polishing instrument buckets

Does anyone have experience polishing the black instrument buckets fitted to the later Commandos? I really like the look of the polished alloy ones fitted to the earlier models and was wondering if there are any differences between the earlier and later ones other than the later ones are painted black. Can I sand and polish the black jobs to look like the earlier polished ones?

They do polish up OK eventually but they are quite different from the polished versions.

The long black clockholders were introduced to facilitate the fitting of the longer Veglia clocks and the retaining lugs are close to the bottom edge. This means that if you wanted to shorten them, you would have to turn off the top face but you would still have the reduced section below where the plastic cover fits (you know, the ones that stop the water getting out )

Current replacement short clockholders are not as nicely shaped as the '70s originals.

tpeever
I did a set on my 74. They are anodidized black from the factory,Not simply painted.You have to sand it off and then polish. Here is a picture
of mine.

Oven cleaner works great for taking anodizing off. It removes the colour almost immediately. I suppose bead blasting would work as wel.

nascarkent said:

tpeever
I did a set on my 74. They are anodidized black from the factory,Not simply painted.You have to sand it off and then polish. Here is a picture
of mine.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the photo! Those look nice.