65 headlight bezel anodize hell

I feel your pain. The back panel on the '66 GT was badly pitted in places. I took it to an anodizing shop and had them remove the remaining treatment. IIRC, I spent something like 400 hours sanding and buffing to get it decent. Aluminum polishes up nicely, but it begins to oxidize almost immediately. I didn't want to go through the process again, so once I polished, I had it re-anodized. The people who did it for me told me that the anodizing process would make the piece look a little "milky". That may be the difference in color that midlifecuda is describing.