stop creating
> the aluminum powder?
> 
>> On Tue, Jul 6, 2021 at 1:25 PM <stuartmacm@gmail.com> wrote:
>> That's mostly aluminum powder from the hinge wearing, and likely can't be
>> cleaned off, since it's so fine and embedded in the fibers.  No way for
>> much "dirt" to get up there.
>> Stuart
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com> On Behalf Of
>> Thomas Casal
>> Sent: Tuesday, July 6, 2021 7:23 AM
>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>> Subject: Pop top canvas hinge dirt
>> Hey volks,
>> What do you guys do to prevent the hinge dust from soiling your pop top
>> canvas? I have a few year old canvas and it looks terrible with that hinge
>> dirt on it. I don’t even know if an upholstery cleaner will clean it. Peace
>> Tom