Once you get past painting and powder coating, how many other ways are you familiar with to finish the metal surfaces on your motorcycle? Well, there’s chrome, of course or you could just buff and polish everything and follow it with a sealer, but after the paint route, most everything else involves some chemicals and electricity to react in some way with the metal surface. Anodizing aluminum is a little less well known than some treatments but it offers nice benefits and it’s not that hard to do.
Just last week I was leafing through How To Plate, Polish, and Chrome
As luck would have it, a couple of days later, Andy (Thanks, Andy!) sent me a pointer to a web site where anodizing supplies are sold, with the focus on doing it at home. They have the chemicals you’ll need plus a good explanation of how to do it. They don’t sell kits because, most of what you need you probably already have or you’ll be able to get very easily. The web site is the work of Ron Newman who is also part of the Yahoo group dedicated to anodizing and they have tips for the guy who wants to give this a try.
Anodizing, is a process specific to aluminum. Basically, you submerge the aluminum part in weak sulfuric acid and apply a positive charge (the anode). The negative charge (cathode) is applied to a piece of lead. The flow of current causes the aluminum to oxidize, forming a hard surface. An interesting option in the process is the ability to color the aluminum with various dyes. We’ve all seen blue or red anodized parts but you can use a wide variety of different colors, even in combinations which can look pretty neat.
There are a lot of smaller parts on a motorcycle that lend themselves to this sort of finish process with a home garage sized setup. If you get good at this, you could build a bigger outfit and become the guy all of your friends come to with their aluminum parts and make a few bucks on the side. But whatever you do, it looks like it could be a fun project and one more nifty skill to add to your personal toolbox.
Link: Ron Newman’s Anodizing web site
Walt says
Anodizing may be technically easy, but taste plays a key role in the final result. I’ve seen bike projects where they builder’s ability to use color outran his judgement about where to use it, and how much — and the bike ended up clownish, with too much or too many colors. Guess I’m a traditionalist — I like black paint, chrome, satin and polished aluminum, cadmium and parkerized finishes.
Ry says
I have been looking at this guys system for a couple of years now. I would be tempted to try it out if I had the floor space in my shop.
Sid says
Walt – good points…not only quantity of color, but placement (as you also mentioned) of the color is key.
it is refreshing to see other colors as I have only seen a limited range. Now, about that tie-dyed triple clamp (kidding)….
Bryce says
For those with titanium, it too can be anodized. The cool part of titanium is that dye isn’t even required. The thickness of the oxide layer (determined by the amount of current) basically acts as a color filter and only reflects one color.
A professor I had for a jewelry class in college did a lot of cast aluminum that she started anodizing. She would make silicone molds of sea shells then fill them with wax and cast those in aluminum and anodize them. Bright blue metallic sea shells are a sight to behold.
Walt makes a great point though. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. That said, I’d be darn impressed if someone took things like transmission cases, frames, and the like and anodized them.
todd says
A clear anodizing looks great on cast parts with a relatively high zinc content (side covers, etc). It leaves a dark, flat gray color that is very industrial looking. The more zinc, the closer to flat black it gets. To me, it looks much nicer than cheezy polishing and easier to achieve than a consistent brush finish with spray-clear coat.
-todd
ALAN ALLREAD says
The best aluminum alloy to use is 6061-t6 or t651.Don’t forget to seal with hot water or nickel acetate.
The real problems are “uncle sam”,the chemicals needed and the waste materials produced.Dispose of correctly.
The anodic coating will increase a physical dimension by .0001 or more,so watch it.
The colors almost unlimited and a sight to see.
jeffrey houser says
I’m looking next year to get my rims and pegs in a Kawasaki green. I’m trying to get prices on this. Could you please e-mail me with this. I could also send you some test pegs so I colud see how they come out. Thanks for your time.