spray to protect aluminum components?

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Permalink Reply by Bill W. on December 31, 2014 at 7:53am

I use Phil Wood tenacious oil on my chain and whipe down derailurs (and rims) with a wet/dry cloth. I've neglected parts on the bike for long stretches during the winter and have had to do a little extra cleaning. My 20+years of riding (as an adult (messenger(3 winters), commuter, randonneur and avid cyclist) has never required anything more than keeping thing relatively clean. That goes for Campagnolo, Shimano and I'd expect Sram groupsets. I've never used anything special.

Levers look nice! What did you use to polish?

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on December 31, 2014 at 3:57pm

I really like Fluid Flow. It's made from sheep lanolin oil/wax mostly. It leaves behind a thin waxy coating on whatever it was sprayed onto even after being rubbed off with a cloth. It works really well on painted frames too. Marred and dulled paint is restored to a beautiful like-new look. It stops rust dead in its tracks and can be used as an inside frame-saver treatment. Even bare steel is protected.

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Permalink Reply by Julian Baker on January 1, 2015 at 9:57pm

I've heard of the Phil tenacious oil, might try it out. 

I polish pieces with the usual stages of coarse to fine sand paper, but this stuff does a great job as a final polish 

http://www.eastwood.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78ea...

Bill W. said:

I use Phil Wood tenacious oil on my chain and whipe down derailurs (and rims) with a wet/dry cloth. I've neglected parts on the bike for long stretches during the winter and have had to do a little extra cleaning. My 20+years of riding (as an adult (messenger(3 winters), commuter, randonneur and avid cyclist) has never required anything more than keeping thing relatively clean. That goes for Campagnolo, Shimano and I'd expect Sram groupsets. I've never used anything special.

Levers look nice! What did you use to polish?

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Permalink Reply by Duppie on January 1, 2015 at 10:00pm

How did you polish the inverted levers? How much work was involved?

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on January 1, 2015 at 10:41pm

I have used ACF-50. I have also used similar products like CorrosionX, LPS-3 and other stuff.  They all work great for what they are but they have a limited range of use.  

Most products like that are 'ultra thin fluid' coating or a 'fluid thin' coating.  They basically work by creating a wax or oil barrier around the material you are trying to protect.  They are heavily used in the aviation industry on unpainted parts for corrosion control.  It mostly gets sprayed in interior parts in wings and such.

If it stays on stuff it works great to prevent corrosion.  However if it is on a part you touch or that gets a lot of weather exposure it is just going to wipe/wear off.  They are plenty tough but will still wash off in the weather, they were never really meant to be an exterior coating.

They also tend to be sticky and will attract all kinds of dirt.

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Permalink Reply by Julian Baker on January 2, 2015 at 4:42pm

I followed a process similar to this:

http://makingnottaking.blogspot.com/2012/08/hand-polishing-aluminum...

Not too hard, and power tools are not a necessity. I had to bust through the paint, so it took a little longer for these levers.

Duppie said:

How did you polish the inverted levers? How much work was involved?

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