Awesome thanks everyone. The wood is off so I will try the soak with the Zep. How long did you soak? I will keep an eye on it but is it 10 minute or 24 hour thing? Can I leave it too long?
My experience is mostly with the
Member's Mark Professional Degreaser they sell at Sam's Club for this, but I suspect it's much the same as ZEP but less costly. You start with a 5-10 minute soak, it's important to cover everything completely. Use a pretty strong concentration, maybe 50/50 mix with water. When you first add the part, you'll notice the product start to work by some minor bubbling. Probably not a 24 hour thing, I think if you leave it in too long the parts will darken and then you need to get that darkness off! I think it took a few hours for my parts.
Be reminded that this is a water based DEGREASER. It's a high-pH detergent/solvent, it's NOT a lo pH acid. Still take the precautions as noted on the bottle, but it's a whole lot safer to use than any acid products. I always used nitrile gloves but that's about it. There are no vapors.
See photos. The only parts black anodized were the aluminum brake arms; but the brake is shown assembled with dozens of other parts. There is the before (black) and after (silver) photos. The after was not just fresh out of the degreasing and deanodizing solution, but after a bit of metal polish to really clean things up.
Hope this helps!
