Help Ressurrecting Aluminum Fork Tubes

[chazmofo]

Help!!! :swoon: I think I just did something really dumb and I need to know if there's a way out. I recently returned from a 4000 mile trip through Colorado (Awesome, by the way). My bike was filthy, as you might imagine. It was caked with road tar and bugs and dirt. I decided I'd use oven cleaner to get the major gunk off the leading surfaces of the bike. For the most part it worked remarkably well. The only real problem is that it discolored my cast aluminum fork tubes. Does anyone out there know what I can (if anything) do to bring back the normal patina? Right now they have a blackish caste.

 

[Emil]

I believe that they originally had a clear coat on them. I've used paint stripper on them to get the clear coat off. Then "Hapsitch(sp) Semichrome"compound to shine them up.

 

[chazmofo]

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

 

[dan filipi]

I wonder if the oven cleaner already stripped the clear coat. That stuff can be pretty harsh.

I've used plain old chrome polish on them which looks pretty good. I've also tried aluminum polish which didn't do much but works GREAT on the wheels.
Let us know what works. Would be good to know what the oven cleaner actually did to cause the blackness.

 

[chazmofo]

The Happich Simichrome paste worked well to remove the blackish caste I got from the oven cleaner and restored the fork tubes to the condition they were in before I screwed 'em up. Thanks for the help.