Process for coating metallic surfaces

A method for treating or pre-treating parts, profiled-pieces, strips, sheet metals or wires having metallic surfaces, in which at least 5% of these surfaces consists of aluminum or of at least one aluminum alloy with an acid aqueous solution which contains fluoride, zinc and phosphate and which has the following dissolved contents in the phosphatizing solution: sodium virtually none, from 0.04 to less than 2 g/L; potassium virtually none or in a concentration ranging from 0.025 to 2.5 g/L; sodium and potassium in a concentration ranging from 0.025 to 2.5 g/L as sodium, whereby the potassium content is converted to sodium on a molar basis; zinc 0.2 to 4 g/L zinc, 5 to 65 g/L calculated as PO4; 0.03 to 0.5 g/L phosphate free fluoride wherein the total fluoride is present in a concentration ranging from 0.1 to 5 g/L. A zinc-containing phosphate layer is thereby deposited onto the metallic surfaces with a layer weight ranging from 0.5 to 10 g/m2.