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moto-steve wrote:I have stripped a gold pan nose piece and chassis, I noticed under the gold which comes off pretty easily is a black coating? I guess it has to do with the ano process but I was surprised to see it,and its much harder to remove. Used a scotch brite to help.

That's the chemical you used eating the aluminum.

LTO_Dave wrote:Never sandblast your parts before anno. I did a tub and nose and sent them to gomachv, but the parts had a fuzzy look and feel to them after anno.

The anodizer said that the blast media embeds itself in the metal on a microscopic level and causes problems. Soda blasting, walnut shells or some other less-abrasive media might be fine, but I've never tried those.

I glass beaded an aluminum FXT tub once and it totally wrecked it. Good thing it was more or less an experiment on a thrashed chassis. I could see the soda blasting or walnut shells possibly being a solution.

The black under the gold has to do with how you stripped it and the alloy. Anodizers dip aluminum in a desmutting solution I think nitric acid which gets rid of the black. Glass beading leaves a nice even matte finish.

i strip all my ano in the glass bead cabinet. more often then not, it's parts that need some metal finishing anyway, so i'll be removing the rough finish while sanding out scratches/gouges.

that being said, i only strip areas that i need to. if i don't have to hand sand the inside of a tub i'm not gonna . the guy that does my ano will strip what's left chemically.

Hmm so that's what the black stuff is, thanks guys glad it comes off with some elbow grease.

Again, need me a ano guy close to home. Any suggestions, and quick?, no need to take this off topic.