Does removing anodizing remove any strength? Because I recently bought a bunch of aluminum parts for my evader and I like the look of the clear anodizing the best but for some reason the shock towers only come in blue anodizing, so I want to remove the anodizing, but I prefer function over form so if it makes the aluminum weaker than I just wont do it.

it's been over an hour and only one person has actually looked at this, wow the title must sound really boring

No, removing the anodization doesnt hurt the strength at all. If you remove it without the proper tools, it will look very very ugly. Your better off just leaving the parts colored.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........



It is VERY EASY.
Go get some oven cleaner. I use a glass caserole dish to hold the parts, and coat them with the oven cleaner. After 2 or 3 mins, wash the parts off PROFUSELY with warm water. This process needs to be repeated until the parts are 'clean'. Some comes off fast, and some well... If you find some stubborn parts, using GOGGLES or some kind of EYE PROTECTION and GLOVES, and after the cleaner has sit for about 30 seconds or so, use a toothbrush on what's left. This has always worked on stubborn parts for me. If you leave the oven cleaner on too long, it WILL make dark spots on the aluminum that are practically impossible to remove.

Now, to make it look GOOD... Buy yourself some Mother's Aluminum polish (auto parts store) and in 30 seconds, you will be looking into a mirror.

The first parts I ever stripped were lower arms on my Savage and I was IMPRESSED by how quickly the stuff just runs off... I don't have any pix handy of mine to show, but that night I told Amsterdamn and he did the same to parts of his Evader. Here is a quoted post from a video-forum thread that has pics of the oven-cleaner/Mothers, stripped aluminum. Yes, this was his first try too.

how much do u think hes put into that car...i dont mean sweat and blood i mean money $$$

I've never sen ANY car that clean, maybe it goes so fast that the dust and other gunk just blows off...

Thanks everyone. I really like Amsterdamn's evader, that what I want mine to look like eventually. Right know I have aluminium Front and rear suspension arms, rear shock tower (what I want to take the anodizing off of), Rear hubs, front knuckle arms and front hub carriers. I eventually want to get aluminium front and rear bulkheads, front suspension tower and engine mount. Also I have a duratrax kwik-pit super start on order from tower hobbies along with:

-These Wheels http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...8&I=LXRD73&P=K
-These Tires http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...8&I=LXECG5&P=K
-These Tires http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...8&I=LXFHL7&P=K

Oh yeah and I almost forgot I read in an old RC driver how to remove anodizing with either ez-off or Drano crystals and there was Pics and the parts looked great, have any of you ever tried this method?


Here are some Pics of my evader with its current mods.

here is a great tip on how to remove anodizing
step 1:go bashing!!!!!

when i landed a ten foot jump on the engine headwith no roll bar it doesn't look so pretty then!

lol, good one

eh, check out the videos in that quoted post...

What I did was use a sand blaster, that got the anodizing off, then i polished it up. I did that to my chassis, heres some pics:

Cool, execpt I don't have access to a sand blaster. Has anyone tried the drano crystal method?

What's wrong with oven cleaner? It can't get much easier... To be honest, I didn't use ANY goggles or gloves, I'm just not gonna tell folks to do something that can hurt them without fair warning. The whole process took me less than 1/2 hr for 4 parts, and that includes polish.

what brand of oven cleaner did you use

"easy off" oven spray. I would not use a sand blaster, I got one and it makes tiny pits that make it imposible to polish to a mirror. glass bead blast is better but still not great.

the oven spray method is a lot easer than it sounds in listed poasts. jus spray soak skrub, rinse, rinse, rinse, polish and done.

well the article I read in rc driver used both ez-off and drano crystals, although I didn't know that ez-off was an oven cleaner. they said that drano is better for more intricate parts because it's a liquid and not a foam. I'm getting my scanner back at some point tommorow, and maybe then I'll scan it for you.

I don't like to polish mine to a "mirror", because if you have deep stratches and stuff like that, then it will show more when polished and not look as good, but if you have a nice, stratch free chassis, then you could polish it to a "mirror" and it will look very good.

heres the article if anyone was wanting to read it. I just got my scanner back.