oven cleaner (easy-off and the like) will absolutely remove anodizing. old bmx trick for when your red anodized parts just arent the new hip thing the next year.
did this (yes, i know, heresy) to a pair of campy bmx cranks for my work bike, since i didnt want anything on it to stand out in the eyes of bike theives (thus, all parts black or silver). polished up just fine, survived for 4 years of messengering, and 2 hard european tours (about 60k miles total) before developing a nice hairline in the usual spot, which i figure is just fine for that style crank, so no real damage that i can ascertain...
just spray oven cleaner on, let sit for 15 minutes, wipe off with scrubby pad. wear gloves. you do not even want the tiniest bit of oven cleaner (a nice eat-your-skin-away alkaloid) on your hands, or anywhere else. trust me. i got a speck on my arm that i didnt notice, and it ate a hole about 4mm deep by the time my nerves informed me of the problem.
not recommended for concours material, though :) better safe than sorry... but it *will* expose a bare aluminum surface that can be nicely polished with simichrome.
-joel
>I've also heard that oven cleaner will take the anodizing right off, but
>have been too afraid to try it. I do know it removed whatever finish there
>was on the backsplash of my stovetop which is aluminum.
--
joel metz : magpie@messengers.org : http://www.blackbirdsf.org/
bike messengers worldwide : ifbma : http://www.messengers.org/
po box 191443 san francisco ca 94119-1443 usa
==
i know what innocence looks like - and it wasn't there,
after she got that bicycle...