Mako6

I wish you luck, please post some photos as you preceed, I'd be very curious about the results.

Mak

Roger Walling

Before buffing on a wheel, always sweep up the shop, paying careful attention to the corners and under the benches.

This process makes it very easy to find that illusive part that you have just accelerated to about 200MPH in .05 seconds.

Solid Axle Guy

BTW When you put the buffing wheel/pad on the arbor you will use a large washer & nut. It was my experience initially that the piece I was buffing would slip off the wheel & hit the nut at the end of the arbor & damage the piece. Didn't take long for me to cut a small piece of heater hose and stick it over the nut & arbor to stop further damage.

MrPbody

I put this on another forum a month or so ago. perhaps it can help someone here as well:

Based on others poor results, and my own experience by doing it, I think it's safe to say that the key to successfully stripping anodizing from aluminum, without damaging the base aluminum, is to only use PURE lye. the pure stuff is getting harder to find, as it's somehow used to make meth, so sources are drying up. many have tried using oven cleaner, and various other types of drain cleaner, for stripping, which does contain some lye, but they both also contain various other chemicals that aren't helpful to our needs, and often cause damage or poor results at best. I'm sure there are other sources as well, but this is where I got my pure lye from:
Pure Lye Drain Opener, 1 Lb (30-500 ) at Aubuchon Hardware

I purchased 2 one pound containers, and that was plenty for the half dozen parts I stripped here.

The ratio I used for my stripping solution was 6oz lye per gal of water. some of my parts were long and skinny, and I didn't want to have any larger tank than was actually needed for the parts, so I stole one of my wife's planter boxes and lined it with a double layer of plastic.


I found it important to use HOT water in the bath solution for the quickest removal of anodizing. it doesn't have to be heated, necessarily, but straight hot tap water is a great benefit. you may have to look closely to see it, in the photo, but when the parts are placed in the solution it only takes a minute or so before the water starts bubbling and steaming like a witches brew. I doubt that most of the people reading this would be dissolved in the bath, but it burns like heck if you splash it on bare skin, so wear rubber gloves and safety glasses etc. I found that 5-6 minutes was plenty to get the parts clean, without undue etching of the base parts. I also found that you also want to have all your parts ready for the bath when it's mixed as it does seem to lose potency rather quickly. I'm not sure if that's just due to the solution cooling off, or if the lye somehow weakens, but within a half hour to 45 minutes I found the remaining solution to be mostly ineffective.
I had a 5 gal bucket of hot soapy water standing by for when the parts came out of the lye solution. a piece of steel wool, or even just an old scrub brush is all that's needed to remove the remaining anodizing, as well as neutralize the lye. wash em good in the soapy water, blow dry, and set aside for repairs.
When the parts are washed and dried, they should look like the headlight bezel in the left of this photo. 99% of the anodizing is removed, and a smooth satin finish remains.


At this point you can start tapping out any dents and dings, as well as sanding out the deeper scratches with 320 or 400 dry sandpaper. a small wood block is useful as a hard block to overall sand the parts. this will quickly highlight any dents you missed. continue to tap out the low spots, only using the sandpaper to highlight low spots, the material isn't thick enough to sand out dents, but it really shows you where they need more attention. it doesn't take any fancy tools. just a few pieces of wood sanded into appropriate shapes, and a small body hammer, worked fine for me.
Once the part are straight, sand everything with a soft rubber block and some wet 600 grit. this should get the parts looking pretty good, and after another round with 1200-1500 wet it should be looking really good. at this point I made a plywood buck to put in my vise. with the part held in place over the buck, I used a buffer and some cutting cream to work up the beginnings of a shine. in this photo the part is ready to start buffing, but hasn't been yet.


I tried many different methods of redneck polishing, but ultimately found the best way to get that really deep shine, for me, was to go over to my buddies shop and borrow his bench mounted buffer with cloth wheel and rosin. with what i'd already accomplished on the parts at home, it only took about 15 minutes to put the final deep shine on them.
I buffed these headlight bezels at my buddies shop, but the rest I did at home with cutting cream.


I know I found this whole process to actually be much easier to do, than to find information on HOW to do it.

Russ

Kyle'56

I do all my own stainless work. Currently, I am doing a 56 hardtop and window. It's a process that is very simple with ample education. It will most certainly save you a lot of money. Be forewarned that this process will take you quite some time to do it right. Filing and sanding from 100 to 3000 g will give you a top notch finish along with buffing. Buffing is something, i feel, is made out to be harder than it is. Its mostly common sense. The wheel rotates one way don't hold the edge the opposite way. If you have specific question about pieces and what needs to be done, i can most certainly to tell. Feel free to pm or send pics.
Best,
Kyle

reedkona

Russ,
After you cut the anodizing and polish the aluminum, do you shoot it with any kind of clear coat to slow/prevent oxidation?
Reed