Tutorial - How to stealth / remove branding / logos from alloy stem bars seatpost

I had a bit of time earlier on and I needed to stealth some badly branded parts for my new build.

The following technique works well on black aluminium parts where the branding has be laid / printed / stamped over the anodising. Mainly alloy stems, bars and seatposts.
It your parts are carbon or have a layer of lacquer over sticker branding, this will not work.

You need:

• Real acetone, concentration 95% or above. Ideally 100% acetone and not crap nail varnish remover. Basically the purest, the easiest it will be to remove the branding. You can get it from eBay, the chemist or any DIY stores;
  
• Some cotton or cotton cloth to apply the acetone; and
  
• A non-painted surface to work on, as the acetone might damage your surfaces.
  
  
  

Today, I removed the branding from a badly branded Boardman Pro stem. Sometimes I wonder why brands apply so much branding on their parts.

Step one, stem / 50 ml of 100% acetone / cotton / glass table and gloves of you have sensitive skin:

Step two, soak your cotton in acetone:

Step three, leave the cotton soaked in acetone in contact with the logos to remove for about 2 minutes. This will help reducing the amount of elbow grease you will need at the next step...

Step four, elbow grease time, start rubbing until it comes off. Keep that cotton 'wet to the touch' with acetone. It should take about 3 minutes per side.

Step five, rub some more as for some reason, once all the logos have been removed, there is sometimes a 'shadow' left with the outline of the branding. You can see what I mean on this picture:

Once it is done, it should look like this. Pretty easy job that only cost the price of the acetone (my 50ml bottle was £1.50 but you can get 1l for about £5)

Wow Looks
Much Stealth
Many Weight saved

I have also done my ITM Alutech bars with that little 50ml bottle of acetone so not a high price to pay for going plain...

Cheers

Vince