anodizing

[luker]

has anyone polished or brought back to original state anything that has been anondized got my rrp cast peices powder coated and the tubes anondized and the tubes have gone dull and dont look as good as they did if so what have you used to bring it back to a new state?
luke

 

[Motorheads5]

Once Anodizing dull's you can't do anything with it except strip it off and either reanodize it or just polish the aluminum but it will be high maintenance polished

 

[tbaer]

oven cleaner takes it off the polish it and clear coat it.

 

[luker]

ah well thought id try may just have to paint it!

 

[SUPERJET-113]

I just throw the part in some aluminum pontoon cleaner for a few hours and it strips the old color off. Did some purple water bypass pissers not to long ago.
There are many ways to strip them down to bare alum.

 

[Pro-pulsion]

The only problem is bare aluminum doesn't hang onto paint very well so you'll be forever repainting and very frequently. Leave the anodizing on it and paint over the anodizing. Without that to act as the sealer for the aluminum there isn't much point in painting it. The machine shop I work in has gone through that ordeal enough times. We've tried everything to keep the paint sticking and nothing worked accept for the anodizing first. Also if you did strip it down, the aluminum will release away from its self sometimes when you touch it leaving your hands looking gray. I've used a 3M scotch pad to polish bare aluminum just to remove the scratches and give it an even look, my hands looked like I had my way with the tin man after lol.

 

[cambo au]

i dont know about the powdercoated bases i think paint stripper will will get that off then re coat or paint
as for the tubes take them to the anodisers and you can get them re anodised in any colour you desire

 

[THRUST]

aluminum will always look the best the first time it is anodized due to the fact is anodizing actually prtrudes into the aluminum as well as coat the outside . you are best of to strip the pieces have them polished and then reanodize them and they will look really nice again keep in mind allcolors fade red and light blue the worst the darker the color the longer it is dipped the more protection except silver or clear could be dipped long but generally is not to save the anodizer money