To Re Anodize or Not To Re Anodize - Results and Costs

[Erich Reichert]

sort of a cool experiment i discovered while fooling around at work (pepsi)... you can pretty closely replicate the blue ano on AE turnbuckles (the FT stuff) by using pepsi and a car battery. I took one lead and clipped it to a wire ring that sat in the bottom of my "tank" (a drinking glass), the other lead goes on the part. Fill the glass with Pepsi which uses a blue dye... believe it or not to make the soda the color it is... and dip the "charged" part into the soda... turnbuckles took me about 10mins but it works pretty good for a make shift ano kit. LOL. I've never reall found any other sodas that work as good as cola though.

[Northy2]

Cool, what was the wire you used for the 'wire ring'? Does it matter?

G

[ra272]

Today, i made some shorter nose tubes for my RPM Team car (I used old grey nose tubes). As you can see, the color is very close to the original.



This is my anodisation device (very easy to do, but it use sulfuric acid):

[Northy2]

What is the thing with 'hotty' writtern on it?

Can you run us through how to make a set-up like that please?

G

[ra272]

The "hotty" is useless here.

You need:

- A plastic box (tupperware)
- distilled water
-sulfuric acid (automotive battery acid, 40-50%) be carefull, very corrosive.
-aluminium tubes
-a battery charger (not automatic)

Pour the water in the box and then pour the same quantity of acid in the water (always water first).

Hang your part to an aluminium wire and plug it to the positive wire of the battery charger, plug the negative to a big aluminium tube. Put them in the bath as shown in the picture and put the power on.



let it in the bath for 2 hours depending on the size of the part.

Then turn off the charger, and quickly rince the parts with COLD water.

Dry them: they are ready for color. The anodized coat is like a sponge, you can soak the parts with dye or ink: some work well, some not... Red Dylon dye works well, permanent marker ink too.

When you have the good color, boil the parts in water to seal them.

Very important: the parts must be clean, no oil, dust or even fingerprints. Use gloves for every stage.

Sulfuric acid is dangerous : it will burn your skin, your clothes etc etc....

[Northy2]

Thanks, thats great!

G