Removing Black anodizing

[john903]

So I was wondering can I remove the boring black anodizing off a other wise nice set of hubs (Campy?) I have done the silver bits using 400,600,1000, grit sand paper then Mothers polish and they came out great. But I have never tryied removing black anodizing I think hubs might be problematic. What about removing the grease,bearings, and freehub and then using oven cleaner? Of course I have friend with a lathe to turn it and apply varing grits of sand paper not for cutting metel off. ( i can hear the groans oh no)
Any thoughts, and yes it would be easier to just buy silver hubs, but iam bored this winter.
Thank You

[oliver1850]

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[atanz]

If you do use the oven cleaner method I'd definitely recommend having them re-anodized clear to protect the bare aluminum as Oliver1850 said. its hard to keep the polish up. the only problem you might have is the bearing races must be removed. this is pretty easy with older hubs--80s Campy Record--but I have no experience disassembling new hubs. I'm not even sure if its possible to remove them. with older hubs its as easy as pulling out cartridge bearings with a slide hammer.

I'm actually doing the opposite of you, I'm having some 80s Campy Record small flange track hubs polished and anodized black.

[Louis]

I'd toss them in the parts bin or sell them and replace them with a silver pair.

[thegunner]

aluminum will reanodize (i.e. oxidize) on its own accord. it turns a dull gunmetal color. if you polish it... it actually comes out looking pretty nice.

[damcyclist]

Try these (http://www.mirrorfinishpolishing.com/CHROME-LIKE-METAL-POLISHING-CUSTOMER-PARTS-BICYCLE-PARTS-1.HTML) folks

[maximus]

I have removed the black anodizing off a stem and some other parts. Just takes a few rounds of industrial strength oven cleaner and steel wool - followed by the sand paper.

That said, with something like hubs that will be difficult to reach for follow-up polishing once used, I would just find some nice silver hubs...

Something like a stem or a crank isn't a big deal, you can always go back in give it a quick polish when it starts to dull.