Did anyone else notice our HVAC buttons.....

[IronMonkeyL255]

.....are aluminum (or at least partially)?

I have a few spare HVAC parts, so I was messing around with the buttone, trying to find the most effective way to re-coat them. I started sanding one to see some shiney...... Then I sanded some more to find that it was aluminum under that paint.

I sanded a bit too much, though, and it started pulling away from the plastic.

I also tried a chemical stripper, and that took off all of the coating and left just the aluminum, which looks to have been colored (anodized?) that gunmetal grey.......

[LaureltheQueen]

anodizing chemically changes the exterior of the metal.

probably just painted or powdercoated

[IronMonkeyL255]

It didn't come off like paint. It was an aggressive chemical stripper......

Maybe powdercoat.

[professor]

the stripper oxidized the aluminum

aluminum oxide is dark

[IronMonkeyL255]

The thing was, it was quite shiny (like, shiny paint shiny, but it was definitely metal.....). Aluminum oxide isn't really shiny.......

It looks like it is a very thin coat of aluminum that masks the buttons. There also appears to be a bit of translucent paint on the lettering to make it more whilte.