Removed anodizing quickly on my 71 Chevy grille surround

[vettejohn]

I had to share this one. I saw a very short video somewhere on the internet and the guy showed how he removed the anodizing from his aluminum trim parts by using Hair and Grease Remover, which he purchased from Home Depot. It comes in a black plastic bottle and is enclosed in a ziplock type plastic bag. The product contains lye and it does a great job of cleaning the aluminum. Withing minutes, the shine and the anodizing is gone. And, there is no noticeable smell. Once it is cleaned, it buffs up beautifully.

I used disposable nitrile gloves when I brushed it on with a disposable foam brush. Keep the lye off your skin - it will give you a burn. OH! Buy the smaller bottle. I used less than 10 percent of the two liter bottle I bought.

It doesn't take much to do the job - once it began to bubble, I worked it over with a small piece of green Scotchbrite and that took all of the anodizing off. It only took about an hour to remove all of the anodizing on the entire grille surround.

When finished, I washed it down with water, dried it, and began the buffing. I am using a 2" polishing pad on my $25 2" sander/polisher from Harbor Freight and plenty of Mothers mag and aluminum polish. It works great. It is beginning to look just like polished stainless steel or chrome. I love it!

It shouldn't take too long to polish using air tools. Some places need some hand work, but it sure beats sanding the entire surround to remove the anodizing.