With today’s generation of ready to run kits, it’s all too easy for your ride to look just like everyone else’s, okay you can put a new body shell on it easily enough but unless you spend a fortune on new aluminium parts, the exposed parts will always look the same. What if you love your Savage but you can’t stand purple? Well it’s actually very easy to remove the anodising from aluminium parts and by doing this you save yourself a fortune!

WARNING!
This process involves the use of Caustic-Soda which, when mixed with ally, produces a particularly nasty gaseous mix of hydrogen and ammonia which is both highly flammable and dangerous. Luckily one feels ammonia gas inhalation in the nose and eyes way before it reaches the lungs, so if you cop a mouthful, stop breathing and get upwind! If you are an asthma sufferer I suggest that you skip this altogether and get somebody else to do it for you, preferably somebody you don't like. Carry this procedure out in a well ventilated area and wear protective glasses and gloves.

Caustic-Soda is widely available in most hardware stores, which is a little weird as it's pure evil and it's cheap as well. Make sure you keep it on the top shelf away from inquisitive hands. Caustic-Soda comes in different types, granules, powder and pellets. I use granules but the principles are the same for all types. For the process you'll need:

Caustic-Soda
A glass or stainless steel bowl
Toothbrush or similar hard bristle brush
Long nosed pliers or similar
Sink with running water (don't laugh, I've got one that doesn't)

Start with a bowl as small as you can get away with, there's no point in mixing up more Caustic-Soda than you need for a job. A smattering of granules is all I use normally. We'll go into the effects of differing mixes a little later, but start with a small amount. Better to fail with a weak mix than with a rich one. Do this in your bowl, as shown. Open windows and/or doors if you’re not already outside. After I took a lung full of ammonia once, I always make sure I have a through-draft running as well as a clear path to some fresh air. The other thing is to not have somebody peering over your shoulder when you do this. If you do have to spin round quick and head for the window to grab a gulp of air, it would be ironic to chin your mate with your elbow as you do it.

Right, add the water, I use warm water, it seems to help the process a little. Give the mix a little stir to help the Caustic-Soda dissolve which it will do in a minute or so. Don't start the process unless the solution is lump/granule free, these bits of un-dissolved Caustic-Soda will grip onto ally and burn marks into it.

Gently lower the anodised piece into the solution with your pliers (seen here is a part of an engine mount). Within a few seconds you should see the colour slowly wafting away from the piece, and maybe a little bubbling on it.

Give the solution a little stir round to keep the solution flowing through and around the piece. If the mix is too weak, not much will happen. Even so, don't leave the piece in the solution for too long, even if it seems to be doing nothing. Some anodising is particularly tough and will resist the process, but in this case, any exposed ally may be burnt. So keep a close eye on what's happening. If the mix is too strong, the colour will leap from the part, exposed ally will be burnt and there will be bubbles-a-plenty (which means gas). Get the part out quick in this case and get it under the water. You might be lucky and get away with manual polishing of the part to restore a decent finish, but it doesn't take long for the brown burning and pitting to knack the appearance of a piece.

After about fifteen seconds, remove the piece with your pliers and place under the tap water stream to remove the Caustic-Soda. With the toothbrush (don't forget to put it back in the bathroom before Dad needs it), give the piece a good going over. The Caustic-Soda will have weakened the colouring and the brush will help remove it.

It's not uncommon to have to repeat the dipping process a couple of times to rid the piece of the colouring, but it's surprising how effective the brush is against the weakened colour. Some anodising is so tough it won't come off at all; cooling heads for example often have a different type of finish which isn't anodising despite its similar look. Some cheaper ally parts, like GPM stuff, give their anodising up very easily. If you have a few bits to do, you will notice the strength of the solution reduce, this is quite normal. Don't be tempted to drop more Caustic-Soda into the solution when you still have a part in it though, the un-dissolved Caustic-Soda will grip onto the part and wreck it. The used Caustic-Soda can be washed down the sink, it will even clean the pipes on the way out, which is what it was on the shelf for anyway I suppose.