It’s unlikely to look like that photo once you have the paint removed, if you’ve never worked with aluminum or chemical paint strippers you should first consider whether or not this is a project that you’re actually willing to take on. I’ve never disassembled an OP-1 but you’ll need to do whatever it takes to isolate the chassis from the rest of the components, so looking at this ifixit page is a good start to see what you’re getting into for disassembly.
Teenage Engineering OP-1 Flex Cable Replacement - iFixit Repair Guide
a complete realistic answer
it seems like at a minimum, you’ll need to remove some button caps and buttons to reach the screws which hold the board and other components to the chassis, everything that is not the chassis itself will need to come out. Once the aluminum chassis is by itself, you will need good quality nitrile or other chemical resistant gloves to handle things while you’re doing this. You could use klean strip aircraft stripper spray (or other aluminum safe brand) but it’s not magic, and it’s really messy. The paint doesn’t just disappear, it bubbles and turns into goo. You have to scrape it off with something that won’t damage the aluminum and won’t get melted by the chemicals you’ll probably have to do it a couple of times and use a lot of clean rags to ultimately get it to a point where the paint is gone. You’ll need some kind of face and eye protection, preferably a painting type of respirator that has a filter so you aren’t breathing in chemicals or splashing them in your eyes, if you want to do it without those it’s at your own risk and I don’t recommend it.
Once the paint is completely gone, you’ll need to assess the condition of the aluminum, at which point it may need some polishing or other kind of surface leveling, but I don’t recommend using any polishing chemicals at this point. If you will be doing anything, keep it strictly to fine graded abrasives like 0000 steel wool or like 1000 / 1500 / 2000 / 2500 / 3000 / 5000 graded automotive wet dry sandpaper and it’s probably best to do it with water and a little bit of dish soap as a lubricant so you don’t make anything worse as you’re getting to that stage. Watch some videos on youtube about prepping and polishing aluminum to prepare yourself.
Once you’re satisfied with the condition of the bare metal chassis, be aware that unfinished aluminum, even polished to a shine, will start to oxidize in short time. Oxidization is the process of oxygen forming a skin on the outside and looking cloudy, it will not blacken, it is not steel, it will look like this:
You’ll need to decide if you want to live with that, or be constantly polishing it with chemicals, a chemical aluminum polish will probably damage the plastic parts so you could only do so much of that without risking the assembled parts when it’s back together (like neglecting the face or taping it off I guess). The alternative is if you decide you want to apply a clear coat finish which is what most people who wanted it to last would do at this time.
So, If you decide you want to apply a clear coat finish,
you’ll need to get several things including a wax and tar remover that will prep the surface for paint and remove the oils your hands have gotten on it, because oils from your hands or other grime will cause fish eyes in the clear coat and will look bad,
This is an extreme example of fish eyes in paint:
this will possibly require re-stripping the whole thing and starting over. You’ll need to pick a 1k or a 2k clear coat, 1k is slow drying and you’ll have to follow proper steps to let coats dry between application. 2k clear has a hardening agent and there is a time limit on how long you have to spray it before it’s worthless inside the can, you have to push a lower module up into the can to start the chemical process. When you spray that, if you spray it cleanly, it will be dry and ready for further processing in like an hour so no waiting but the 2k paint is expensive.
At that point you’ll be looking at it thinking this looks kinda shitty, because sprayed paint of any kind, clear or otherwise, develops orange peel
This is an extreme example, but be prepared to sand orange peel out of the clear coat and then go through the process of polishing it (again, watch youtube). At that point you’ll have a decent looking piece of metal that will continue to look good and be protected.
Also, if you’re interested, the “brushed finish” like that person is displaying, brushed aluminum will still oxidize over time without a clear coat of some sort, but if you wanted to try for the same brushed effect, here’s a video demonstrating one way to get a “brushed” surface on aluminum which has already polish prepped, using scotchbrite pads and some other basic components.
https://youtu.be/K2LVvAG0FJA?si=R-1snLwf-yL0-zeK
Basically, you really need to decide how committed you are to this idea, and how you are as a person with accepting potentially mediocre results over living with it how it looks now. A factory finish, even with some defects, generally is a lot better than an amateur home refinish.
