Wondering if anyone has a pic of some Mavic Open Pros that have been polished.
Considering this and wondered if anyone has a pic of it.
Long shot i know.

It'd look pretty damn good, just gotta make sure the deanodizing chemicals don't eat away at the steel eyelets.

You dont have to de-anodize them.
You can polish it away no problem.

Huh?

I had to get my rim de-anodized before I got it polished. You can't polish something to a mirror shine if it's anodized, and it's standard protocol to anodize nearly all bike components these days for a protective finish. Old stuff like Campy was polished with no finishing anodizing and eventually went to a dull finish but could be polished back up to full mirror shine with little trouble...

Ive personally polished parts that were anodized.
A very fine grit sand paper and then go finer from there.

Oven cleaner works well though. Spray it on and wipe it off in 15 minutes or so and its gone.
It won't harm steel either.

If you're doing that much sanding, aren't you pretty much just manually scrubbing off the anodization? Or am I just way the hell off?

Wouldn't a polished Open Pro be an MA2?

You don't need to de-anodize an item to polish it. Anodization is nothing more than a layer of material. Depending on the anodization process, it may be less than a mil in thickness, easily removed with rubbing / polishing compound.

They arent the same rim.

Fine grit sanding the rim = mechanical deanodization.
Oven cleaner method = chemical deanodization. Same basic way a metal shop would deanodize it.

But yeah, sounds like you know what you're doing. Post pics when it's done, that'll be a bad ass wheel.

Nah, MA2 is a boxier profile and weighs a few grams more. OP's are reportedly stronger than MA2's were too.

polished looks so much better than chrome IMHO

I have black deep V with a machined lip that i've considered polishing.

Anybody else ****ING LOVE POLISHING ****?!

Turning a dull looking old part into a gleaming ****ING PART WORTHY OF GOD"S BIKE???!!!!!!

Do it. Polish an Open Pro. Do it. Do it. Do it.

(serious like erectile dysfunction.)

I've been thinking of doing it to mine as well so I'll be interested in seeing it when your done

Agreed all the way, I'm thinking about making it my hobby to pick up old bike parts, polish them up and resell them at profit. I picked up an old Campy aero seatpost the other day and it was all dull and dirty... with a little fine grit sand paper to smoothen out some scratches, some steel wool, cotton rag and polishing compound, I got that thing back to mirror finish. I could take it even farther and keep polishing away until the thing is blinding in the sun too and I just may... it's super fulfilling to polish a dull part into perfection. Kind of addicting too.

I'll be polishing some rim.. just not sure what yet.
Im leaning toward the Open pro or possibly a velocity aero...which is obviously an inferior rim so maybe not on that one. I just like the shape of it.
I had thought about the hplusson but those are the next dime a dozen deep v and i really dont want a heavy wheel set.

Seriously. I got an old Fuji recently, polished the **** out of the Nitto Dic 9 stem. I haven't finished building yet, but I can't walk by without touching the stem. SO SMOOTH! So gratifying.

definitely gonna polish my silver deep vs now. what would be the best method? oven cleaner or snadpaper?

yes it's addicting . . . . . especially on a car. theres so much metal that could use a little shine

Sand paper is pretty straight forward. Oven cleaner on a big item like a rim seems like it'd be a pain.

oven cleaner won't do it alone, you start with 100 grit and go up to maybe 3000, and alot of free time

You guys are nuts if you are starting with sandpaper and not using a chemical to remove the anodizing first. Good polishing relies on completely erasing the scratches left by each grit you use to sand. If you start with 100, that's a ton of of sanding through the grits to reach a fine polish.

If you're dealing with a part that is not all scratched up you can de-anodize with chemicals and start wet sanding with 600-800 before polishing.

The heavy duty Easy Off oven cleaner works great as does Red Devil drain cleaner.

For rims you can take some 2" or bigger plastic flex hose, connect it together in the diameter of the wheel, then slice a "top" off it with a razor knife. Then the rim can sit in it like a tub. Fill this with Red Devil Lye drain cleaner mixed with warm water. Flip the rim once in awhile so the bottom sidewall gets good exposure. When the part is really black it's ready to come out and get hosed off. Wear gloves, eye protection, etc.

I have a brand new Open Pro chillin in my closet at home..... too bad I'm in my dorm right now.

For polishing I would invest in a cheap bench grinder outfitted with two polishing wheels and some jewelers rouge.

yeah 100 is to aggressive for rims that already have a fairly smooth surface. i need to go to bed

Not a polished rim, but a polished wheel. It took me about 8 hours to do.




No chemicals like oven cleaner, just paint stripper, and sandpaper from 320 to 1200. Mounted in a turing stand and lots of spinning.