jnbrown

I am in the process of building up my 1985 Mercian and want to use the FSA Wingpro 31.8 bars that I have on my other bikes.
I love these bars as they they have an ovalized section on the top and I find them very comfortable.
I also happen to have an extra pair lying around. But they they have a smooth glossy black anodizing on them and I want them to be silver.
I will probably be using a Ritchey C220 Classic silver stem.
I know that there is the Easy Off oven cleaner route but I don't want to buy a can only to use a small amount.
I did a test using sandpaper starting with 180 grit working up to 800 grit and then micromesh from 2400 to 8000 and think it looks pretty good although there are some tiny scratches.
Since the bars are smooth and round it is not that hard to use sandpaper.
I don't have a bench grinder with a buffer wheel but do have access to one.
There will not be any branding or engraving on the bars but that does not bother me.
Once the aluminum is polished how do you keep it from oxidizing? I have a spray can of clear coat that I have never used.
See pictures below. Thanks for any advise.

nlerner

@Drillium Dude recommends this product:

https://www.jestcoproducts.com/index...d&productId=37

And I trust his judgment in all things polishing and finishing!

jnbrown

If I was going to be doing this a lot that would make sense, but pretty expensive just to do a small section.

Thanks

lasauge 

I would second the recommendation for the Jestco stuff, but since you're not interested in that just get a can of oven cleaner, it's cheap and it works, just not as quickly. And once you've polished bare aluminum it will dull over time and there's not really any good way to avoid that, but you can easily touch up your polished parts with a little simichrome whenever desired to bring the shine right back.

SJX426 

Why bother with the sections that are being covered in tape? Just focus on the exposed parts.

plonz 

Oven cleaner, water rinse, 300, 1000, 2500, Simichrome/Blue Magic/et.al to finish and periodic re-bling.

Moe Zhoost

A can of lye-based drain cleaner may be cheaper than the oven stuff. Use a couple of tablespoons per gallon of water and let it soak. You'll need to watch it so you don't go too far - just enough to eat through the anodizing. The bar will then be dark and dirty looking but will become shiny with polishing.

OTOH, If you are happy with the results from just using abrasives, go for it. My experience using sandpaper on hard anodizing is that it wasn't easy. Do you think the bars are painted?

Don't be too concerned with corrosion because won't happen quickly. Just polish every once in a while.

bwilli88 

Second the drain cleaner. These bars are some Hot Chili Downhill bars and had faded from a nice black to a nasty purple. A few minutes with some drain cleaner took the color off quickly, rinse and repeat until it was all gone. It took lots of water to rinse and it had a real nice frosty look.