legacycentral bbs

.....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.......

anodizing chemically changes the exterior of the metal.

probably just painted or powdercoated

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

Maybe powdercoat.

the stripper oxidized the aluminum

aluminum oxide is dark

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.