On my Panasonic I have taken sos pads and cleaned all the aluminum parts up and they look decent but not "polished". Last summer I had studied up about polishing parts and I took a Ritchey flat mountain bike bar from an old Bridgestone mb2 and sanded the black paint off and gave it a satin finish up to 1500 grit. I rode this bar on my Panasonic for a few months as a flat bar commuter bike. After a short while the bar oxidized and had white corrosion forming on it. It is still hanging with all my other spare bars in my garage and the only thing I could assume was I sanded off some protective coating or something. So I was just now re reading the "Retrogrouch" article on polishing parts and he states to use oven cleaner to get rid of the anodizing. Isn't the anodizing a coating that is there to protect aluminum and prevent this kind of stuff from happening? I would really like to get the stem, seat post, bars, and new to me Sakae cranks I just ordered from Ebay to a nice polish before this summer. Whats the safest and most effective way to do this?

Mothers Polish and 0000 Steel Wool.

"Isn't the anodizing a coating that is there to protect aluminum and prevent this kind of stuff from happening? "

Yes. Only remove it if you intend to, need to, polish the aluminum. After polishing, you can coat with wax which will help slow down the oxidation process.

The SOS pads will have not doubt left the aluminum very finely scratched.

In the archives here is one or more threads about polishing aluminum.
Anodizing forms a thin and hard controlled oxide coating that stabilized the aluminum surface.
The issue comes when regions of this surface get worn through. "Fixing" it is not really possible, save for a complete polishing off (oven cleaner to accelerate the process) , addressing the surface imperfections then polishing thouroghly. After that, maintenance. Possible to have the parts anodized again, the economics of that are generally not reasonable, but possible to do.

I stripped the black paint off a stem then polished the bare aluminum. Washed it and sprayed it with clear lacquer to keep the sheen.
It still seemed to darken slightly as the years passed.

Brings up a good point, in the 80's component mfgs from time to time painted both steel and aluminum parts, or used powder coating as the original finish.

Will polishing with steel wool remove the anodizing? I prefer to NOT remove it and not have to bother with wax and corrosion

I wondered that. So maybe. Since those bars were painted they had no anodizing in the bare aluminum. Then once I removed the paint it was open to corrosion.

What you're experiencing sounds completely normal. Once you remove the anodizing and give a part a high-polish shine, it will oxidize over time. How long depends on the elements it is subjected to.

Best practice I've been able to come up with is a regular cleaning after riding and a semi-annual treatment with an aluminum polish. I do a lot of sweating in hot and humid Houston so I clean these parts after every ride, usually using a bike wash or glass cleaner. This preserves the polish for a while but they still get hazy over time and eventually oxidize. When they start to look hazy, I hand polish with an aluminum cleaner (Mothers, Blue Magic, Smichrome, etc.). If they're not too far gone, you'll be surprised at how well the high-polish look comes right back. I'll wax the parts as well although I doubt that stays on for long given that I'm wiping them down with a cleaner after every ride.

Plenty of other approaches I'm sure. I'm mildly addicted to my Eastwood polisher and have a lot of shiny bits to show for it. This is what seems to work for me.

Anodized parts should not be polished, they should be cleaned. That said, they are typically hard enough that you can use a very fine cut polishing compound as a cleaner, Meguiars 17 for example. Do not use steel wool, as it is effectively sandpaper. The most abrasive thing to consider would be white synthetic Scotchbrite pads, and even those I would avoid if at all possible.

Hi. I have this old bike with an old Laprade seatpost that I really need to clean. Would you recomment the Meguiars 17 for this as well?

If you don't remove the anodizing, you can't polish the part. Since the anodizing protects the part from corrosion it also protects it from being polished.

FWIW, many people recommend Mother's polish for Al. I used to use that until I gave Flitz a try on a whim and the difference is night and day with Flitz being far superior IMO.

I am seeing replies that make me think I gave everyone the wrong idea. I don't care if I can see my reflection so much. I just want the original lustre to be returned like when it was new. I have a birthday present coming which us a used set of Sakae cranks with a 110 bcd. I just want all my aluminium parts to "match" each other and look as close to new as possible.

I am pretty concerned now. The seat post on this bike was blackish and corroded when I got the bike. Like an idiot I took it to the wire wheel on my bench grinder because it was so thick I couldn't scrub it off by hand. I think I may have removed the anodizing in this area although I believe this is the area sitting inside my seat tube out of site. I have it greased up. Do I have anything to worry about down the road? I didn't buff until i wore grooves in it lol. Judst enough to clean the corrosion off. It is a nice fluted seat post.

Oftentimes seatposts are not anodized. You can test for this by putting a dab of metal polish on a white rag, and lightly rubbing the part in question on an inconspicuous spot. If it is bare aluminum, you will get a black spot on the rag immediately. If the polish stays white, the part is hard anodized.

If it actually is anodized, yeah a rag and some Meguiars 17 is a good cleaner, though in most cases just some WD40 or whatever should be sufficient. If it's bare aluminum, rub it with metal polish and a rag. I like a paste polish like Simichrome or Ween. Others seem to like Mothers, but I haven't tried that one.

Thanks!

If the part was anodized originally then to restore it finish will require anodize. The tone to the finish with anodizing is slightly different then bare Al. Also, IIAC, different alloys have their own anodizing tone so matching exactly can be a challenge.


Removing anodizing with mechanical methods can have it's own challenges as the nooks and crannies will be hard to deal with without the chance of scratching. Once the anodizing is removed the reapplication is much like chroming in that best prep gives best results. There is a reason why Shimano paints many of their AL parts within any one group.


I agree that nicely polished AL is a cool look and that simple but periodic maintenance of the look is needed to keep up with it. Of course some environments are harsher then others and the same polished finish can look bad sooner then others might experience. Andy

A buddy of mine came over this afternoon and brought me a tube of this metal polish. I literally spent about 30 minutes with a paper towel and a tiny dab of this and was able to polish my metal parts up as you can see in the pictures. I polished my seatpost as well but it has machine marks in it and it is not a smooth surface so I don't think it's ever going to shine up as much as the other parts.

Sandpaper. 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000, 2500.

Then use this. It brings it to mirror. It also leaves an invisible silicone film that slows oxidation to a snails pace. No clouds, no streaks. I polished these parts over two years ago. They look like I did them yesterday.

Makes a difference if it is a genuine Laprade or a Sakae Ringyo one. Finishes are not the same.

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I think it came out great, and I wouldn't sweat it about having used the SOS pads. It sounds like the seatpost wasn't anodized, or it wouldn't have gotten so black/cruddy to begin with. I'd just do as others have suggested, and put some paste wax on the parts that you shined up, and then keep them clean with a soft rag and, when necessary, a little gentle soap. If you ever really want to get rid of the marks on the seatpost you can use a small buffing wheel on a Dremel or similar tool, but then you'll eventually end up with a mirror shine which may not be what you're going for.

Simichrome is good on bare aluminum, the rag will turn black as you go, I suggest a cotton terry cloth.
On an anodized part with no wear through regions, simichrome will not go black as you rub.
The bars for example are anodized, the stem may be, not sure on the shift levers, nor the hubs.
I would not expect the seatpost to look much better than that without extraordinary measures as explained earlier.
Getting the original machining markes out will reduce the diameter somewhat too.

I have used a fine cut "scratch remover" for paint to tidy up an anodized crank that had all sorts of fallout on it, think just like the paint of your car.

Everything I rubbed down with that simichrome with the exception of the seatpost turned the rag black. That tells me that the majority of these aluminum parts on this bike or never anodized.