polished aluminium

harcs
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polished aluminium

Postby harcs » Mon Feb 04, 2013 12:49 pm

Is it better to strip the anodizing of Campagnolo parts and polish or get them re-anodized. Cost wise it is cheaper to polish as I will do that myself but the finish may be more original if anodized. This is the final stage of the Chesini X-Uno restoration, the frame is painted, the decals on their way, so Noosa Eroica here we come.

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boyracer
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Re: polished aluminium

Postby boyracer » Mon Feb 04, 2013 2:23 pm

i used to do my own anodizing with a battery charger. It is really only 'good ' for show , fades with a few months/years of uv/sunlight unless they have better dyes these days.
PITA to dissasemble too. metal to metal/ dissimilar metals are no no as it creates polarity issues.

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munga
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Re: polished aluminium

Postby munga » Mon Feb 04, 2013 4:25 pm

harcs wrote:...so Noosa Eroica here we come.
has anyone heard if Noosa Eroica is running again this year?

apollocreed
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Re: polished aluminium

Postby apollocreed » Mon Feb 04, 2013 4:52 pm

From my experience polishing components on bikes and cars, polishing from base will not give you a showroom level finish unless your willing to put a lot of time into it, as the polish will not get into all of the intricate areas, especially found in campy parts. If you truly want a good finish re-anodizing will give a better result but will cost more. Something you need to weight up i suppose

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RonK
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Re: polished aluminium

Postby RonK » Mon Feb 04, 2013 5:24 pm

harcs wrote:Is it better to strip the anodizing of Campagnolo parts and polish or get them re-anodized. Cost wise it is cheaper to polish as I will do that myself but the finish may be more original if anodized. This is the final stage of the Chesini X-Uno restoration, the frame is painted, the decals on their way, so Noosa Eroica here we come.
In the US many restorers etch off the anodising and polish the alloy components to a high gloss. But according to many forums it's considered bad form to polish alloy components, they should be cleaned but left with the patina of age they have acquired.

I'm committed to acquiring NOS components for my Chesini build, but it's proving a very expensive route to take.
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munga
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Re: polished aluminium

Postby munga » Mon Feb 04, 2013 10:05 pm

i searched for NOS components to build a complete groupset once (incl. headset, hubs, seatpost etc), and i vow to never do it again. as soon as you use it, it's used.. 8)

Wal42
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Re: polished aluminium

Postby Wal42 » Mon Feb 04, 2013 10:13 pm

Just a word on polished aluminium, I went through this with my local plating experts, when you polish aluminium you expose the surface to the atmosphere, if you don't use something on it, it will corrode (aluminium oxide), and dull.

He suggested bees wax (he's an old guy, been plating & restoring metal items for about 50 years, so a pretty straight shooter), I've actually polished my fork with a quality car wax polish, if that doesn't work properly then I'll re-metal polish it & go with bees wax.


As for which looks better, I guess it's a personal preference thing.

harcs
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Re: polished aluminium

Postby harcs » Mon Feb 04, 2013 10:50 pm

I took out all my bits tonight and examined them closely. They are all in very good nic so I think I will leave the patina on them. As Munga said after the first ride they are no longer NOS. Thanks for all your help.

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Ferrovelo
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Re: polished aluminium

Postby Ferrovelo » Mon Feb 04, 2013 11:55 pm

Wal42 wrote:Just a word on polished aluminium, I went through this with my local plating experts, when you polish aluminium you expose the surface to the atmosphere, if you don't use something on it, it will corrode (aluminium oxide), and dull.

He suggested bees wax (he's an old guy, been plating & restoring metal items for about 50 years, so a pretty straight shooter), I've actually polished my fork with a quality car wax polish, if that doesn't work properly then I'll re-metal polish it & go with bees wax.


