All,

Our daily driver 914 is back on the road running great - with the new paint, I would like to brighten up the brightwork.

I started the path as to sanding with a 400 and working my way to the 1500.....this might take forever!

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Here are a few of the windscreen pieces.

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Here are some examples of the state of the aluminum, what is the best way to get this stuff brightened up?

Thank you Teeners

It’s anodized. There are people who will do it for you. First you clean it up by sanding it with very fine paper then polish, then anodize...

if you just sand and polish, it will dull quickly.

By the time you ship to a place to restore it, pay them and then ship back, you might as well buy new.

Powder coat?

'Chrome' paint at this point or as suggested new. No point in springing for 2x shp and refinish unless they're absolutely perfect. Not to mention the time factor.

Sad to say but the anodizing makes it way too difficult. Honestly, if you strip and polish, you can just keep polishing.

I found a place local to me (lots of metal finishers in the back streets of UK towns) and had the windscreen trim and sail panel trim striped and polished plus a few other parts stripped and chromed for £250
I wouldn't try shipping the windscreen trim over here, our couriers would fold it like origami to make it easier to handle

How about blackening out all the trim like my friend did? Check it out.

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Dave

You're in Boston so drop it off to Sean at Tru-6 in Watertown - check out his work:

http://tru-6.com/anodizing-2

He does great work.

If one is adamant of doing the DIY method...the secret is to remove the anodizing first with oven cleaner. Needs to be the Easy off Yellow can version. It will eat the anodizing via a few applications and time and then you can proceed via 400-600, etc grits and then eventually aluminum polish. I have done this on window trims/frames/wheels, namely because up here in the north we can't find anyone to do such work and all the chemicals are outlawed, shipping suxs etc. etc.

Need to remember you now have bare soft aluminum and it won't have the hard finish.

Lots of elbow grease and time....so if you can, send it out, I would.

good point
the place I used wouldnt touch the PORSCHE letters because they were "monkey metal" and too fiddly to polish
I stripped the anodising with oven cleaner and then fixed them to a board to make them easier to polish and then polished them with autosol metal polish and a fibre pad with a dremel multi tool

DANG

Just dropped them at a powder coat place in the Watertown area - had no idea about True6, sorry.

The shop I went to is https://pikepowdercoating.com/

They did my headlight frames and did a great job. Not sure I want the CHROME look. they are going to remove the anodize coat polish and recoat with a clear non-yellowing product. About 175 for the windshield frame, going to start there.


Thanks to ALL TEENERS!

I haven't tried this on any of the 914 trim but I usually shine up aluminum bits with a high-speed buffing wheel on my bench grinder and some polishing rouge. Not only does that make pretty quick and uniform work, but there aren't sanding grooves. The speed of the wheel seems to "seal" the pores in the aluminum, making periodic maintenance pretty easy after that.

I have an aluminum exhaust canister on my motorcycle that I gave a good shine with the method above and I just have to hit it with some Mother's metal polish by hand about once a year and it takes relatively little time. The oxidation just buffs off on the cloth.

Al Reed in california can reanodize them

I would be wary of using oven cleaner on aluminium. Most oven cleaners that are effective are caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) based or other similar strong alkaline salts. They usually have a warning not to use them on aluminium components

You probably remember the high school chemistry experiment of producing hydrogen by putting aluminium in a solution of caustic soda. I would hate to see our 914 unobtanium components going up to the sky as hydrogen.

I would endorse the advice to have the components refinished by a reputable anodiser. In my city they are not all reputable