Hello

I just stripped the paint of my santa cruz blur LT, and it is a bit bright now !

Can i somhow darken it ???

Like this intense frame here :

http://www.ihatebikes.net/media/gear…r/tracer_3.jpg

and some more pics :

http://www.gravity-slaves.co.uk/?a=362

get it dirty/paint it black/shoe polish

What do I win?

Raw aluminium won't stay bright for long, if you don't get it painted or laquered it'll be minging in a couple of days with oxidization. At least it won't be shiny any more

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, i had it raw for 4 days now, still bright….
-but i even rubbed it with water/salt ! not that it made a big difference
…. i wonder if i could a some chemical solution on it ?

Any chemist out there !!!???

In work we use Trichloroethylene which is a very harsh degreaser, the ally oxidises pretty quick after that if not protected, the better the ally the longer it will take to oxidise and I would imagine a santa Cruz is made from decent stuff T6000 series or similar. You could try a mild acid solution on it but don't blame me dude if it goes wrong!! Wait for the chemists to come on.

I remember learning in my chemistry lessons at school, that Aluminum quickly oxidised and form a "dirty" layer. However that layer was impervious to air/water, so the metal doesn't corode like steel. No idea if that helps you, I probably remember it wrong anyhow, was some time ago

Just asked a mate of mine and he suggests getting it ball burnished if you can find someone with a big enough machine. Its basically rolled around in polishing stones which compress the surface. It will be darker after this and have a harder surface. There are loads of places that do it you'd just have to look up someone in your area

Caustic soda, will do a lovely job of turning it a dirty patchy grey

If that's the look you want?

Just ride it around, it'll go eventually 'specially with winter coming up

Forget the dark look. Polish it with Autosol and it will get a nice mellow look.

Caustic soda, will do a lovely job of turning it a dirty patchy grey

Erm.. isn't that the same stuff as sodium hydroxide?

In which case you might want to look at this experiment with sodium hydroxide + aluminium + water:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gihAT6eXaoc 😯

might not be such a good idea methinks..

Incidentally – that intense frame looks like it's been anodised that (pewter) colour.

You might want to try something like that instead.

Caustic soda & aluminium are not good bed fellows

Caustic is a good way to strip anodising from Al. You don't want to leave it on too long though… Different series of Al will take longer to oxidise, 6000 will stay brighter, 7000 will go to a dull grey quickly, i suspect your frame is 6000. Anything basic should oxidise it, though how it looks after oxidisation will depend on the material. I'd go with polish as well, nice and shiny and it shouldn't take too much to keep it looking good given your frame material.