bradtx

Hi All, I thought this might be some decent general info. My Cannondale's crankset and brake calipers were very oxidized so I went about trying to remedy their appearance. This is the first time I'd tried this task.

Basically the crankarms were washed, sanded with 100, then 220 and finally 600 wet sand paper. Then buffed with 00 steel wool and finally a treatment with some Never Dull polish.

Brad



PS The calipers were just cleaned to the point where the decals weren't effected and I doubt I'll use them, but they looked as bad as the crankarm in the first photo..

thirdgenbird

That is a big improvement.

i would keep going to 2500 and then hit it with mothers.

edit: bars are stock. I polished a milky silver stem.

Shp4man

I've found that Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish will create a mirror-like finish on aluminum.

auchencrow

Brad -
Are you sure they weren't clear-anodized to start with? (Hardest substance known to cycledom, I'd wager).

- Best to start by stripping, not sanding alloy cranks - but in any case, your after shot looks great.

roadrunner2012

Twenty minutes on a buffing wheel will do wonders

photogravity

^ For that matter a little Mother's polish and a diaper resulted in this for me a few months back. I've not even messed with a buffing wheel since polishing by hand has given such good results.

Before:

Bluemels Airweight - Pre-Polished by Sallad Rialb, on Flickr

After:

Bluemels Airweight - Post-Polished 1 by Sallad Rialb, on Flickr

bradtx

Wonderful advice from y'all, thank you!

These crankarms have some gouges that don't show in the photos so I won't take them any further. I do have another couple of sets that I can work on using what I'm learning and with your help so far. This is a little addictive, eh? I'll use what I'm learning on a too short for me Nitto quill stem 'till I can work on the cranksets as they're on bikes that see alot of use.

A couple of hours into the drive side crank arm had me thinking about a buffing wheel, but then it was a bit Zen like doing this by hand. The crankarms didn't have any type of coating, fortunately, but could a paint stripper be used to remove the coating if it had? Also, any tip if trying to save decals>

Brad

rootboy 

Paint stripper won't remove anodizing. Clear coat, yes. Best to use something like Easy Off oven cleaner for anodizing, or Jesco anodizing remover.
By the way, you can go further with the grits if you like a high polished finish. But grey, or white Scotchbrite pads leave a nice, satin scratch pattern if you're careful going in one direction only.

photogravity

Also if you want to go cheap, you can get lye and use that to remove the anodizing. I buy the Rooto stuff from Amazon. It's a lot cheaper than the Jesco stuff.

Glennfordx4

I just did my 600 EX cranks the other day, I had done them once with just polish ( someone else striped the anodizing off ) but this time I went with 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000 and then Mothers Mag wheel polish & now they look like a piece of jewelry with the bronze colored chain rings & chain ring bolts mounted. Pictures to follow once I get my PC rebuilt and my Centurion finished.

Glenn

miamijim

Pars 

^ oooh, nice! Details on how/what you did?

bradtx

Absolutely! There must be more of us that are learning how to bring out the best in what we have.

Brad

bradtx

Thanks for the sandpaper info. Since it looks like I'll have my son's Olmo for a bit longer I'll start work on his crankset fairly soon.

Brad

oldbikenewbike

We're going to need sunglasses to keep looking at this link.....

rootboy 

In general, I don't care too much for the high buff look, but it is pretty on some things. And sometimes it is necessary. Like it was on your crank, OP. And these;

rootboy 

By the way, do you guys who do high polish on your aluminum put anything on it afterwords to discourage oxidation? Wax? etc...

auchencrow

For me it's Meguiar's wax.
And by avoiding anything more permanent, I always have the option of buffing it all up with Mother's again.

thirdgenbird

I do the same. A decent automotive wax will keep polished aluminum looking good for a long time.

gaucho777 

I've recently started wearing a pair of rubber kitchen gloves while sanding/polishing. I'll never have George Castanza hands, but at least they remain presentable for my day job.

bradtx

Me either, but this seems proper for this build, depending on which group I can find for it.

Brad

miamijim

It was actually easy.

Step 1: Remove anodizing. I think I used some type of lye drain cleaner from home depot and diluted it.. Easy Off oven cleaner works well. It may take several dips into the solution. If all of the anodizing isn't removed you'll be sanding for weeks.
Step 2: Tap off engravings. I used blue painters tape. Just enough to cover the logos and marking on the back
Step 3: Sand. Start with the least abrasive grit needed. My cranks had deep road rash on the ends near the pedas so I used 80 grit on those scratches.
Step 4: Polish. Like everyone else says Mothers is the go to polish.

Tips n tricks:

Anodozing: It may take several dips into the solution. Anodizing turns black when exposed to the solution. Rinse with water and a green scrubby. If the green scrubby doesn't remove all of the black the part needs another dip. When there's no black after using the green scrubby all of the anodizing is removed!!

Sand paper: Use high quality wet/dry and wet sand with a water soap mixture. Just a little soap...too much and you'll get no sanding.

Grit progression: A general rule of thumb is to double your grit as best possible. 80, 160, 320, 600, 1200, 2000...you get the idea. Anything more than double may not remove the previous grits scratches. 220 will not easily remove 80 grit scratches just like 600 will not easily remove 220 grit scratches.

Directional sanding: Sand in one direction. For cranks I sand lengthwise.

Time: Be patient. Sometimes I'll have to go back a grit. For instance if 600's not removing the scratches left by the 320 it means the 320 didn't remove the 220 scratches so I'll go back a step.

miamijim

ColonelJLloyd 

FYI, it's Jetsco not Jesco. The difference is not trivial.

Cattywompus

Buffing wheel FTW: