I have one bicycle that I polished all the original parts... they were all bare aluminum to start with that was highly polished in the 60s or 70s and it needed to be cleaned anyway, so it wasn't a huge heap of effort to polish most of the parts with some polish and an electric drill. Caswell sells those bits and has wicked instructions. I've let my polished parts "go" and they still look really nice as I haven't ridden the bike much so it's still pretty. I have a set of matte-finished fenders that I put on the bicycle as well as a vintage simplex chainguard; both of them look great beside the polished parts... I certainly hope there's nothing gauche about mixing polished and matte parts. Unless the anodizing is ruined I'm not sure I'd strip it just to have the privilege of polishing it again later on, I might not polish this bike again for years, it is a messy task and I like the look of matte parts as well.
Last edited by clasher; 11-19-12 at 09:21 AM.
Reason: forgot other attachment