I have never thought about flipping bikes but I recently started thinking about flipping parts. I was inspired by a guy selling an old quil Cinelli stem with an old Cinelli bars. He had the stem and the bar parts (not covered by tape) polished to a mirror perferction. They looked beautiful and went for around $90. He said the stem was formerly black anodized.

I did some internet searches for polishing aluminum and I thought, with the right tools(dremel tool and sandpaper), I could do that. I had an old black anodized Cinelli stem that I bought for $7. That would be perfect for practicing. I sanded the black anodizing off with course sandpaper. That took a little longer than I thought. Next I worked my up with 300, 500, 1000, 1500, and 2000 grit sandpaper. After that I used a dremel tool to polish it. It looks great but along the way I messed up the plastic button. I am going to experiment with epoxy and my computer printer to come with something for the hole.

I bought a Shimano Dura Ace quil stem for $25 on ebay. It was not in very good shape. It had lots of scratches. I took a little time to sand out the scratches and worked my way up to 2000 grit. After a polishing I have my stem looking nicer than Dura Ace Stems I have seen sell for $70 and $80.

I have a few other parts that I am working on. An old Sugino 110 BCD crank and an old Shimano 600ex crank. I think with more practice I will get better and more efficient at it. I think the best parts to do this with are older ones where the logos are engraved on not printed on. The beauty of this is that you can scratched up stuff for cheap and turn it into a real treasure. I think there is some potential in this if you become really good at this. I have seen polished components fetch some big bucks.