With the Alodine coating, you may not have that much problem cleaning it up...
Seems like something has eaten through the Alodine, which is relatively soft and
thing compared to anodize...
I'd opt for a complete strip down to the chassis alone (if possible) then
try for a cleaning using first something mild, like 00 steel wool and a bit of
water,
and see if it cleans up the pitting. If not, the next level is the 00 steel wool
and
some of that Cameo Stainless & Aluminum cleaner (or just the Copper Cleaner
version)
with the same... if the first method worked, then I'd follow it with some of
the cleaner and a cloth, let it soak a few minutes and rinse - it tends to etch
the corrosion below the surface...
If this is unsucessful then the next level is more radical and I'd use a palm
sander
and some 200 grit Aluminum Oxide paper, wet and take the entire surface down
to bare aluminum.
The problem with refinishing is that once the aluminum has been pitted, if you
go
to anodize or even another Alodine bath there is a good possibility that the
pits
will either not take dye or Alodine, or that they will be plenty obvious after
the
coating.
You could just take the blank chassis around to anodize houses and see what they
say, they might say that they can just etch away the old alodine and recoat - or
etch
and anodize... I'd go for *clear* anodize to minimize the obvious effects of
prior pitting...
Some aircraft companies also do Alodine in house. I actually have some here, but
won't open it, since the etch portion contains Hydroflouric Acid, and I'm not
messing with that... :- (
Maybe someone else has some other ideas...
One step beyond, and just make up a new chassis... it's really not all that much
work or that hard to do.
_-_-bear
--
_-_-bearlabs
http://www.bearlabsUSA.com
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