Faraday will describe our recent work on the development of a one-step electrochemical surface preparation process to prepare aluminum (6061) for direct electrodeposition. Coating on aluminum commonly requires extensive and specialized surface pretreatment processes prior to deposition, owing to aluminum’s reactive nature and affinity for oxygen. However, Faraday has recently developed a simple pretreatment process utilizing our pulse reverse electrofinishing approach that can dramatically reduce the procedures to prepare the surface for the deposition on Al in an environmentally benign solution. In our ongoing programs we have demonstrated the potential of a single step pretreatment process that can prepare the surface for deposition such that functional layers of Ni, NiP, or ZnNi can be electrodeposited directly to the 6061 Al surfaces.