As for which looks better, I guess it's a personal preference thing.
All good points, personally I really like polished alloy, it's not a lot of work to get a ripper shine up, and while your note about it dulling over time is correct, if the initial polish is a good one it's very quick/easy to get it back again, and doesn't dull too fast, its not something you need to do more than a couple of times year to keep it looking sharp (depending on use I guess).

I wouldn't polish up something in very good original condition though, or something with a historic/collector value. I also wouldn't want to polish out logos.

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ldrcycles
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Re: polished aluminium

Postby ldrcycles » Tue Feb 05, 2013 2:03 pm

munga wrote:
harcs wrote:...so Noosa Eroica here we come.
has anyone heard if Noosa Eroica is running again this year?
Yep it will be on again (i run the facebook page but the actual organizing of the event is down to 2 local blokes, on here as spinner and cotterpin531), i was talking to one of them the other day and he said he had recently spoken to the owner/manager/whatever of the marina and they were happy to have it there again.
As for time, no word yet, but it won't be clashing with the Pomona King of the Mountain or Noosa Hillclimb again.

I've already got a couple of restos underway for the show, and i'll be dressing up as per last year, with my soon to be wife :D .
"I must be rather keen on cycling"- Sir Hubert Opperman.

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Mustang
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Re: polished aluminium

Postby Mustang » Thu Feb 07, 2013 8:40 pm

ldrcycles wrote:
munga wrote:
harcs wrote:...so Noosa Eroica here we come.
has anyone heard if Noosa Eroica is running again this year?
Yep it will be on again (i run the facebook page but the actual organizing of the event is down to 2 local blokes, on here as spinner and cotterpin531), i was talking to one of them the other day and he said he had recently spoken to the owner/manager/whatever of the marina and they were happy to have it there again.
As for time, no word yet, but it won't be clashing with the Pomona King of the Mountain or Noosa Hillclimb again.

I've already got a couple of restos underway for the show, and i'll be dressing up as per last year, with my soon to be wife :D .
Hi Lachlan,
Have you a link to the facebook page?
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ldrcycles
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Re: polished aluminium

Postby ldrcycles » Thu Feb 07, 2013 10:57 pm

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Noosa-LEr ... 61?fref=ts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Once i have my wedding out of the way i promise i'll put some effort in to make the page interesting :) .

And the event website (set up and updated by Chris and/or Andy).

http://www.noosa-eroica.com.au/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"I must be rather keen on cycling"- Sir Hubert Opperman.

Road Record Association of Australia

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fitz
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Re: polished aluminium

Postby fitz » Thu Mar 21, 2013 8:57 pm

harcs wrote:I took out all my bits tonight and examined them closely. They are all in very good nic so I think I will leave the patina on them. As Munga said after the first ride they are no longer NOS. Thanks for all your help.
Trawling here for info on restoring old aluminium. This post has disturbed me.
BTW love the delta plates, great info to have.

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QuangVuong
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Re: polished aluminium

Postby QuangVuong » Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:06 pm

About keeping the aluminium shiny, Ive heard from a auto painter, that Glisten PC from Por15 works a treat. I believe its a moisture curing urethane coat. It dries by absorbing the moisture present in the aluminium as well as in the surrounding air.

Im gonna refinish one of those vintage Centurion CF bikes and Im contemplating doing seomthing similar. The lugs will be polished, and CF will be sanded. Then the whole frame will be coated with a simlar product. Yes, theres the issue of the polished parts. Once the coating is on it, youll have a hard time removing it if you did a non perfect polish.

stevebaby
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Re: polished aluminium

Postby stevebaby » Fri Mar 22, 2013 6:57 pm

munga wrote:i searched for NOS components to build a complete groupset once (incl. headset, hubs, seatpost etc), and i vow to never do it again. as soon as you use it, it's used.. 8)
I'll never do that again either...3 grand's worth of parts that I'd be lucky to get $500 for if I sold them.
I'm glad I did it once though. I didn't ride it for a couple of weeks after assembly, just used to drink beer and look at it thinking "Mine,mine all mine."! :D

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