Finish Question

[Redline]

Just wondered on Old School stuff like Rims, Seat Clamps, Chainrings etc if the finish is Silver - is it just the colour of the alloy which isn't highly polished or is it an actual Anodised Silver on the metal?

Thanks

John

[oldtired]

silver old school ano is not realy consistent, seen it look dull and almost like smudged chrome, best thing is if the bits are dull looking polish a small area by hand with something like peek or braso, if when you rub the polish a bit it goes black then shiney when you rub with a clean cloth, there  is no ano on it, if it stays silver  there is probably an ano finish ,colud also be a clear laquer type finnish,  if there is no ano on the  bits you can pollish to a shine ,  my preference for alloy bits that are not brushed finnnish 

[Redline]

silver old school ano is not realy consistent, seen it look dull and almost like smudged chrome, best thing is if the bits are dull looking polish a small area by hand with something like peek or braso, if when you rub the polish a bit it goes black then shiney when you rub with a clean cloth, there  is no ano on it, if it stays silver  there is probably an ano finish ,colud also be a clear laquer type finnish,  if there is no ano on the  bits you can pollish to a shine ,  my preference for alloy bits that are not brushed finnnish 

Cheers fella.. so were say Silver Araya 7x Rims or a Suntour Seat Clamp just an under-polished alloy or were they silver annodised then?

John

[stidds]

They are all non-polished not anodised.

[mark 2]

Araya Aero's had some silver anno finish, I tried to polish and blend the brake rub into the rest of rim and was a distinct line of a coating over the bare metal so whole lot had to come off.  Something like a redline chainring will have a clear coat over its brushed finish.

[oldtired]

i do like suntour seat clamps , origonally black around 84 ish , stripped  back then with caustic soda,    stayed like this    ,  was on a wilson frame outside but covered from the worst weather,     untill early last year




now looks like this ,  shiney survivour    my personal favourate 

[meticulous]

i recon silver anoed parts are the colour of the anodise,  not the colour of the aluminium.    unless they do a clear anodise......  i had some silver (not chrome) araya 7X and you couldnt polish up the finish, it just stayed the same colour, so it must of had a anodise finish....

[Mattdub]

Clear & Silver anno were both used bitd .

I have a silver 7X rim here I got from Alans open day in 2008 , Alan reckoned this was and some were cadmium plated but not had any info to confirm this .

[Redline]

Cheers guys.... seems this one is open to debate with different products 

[stidds]

I think it probably depends on what the part was intended, whether it needed a harder finish on it for durability.

[Mattdub]

Cheers guys.... seems this one is open to debate with different products 

John ,

I've had some bits clear anno'ed ( Redline chainwheels , Campagnolo cranks ) , I'll send some pics later if I have some  .

If you look at Waxin's 7B's in the Custom Colour thread ^^ , I think after some quite considerable resto work ( to get rid of deep scratches/nicks etc ) these were re-anno'ed Silver ( Rich can confirm ) .

[jT Racing]

depends on whether it was polished before it was anodised i guess. all anodising is clear(well the layer is grown out of the ally itself), it has to be dyed to achieve a colour before it's sealed, that's why blacks more expensive because it takes longer and is harder to dye. i have some shiny and some dull anodised stuff, the shiny rims i have look nice, but it's not shiny like polished.

[Redline]

Thanks again guys... reason I ask is because I'll be after some silver parts at some point and although I like the look of some of the parts which are highly polished I'm a stickler for originality so if I resto say some rims I want them to look as they should from BITD and not necessarily what may look better if ya know what I mean 

John

[customparts]

hope my input helps, silver and clear anodising is the same. its all down to the prep work for the final outcome,  you can still polish out all the nicks and scratches and still have it looking old and original.  Thats what i did with waxin's (rich's) wheels i did these a certain way to make them look as they where BITD. TRADE SECRET
I prefer the original look but i only do what the customer ask for,  depending what the part is and where its going it can look nice polished up but everyone is different.
You do get a duller look with more anodising film on and is more hard wearing just like the proclass hard anodised ones. We work in microns (build up of anodised film on the aluminium) so standard ano film for clear/silver is 5-10 microns and the proclass hard ano ones could be between 30-50 microns thats why you get a darker look but they is more to the hard ano one's though ie temperatures, acid strengths,  different material.
So you can still polish like mad but take it back to original. just like the suntour seat clamp above that can be put back to how it looked!

 

[oldtired]

interesting that customparts, love owt technical, seen the bits on here,  defo  skill and secrets involved ,was undecided weather to go that far with the clamp because the rough cuts sorted out the dinks , but got a new finish block so had to have go with it