Clear anodizing?

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

Does anyone have any experience with clear anodizing as a wheel finish, rather than say, clearcoat or clear powder? How does it shine, and how does it hold up over time?

I've got a set of wheels I've been thinking of doing a brushed finish on the faces of, and I'd like to protect the faces with something, since a brushed finish can be hell to keep up on. It seems like anodizing would avoid the problems of chipping and peeling often associated with clear finishes, but I don't know what the downsides might be.

Thanks!

[sleeps]

Maybe someone can powdercoat a clear finish over your paint???

[Oh Damn, it's Sam]

I've thought about clear powder, but there's a couple things that keep pushing me away from it.

1. Cost. It's not tons of money to do powder, but I can do clear anodizing in my garage for the cost of a little sulfuric acid.

2. I do not want the lips of the wheels coated, only the faces, and these are monoblock wheels. Thus, where the face meets the lip, there's going to be an edge to whatever surface treatment I choose. With clearcoat, this is an opportunity for peeling. With clear powder, this may be a point where it can peel, but worse, with how thick powder is, I think it might be REALLY obvious. Anodizing is microns thick, so I don't think you'd see it.

3. The way clear powder catches light is not what I'm looking for. What I simply adore about a brushed finish is the way light plays over the intricacies of the surface. Powder is thick enough that it smooths over the brushed surface, so though it still looks brushed, it adds a layer of gloss sheen that just isn't what I'm looking for. Anodize is so thin that it follows the brushed surface, and the sheen should remain mostly intact.

Compare, for example, the difference between these two finishes:



The MAEs are brushed with no surface treatment, and the SSRs are brushed with clear powder. Both are gorgeous, of course, but you can see the additional gloss on the SSRs, which really makes them look painted light grey, rather than brushed. For this project, I think I prefer the satiny look of the MAEs.