Anyone ever clear coat polished aluminum?

Paradox916

Paradox916

Well-known member
I have polished aluminum many times but never thought to try and put a clear coat on it, in this case it would be for adhesion protection of decals on polished aluminum, anyone ever do this? What was your experience, did it fish eye or even stick? Help a brother out and let me know.
 
I usually do that, for fear of the bare aluminum oxidizing over time. Decals stick fine. I think I used laser printed waterslide decals--it's been a few years since I did my own instead of the Tayda printing.
 
Makes me think of those chrome boxes by Red Witch. They looked terrible to me. All those fingerprints! The low effort screen printing (basic labeling of knobs) didn't help. But I often wondered if something nifty could be done; like, mirror shine that actually adds to the artwork presented on the pedal! (as in the magic mirrors like from fairy tales, to give an uninspired example). I'd be interested to see what people have come up with over time. :)
 
A bike company I worked at came out with an Easton-aluminum MTB model; that frame was polished, branding- and model-stickers applied and finally clear-coated.

They looked great on the showroom floor.

My frame's coating looked a little worse for wear after a few crashes, with rocks scratching through the coating and wearing thin any high-wear points such as areas of contact used during portage etc. Once the coating was damaged, it started to peel and flake away — the exposed aluminum looked duller than the surrounding bits that were still clear-coat protected, still shiny. That's after one season racing on it, and of course I had the latest model for the following season but I kept using that first Easton frame as a training bike for a couple more seasons and the clear-coat took on a yellowish hue.


Some considerations:

A guitar pedal won't receive the same level of abuse my MTB frame did, BUT will still experience wear & tear (if not used with a looper), stomping on/off repeatedly;​
​
I wasn't privy to what the Taiwan-factory used to clear-coat the MTB-frames, so other clear-coats may be stronger and maybe won't fog-out/yellow with age.​
​
Materials technologies have advanced since the early '90s when I was thrashing that bike, so modern clear-coats might be less prone to yellowing and be stronger.​



Despite the MTB-frame experience, I would go ahead with clear-coating my own raw/polished aluminum enclosures.
 
Feral Feline said:
A bike company I worked at came out with an Easton-aluminum MTB model; that frame was polished, branding- and model-stickers applied and finally clear-coated.

They looked great on the showroom floor.

My frame's coating looked a little worse for wear after a few crashes, with rocks scratching through the coating and wearing thin any high-wear points such as areas of contact used during portage etc. Once the coating was damaged, it started to peel and flake away — the exposed aluminum looked duller than the surrounding bits that were still clear-coat protected, still shiny. That's after one season racing on it, and of course I had the latest model for the following season but I kept using that first Easton frame as a training bike for a couple more seasons and the clear-coat took on a yellowish hue.


Some considerations:

A guitar pedal won't receive the same level of abuse my MTB frame did, BUT will still experience wear & tear (if not used with a looper), stomping on/off repeatedly;​
​
I wasn't privy to what the Taiwan-factory used to clear-coat the MTB-frames, so other clear-coats may be stronger and maybe won't fog-out/yellow with age.​
​
Materials technologies have advanced since the early '90s when I was thrashing that bike, so modern clear-coats might be less prone to yellowing and be stronger.​



Despite the MTB-frame experience, I would go ahead with clear-coating my own raw/polished aluminum enclosures.
Click to expand...

Yeah, all those cans with uv resistant clear coat... You can only tell after some years if they didn't lie....

Clearcoat that can take some more abuse: epoxy resin clear coat. It's can be applied thickly enough so you can repolish it once in a while.
 
Feral Feline said:
A bike company I worked at came out with an Easton-aluminum MTB model; that frame was polished, branding- and model-stickers applied and finally clear-coated.

They looked great on the showroom floor.

My frame's coating looked a little worse for wear after a few crashes, with rocks scratching through the coating and wearing thin any high-wear points such as areas of contact used during portage etc. Once the coating was damaged, it started to peel and flake away — the exposed aluminum looked duller than the surrounding bits that were still clear-coat protected, still shiny. That's after one season racing on it, and of course I had the latest model for the following season but I kept using that first Easton frame as a training bike for a couple more seasons and the clear-coat took on a yellowish hue.


Some considerations:

A guitar pedal won't receive the same level of abuse my MTB frame did, BUT will still experience wear & tear (if not used with a looper), stomping on/off repeatedly;​
​
I wasn't privy to what the Taiwan-factory used to clear-coat the MTB-frames, so other clear-coats may be stronger and maybe won't fog-out/yellow with age.​
​
Materials technologies have advanced since the early '90s when I was thrashing that bike, so modern clear-coats might be less prone to yellowing and be stronger.​



Despite the MTB-frame experience, I would go ahead with clear-coating my own raw/polished aluminum enclosures.
Click to expand...
That’s the kind of feedback I was looking for! I was thinking of polishing the front plate to the rack preamp Im building so its abuse should be minimal. Heat and thermal expansion might be a factor over a long time but, I’m sure it won’t be as bad as crashing a bike and leaving in out in the sun🤣. Thanks Neil!
 
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