I’m generally partial to silvery aluminum bike components. Aluminum anodized black does have value–it can look great new–but certain components, most notably cranks, are easy to scratch and fade and wear and once there’s sufficient wear, the parts look pretty bad, worse then silver components with the same abuse and mileage.
I had long wondered what it took to turn a black ano’ part silver, and recently, I got the chance to do so. I decided to make a video of the experience.
Which you can find here:
Bare aluminum looks great. Au oxidizes quickly to create a thin protective skin that shields from further corrosion, unlike steel. I’ve taken the anodizing off of several aluminum components and like you, I found the steel wire wheel to be a huge help. Never heard about using those solvents, but will try that next time. Best outcomes for me have come by following the wire wheel with successive steel wool grades (from 0 to 0000). It gets around the nooks and crannies better. Finishing off with a buffing wheel on the drill using Mothers aluminum paste polish will give a mirror finish. It dulls to something like the old Campy or Stronglight cranks. Thank you for continuing with this blog. It’s a gem!
I’ll look into the steel wool for my next project.
thanks for the tip.