How to clean black anodized al-you-min-ee-um

What color is it now?

This.

It's a cleaner, not just a polish. Very good stuff.
 
 
oh...it's not a liquid. It's saturated cotton like material.
 
I also use this. Both get it done.
   
   
 

We use to remove unwanted anodizing with Easy Off Oven Spray.


Don't ask me how I know.











BTW, I doubt this applies to the OPs question.

:-)

I imagine a damp cloth and maybe a mild soap are what I'd use.

Unfortunately, I can’t post photos right now because photobucket is all messed up for some reason … I will try to figure something out so you can see the current shade of black of the aluminum.

I used Windex on a soft rag and it took off a light coating of dirt and grime without affecting the lettering in the logo but had no effect on the color which is kinda' what I expected.

This is my guess … it sounds like when the aluminum is anodized they include a pigment in the bath to add color and I suspect that this fading is a type of lobster effect.  It is not that the lobster turns red when you boil it; the red is always there, it is that other pigments chemically change (notice I didn’t say ‘go away’).  Or at least that is my understanding of the color change in a lobster and probably something similar is happening here.  This leads me to believe that there is probably not much I can do with the exception of a fairly serious polishing to remove surface layers.  I will probably avoid a polishing because I want to keep the decorative logo intact.

I do have an Amazon gift card burning a hole in my pocket and when we moved a little over a year ago my supply of various chemicals (cleaners, adhesives, etc.) could not come with me so I will probably just order a can of the polishing “wadding” and try it on some other projects.

Since we're on weird cleaning solutions,

A completely unorthodox method to brighten old, yellowed computer gear...

Use Westley's Bleche Wite. Then follow up with a more conventional cleaner to neutralize any residual bleche wite.

You always can tell a biker's garage - they have every cleaning product known to man.

eh?

Duke city? The 'burque'?

I'm a transplant - moved here in '95 - got transferred to Iowa (Iowa?..) in '01, back to New Mexico in '10. I have family that moved here back in the late 80's.



Originally from Hammond, IN - Chicago Area.


From a biker dude perspective, though, New Mexico is perfect. Long riding season, lot's of places to visit, there's always a rally somewhere (always a good excuse to toss back some brewski's...), no helmet laws (don't get me started...)....


I miss the group of biker techs and engineers I used to hang with at a job I once had - we we're a hell of a motley crew, but man, we knew how to have a good time! Everybody wearing their leather on the toy run and I'm the odd one wearing a full realtree insulated hunting suit. But I won out anyway - I correctly predicted it was gonna snow that day and it did - had to bring the bikes back with a truck! 


NB.

I should say that when I was in Iowa, I was only about 20 miles from J&P cycles...they throw a hell of an annual party!

Crap, now I'm waxing all nostalgic...

Yep - Wild Hog's - that'd be Madrid. Halfway between Edgewood and Santa Fe - about 20 miles from my house. Many good times at the Mine Shaft Tavern (they're on FB - lot's of musicians play there). Many beers out on the porch there. Easy Rider yeah, (old man J&P back in IA has Peter Fonda's ER bike on display in Anamosa, BTW..). Music scene here is vibrant, as always. Film industry is up and up too. The REELS channel broadcasts from here..
Albuquerque has always been an artsy-fartsy town...just grab up a copy of The Alibi... 

Great chatting with you, Spacey! Thanks!

While the pristine "new appearance" is cool, for older gear the patina of age is a big "cool factor" as well. 

Most times, if you try to restore something it lessens the value of the object. 

A simple cleaning with a mild cleaner to remove dust and grime would be about as far as I would want to take it. 

Using things like Armor All are likely safe but will require repeated applications to retain the appearance of the applied product. My first shot would be with a simple damp cloth to remove the top coat of dust. See how it looks and proceed carefully with other cleaners. 

Take one of those, say, blue anodized pegs the crotch-rocket guys use, rub some chrome polish on that - it *will* rub off the blue after a time.

No need for polish, boots will do that.

WD-40 (that's what it's called in the UK) will clean most metals very effectively but I'd test a small inconspicuous area first. <---that's my idea of a disclaimer

Here is the face plate of the amp:



and here are the guts:

Those heat sinks look like they came off somebody's motorcycle.


Just saying.

So this is what I did, I just wiped down the surface of the amp with Windex ... it is as gold as it is black.  You can see it on the right hand side of the desk.  It is not rack mountable so it is sitting on a deep rack mount shelf (the amp is much deeper than the desk).

I moved the KRKs out and incorporated the Tannoys on some low budget Guitar Center stand.

craigb


That looks good, but your crash looks like it could use a dusting.  
 
(P.S., Love that drum throne though - I've got the same one!)

Done.  I never polish my cymbals but I should probably dust them on occasion.
 
Yes, the Roc and Soc is a nice cushy seat.