ieandro

I'm looking into polishing my nitto pearl steam and s-83 seatpost, but i was curious on whether or not the finish on the nitto's are the same as any other stem such as the Cinelli that was covered in the DIY section:https://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.p...0&postcount=38

has anyone have any experience with polishing Nitto's ?

tbrtbx

Yeah do it, nitto = aluminium.

vee_dub

I love the oven cleaner. It works soo fine...

tbrtbx

I put the component in caustic soda with boiling water. After a minute or so, take it out and it should be really really BLACK. Then start sanding it down, then polish.

ieandro

i'm not a chemist or anything, but did you boil a mixture of caustic acid and water or did you cover it in acid and then dip it in boiling water ?

Also, what are the long term effects of removing the factory finish of aluminum? I understand there seems to be an anodized surface layer. Will removing this layer and exposing it to the elements cause it to degrage structurally ? Or is it just a layer for finishing ?

dmotoguy

the anodized layer is just for looks. It will not effect the integrity of the part to remove it. The aluminum will oxidize after the anodize is removed, that forms a very thin ultra hard layer (that looks like ****)

seaneee

Car wax, done.

lvleph

Some nitto is cromo, but those are normally shiny already.