How to shine up old anodized aluminum?

[robot.hebobo]

I'm finally working on my first retro 'restoration'... a 1991 Paramount PDG70. It's not the most sought after bike but it has a Japanese (I think) built Tange Prestige frame and full M735 Deore XT with thumbshifters, and nearly all original working parts. My plan is to build it into a period correct rider for when I go mountain biking with my wife and kids, who are more cautious and slower riders than me, so I figured the nostalgic underbiking would make things fun.

Anyway, story aside, the silver anodized aluminum parts are pretty dull looking, with patches of greyish discoloration etc.

Last night I cleaned a lot of parts in the parts cleaner, and experimented with gently applied fine steel wool to polish. This worked quite well, the parts immediately brightened up, although with some very fine scratches (these parts are far from new condition, so this was still a big improvement and look fine). Googling it today though, it seems like steel wool is viewed as a big no-no... but all the instructions I can find seem to focus on _removing_ the anodizing, which I don't want to do... I just want to polish it up a little bit.

Should I stick with my intuition and continue (gently) using steel wool, or switch to something else?

Thanks,
R

 

[longun]

brasso/silvo or good old metal polish and elbow grease. pics

 

[robot.hebobo]

Thanks - I have a tube of Simichrome somewhere so I'll give that a shot.

 

[Twozaskars]

Don't use steel wool, that's for sure. You impregnate the softer aluminium with fine particles of steel which causes corrosion or something, and the info you found is correct - don't do it.
Autosol polish is good, but if you want the alu to shine you do need to remove the existing finish to get to bare metal.

 

[Jpw]

Mothers mag is good metal polish

 

[robot.hebobo]

So I understand the issue with steel wool, but interestingly the finish I'm getting from Simichrome is... to chromey?
The parts originally had that 'dull bright' finish like some Nitto parts do today, and the (grade 0) wire wool was achieving something similar, as well as helping with the surface blotchiness. The Simichrome leave the blotches but at the same time makes the parts mirror shiny, which doesn't actually look right.

Would Mothers mag be better? Or maybe find some stainless steel wool?

 

[robot.hebobo]

Oh, and pics: