you could have them stripped then reanadized strippedthen polished then clearcouted but the clearcoat is not going to tolarate much rough useage

They don't need all of that, just polishing. No clearcoat on them now, so I'm not going to add it.

Question is what to use to polish with?

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

well looks like you know what to do??? But i bet they have anadizing on them,polishing them might not make them look any better

How do I tell if they are anodized or not? These are 30 year old cranks, BTW, I don't know if anodizing was common back then

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I've used an aluminum polish made by Armor All and works very well. I'm sure there are plenty of options. I used a buffer bit on my drill to buff and polish a crankset. It got the shoe rub marks out very well and looks like new.

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Rowdy

"I've used an aluminum polish made by Armor All and works very well."

Cool, thanks. I didn't know if there was a specific type of polish to look for, or a generic metal polish to use.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Blue Magic (get it at Pep Boys) ... turns old Campy parts into mirrors. If you're willing to look for it, a product called Simichrome is even better. Back in my high-res spectroscopy days, I made 95+% reflectivity elliptical mirrors out of a block of aluminum (grad student time is cheap). The stuff *works*.

Both products feature some grit (5 microns or so) in a cream-type base that contains ammonia. Simichrome cuts better: the same way diamond grit cuts better than alumina grit.

Martin C will probably chime in with pictures of his black stem turned polished silver ...

Dre'

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Mother's brand chrome polish does very well also.

Use a bench mounted buffing wheel if you have access to one OR since you are a tri geek, use some elbow grease on a soft cotton (clean) rag for an excellent upper body workout.

If you go the buffing wheel route, there's a compound called White Diamond that you apply as wheel dressing. I'll bet the WWW has some info on how to buff out aluminium parts.

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Mr. Uncaptured External Costs

Fossil carbon is planetary poison.