Post by felkman on May 23, 2011 14:22:48 GMT -4
last month I got my new Cafe racer magazine and saw a write up on removing anodizing from controls. Sounds good except they use oven cleaner in the article which is a no no. I have been removing anodizing from 80s bmx bicycle parts for years and I know that oven cleaner will ruin your parts faster than anything so here is a quick write up of my own.
So you have faded black on your controls, upper triple tree, master cylinder or bar mounts and you want to remove it? Good chance it is not paint, it is anodizing and is hard as hell to remove unless you know how to do it. Here is an easy step by step on how, this will only work on anodizing and will not work on painted surfaces.
(WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES AND RUBBER GLOVES)
First you will need some drain cleaner, you want dry chemical, not a liquid. I suggest Red Devil Drain cleaner. Which can be found at most hardware stores. It must be a solid and MUST BE 100% sodium hydroxide or Lye. If you use oven cleaner as the article suggests in cafe racer magazine, you will noticed that your part is splotchy, that's pitting of the metal from the Glycol ether's in oven cleaner, DO NOT USE OVEN CLEANER!
Next you need a bucket of water.Use about 1/3 cup lye per gallon of water. Mix well until all chemical is dissolved.
Drop in your parts,
It will start bubbling like boiling water , let it sit a couple more minutes after the bubbling starts, you can pull out the part to check progress. The part will be black with smoot but this will easily come off.
Rinse the part off with water, and polish of the smoot with 0000 steel wool, I didn't have 0000 and but used 000.
Grab a dry soft cloth and your brasso or favorite aluminum cleaner and polish. If you have a buffer, you can make these look like chrome, I will have to buff my at a later time.
It is as easy as that. I did my controls in less time than it took to write this and upload the pictures.
Felkman
So you have faded black on your controls, upper triple tree, master cylinder or bar mounts and you want to remove it? Good chance it is not paint, it is anodizing and is hard as hell to remove unless you know how to do it. Here is an easy step by step on how, this will only work on anodizing and will not work on painted surfaces.
(WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES AND RUBBER GLOVES) First you will need some drain cleaner, you want dry chemical, not a liquid. I suggest Red Devil Drain cleaner. Which can be found at most hardware stores. It must be a solid and MUST BE 100% sodium hydroxide or Lye. If you use oven cleaner as the article suggests in cafe racer magazine, you will noticed that your part is splotchy, that's pitting of the metal from the Glycol ether's in oven cleaner, DO NOT USE OVEN CLEANER!
Next you need a bucket of water.Use about 1/3 cup lye per gallon of water. Mix well until all chemical is dissolved.
Drop in your parts,
It will start bubbling like boiling water , let it sit a couple more minutes after the bubbling starts, you can pull out the part to check progress. The part will be black with smoot but this will easily come off.
Rinse the part off with water, and polish of the smoot with 0000 steel wool, I didn't have 0000 and but used 000.
Grab a dry soft cloth and your brasso or favorite aluminum cleaner and polish. If you have a buffer, you can make these look like chrome, I will have to buff my at a later time.
It is as easy as that. I did my controls in less time than it took to write this and upload the pictures.
Felkman
