Anodise Alumiunium moldings

[58Imp]

I am trying to restore my seat moldings on my Imperial. Is there a non abrasive way to remove the old anodise from these parts. I can sand it off, however I then have to go through all the grades of sandpaper to bring them back to a shine. In some spots they were pretty bashed up so i had to hammer them out and then sand but I would prefer not to do this to the rest of the molding.

I tried oven cleaner on them but it didn't work. The anodise coating or whatever they used is pretty damn hard.

 

[CBODY67]

There is a thread in here about removing the anodize coating, somewhere, from a few years back?

 

[57fury440]

Are you sure they are anodized? In your picture the lower part of the piece looks like chrome.

 

[58Imp]

Are you sure they are anodized? In your picture the lower part of the piece looks like chrome.

No that corner is where I did a repair. It was all dented in so i straightened, sanded through the grades and then put a bit of polish on to see how it would come up it

 

[Big_John]

I tried oven cleaner on them but it didn't work.

It has to contain lye for it to work. Any of the oven cleaners that are "fume free" or you don't need gloves doesn't contain lye (sodium hydroxide)

In the states, we use Easy-Off in the yellow can or the cheapest stuff at the dollar store usually has lye in it.

Spray it on liberally, let it sit but don't let it dry (important). Hose it off. It will take a couple applications and sometimes a little steel wool will help to get it all off.

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

The new oven cleaners don't have lye in them any more apparently. Gotta find some lye to do it right.

If they're small, take them to an anodizer and have them do them within someone else's job - it's called Brite-Dip I believe, and while I'm not sure about Australia, in North America there are still lots of places that can clean them off, polish and then re-anodize them.

Keep in mind that the shinier the base surface, the better the anodizing result will be. So if you can sand them down and buff them up, it will save money and get you a better longer lasting result.

 

[bnz84]

Lots of drain cleaners have caustic lye (sodium hydroxide) in them. Watch out they will burn you like acids will