So my cheap(ish) flea-bay Chris King headset just rocked up, and the apparent shade of "pewter" looks rather more like, well, "bog standard, lightly broken in black."

I was rather hoping for something more, you know, pewter. Chrome-ish would be even better, so what (besides buying another headset, wiseguy) are my options?

Stripping it doesn't seem like such a good idea (rusty headset, hmmm…)
Trying to buff the fuck out of it probably won't do much
Powder coating (will it fit, is it safe for the poor, wee thing)?
Lumping it and ixnaying on the whinging?

lump it!!

+1

could caustic soda it and polish it.

if it is a standard quill stem, i'll swap for a chrome one ;)

it's a polished one you have dingoBollox, you can't chrome aluminium :p

chrome looking, idiot.

Headset, but yes it's 1" threaded.

could take it for re-anodising, but then you lose the KING bit that shows every one you have a bling headset!

I'm absolutely not arsed about the King bit.
What I am arsed about is defeating the point of getting it cheap by spending a bomb to get it re-anodized!

so then mr addie it is just a case of trying to polish it, or seeing if someone waants to do a little swopsie!

like dingoBollox???

But that's kinda my point.
If I polish out the (a presume anodized) pewter colour, do I not then have to worry about protecting it from rust?!

Also, it's been used, some of the colouring rubbing away on a few corners, so a straight swap ain't so simple…

Excuse me. Mister Dingobollox, sir?

Unfortunately, anodized surfaces don't clean well. In fact, if you scrub or polish such a surface all you will get is a shiny drab-looking finished product. In order to properly clean and polish aluminum you have to de-anodize it.
Sounds difficult, doesn't it? After all, the anodizing process requires acid baths, cleaning steps and electric current, not to mention timing equipment and dyes (for those colored surfaces like brackets, etc.) One would think, therefore, that de-anodizing would require the same materials, only in reverse order.
That would be nice and effective, but it turns out that aluminum is one of those metals that can be chemically de-anodized. All you need is the right chemical, and you can find it in your grocery store. The "magic" chemical is sodium hydroxide, and it is the active ingredient in drain cleaners (Drano). It comes in liquid and crystal form and we find the dry crystals are the most effective (and least expensive.) All you need to de-anodize your piece of aluminum is a shallow pan large enough in which to lay it. You'll need warm water, rubber gloves, eye protection and, of course the drain cleaner. Fill the pan with enough warm water to cover the piece and then add enough drain cleaner to do the job - we find that 1 tablespoon of cleaner to one gallon of water will de-anodize a couple pieces like headlight bezels.
and then you could powder coat it, then worry about taking the powder coat off the bearing races!

addie I would go with lump it, unless your build is dependent on the colour matching of the headset with the rest of your components, or you could as has been suggested above swap with someone on here who has one the colour that you want, a chris king headset is still a chris king headset whether its slightly used or not, you could always offer to make up the difference if there is one with a beer or two.

mine is pretty used.

Used and still fine (like the one I'm looking at)?
Or used and abused (like my kidneys)?

Did you write that mdizzle?

De-anodise is easy. Polishing will be easy. Keeping it blingy is pretty easy with car wax.

Do it.

has been somewhat abused, but kings last.

Aluminium doesn't rust

no but still oxidises and goes pale ish

and less blingy.
This can be prevented with wax, or clear powdercoat.

I absolutely love the mixed, often contradictory advice on this forum. This is why I ask you guys my stupid questions. Personal opinions, generally from personal experience. Anyone else? Will chemically stripping with drain cleaner, dremmeling up and waxing ever suffice?

http://www.londonfgss.com/thread6104.html

http://www.londonfgss.com/thread190.html
all the help/answers you need

Just a crazy one, this, but do you reckon that drain cleaner will mess with the bearing plate thing?

the bearings cagey thing is seperate.

they are press fit sealed bearings, just make sure you take 'em out befor putting in the cleaner ;)

Jol
No, just did a cut and paste from classic car web site, i just did the old google thing on how to strip anodizing!

I'm going to choose to ignore that snide dig there. If that's okay with you, though…

man no snide dig, just what i did, ican be a lot more snide.you know me!