Quantcast

Raw or Polished Aluminum Finish?

Bicyclist

Bicyclist

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2004
10,152
2
SB
I am in the process of building up my new Morewood right now and started to think about paint. Right now it is white, but the powdercoat is not looking too good - in some spots there are some pretty serious scratches, and there is one section that is ~2 square inches on the TT that has had all the paint removed. Rather than re-powdercoating it, I was thinking about just rawing it with paint stripper. Another option I was thinking of would be polishing and clear-coating it. Has anyone ever polished their frame? How labor-intensive was it?

Yet another cool option would be anodizing it for durability, but I couldn't find any local places that seem like they would be good for bikes. Any recommendations in the US for places that people have used to do ano?
 
MobileChernobyl

MobileChernobyl

Monkey
Apr 16, 2006
392
0
Golden, CO
Raw.

Basically strip all the paint, then take a 2" cone shaped fine steel wire brush attached to a drill to your frame, and wire brush it pretty thoroughly. makes for an awesome finish that requires ZERO upkeep and you'll never notice another scratch again! You can even go crazy and do little spiral circles over the entirety of it to go for the modern industrial chic look.

The cool thing about the wirebrushing is that when you ride in mud you don't get dulling like you would with a polished alu finish, instead you get the opposite, with the mud acting as a minor abrasive, and that in addition to water and riding gear rubbing on it polishes the frame a bit.

If you need an example I can post one.
 
bansheefr

bansheefr

Monkey
Dec 27, 2004
337
0
I started to strip my Izimu this past winter and the powder coat is pretty tough... I ended up doing a half ass job and then just getting it powder coated.

One of my buddies spent a boat load of time stipping/polishing his... It looks great but I don't have that kind of patience. Note stripping the CNC'd section of the swingarm will be the toughest part.

My friends bike, polished:
 
Kanye West

Kanye West

220# bag of hacktastic
Aug 31, 2006
3,741
473
Strip it for sure. That frame would probably be the easiest thing in the world to hand-strip as far as DH frames go.
 
JCL

JCL

Monkey
Aug 31, 2008
696
0
What about getting a local paint shop to sand blast the frame for you ?
 
SteezyWeezy

SteezyWeezy

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2006
2,436
1
portland, oregon
MobileChernobyl said:
Basically strip all the paint, then take a 2" cone shaped fine steel wire brush attached to a drill to your frame, and wire brush it pretty thoroughly. makes for an awesome finish that requires ZERO upkeep and you'll never notice another scratch again!

If you need an example I can post one.
Click to expand...
yes please post the frame, no clearcoat and no upkeep isn't computing in my mind...
 
mattmatt86

mattmatt86

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2005
5,347
10
Bleedmore, Murderland
bansheefr said:
I started to strip my Izimu this past winter and the powder coat is pretty tough... I ended up doing a half ass job and then just getting it powder coated.

One of my buddies spent a boat load of time stipping/polishing his... It looks great but I don't have that kind of patience. Note stripping the CNC'd section of the swingarm will be the toughest part.

My friends bike, polished:
Click to expand...
Any more pics?
 
DHDror

DHDror

Monkey
Feb 7, 2005
181
-1
Israel
I don't recommend applying steel wire to an alu frame.
steel and aluminum don't mix well and if small particles of steel will stay in some of the scratches on the aluminum it might cause a reaction and change the color localy.
I prefer paint stripper and a nylon brush to remove paint from a frame.
 
jeremy_2640

jeremy_2640

Monkey
Oct 4, 2007
114
42
Melbourne
MobileChernobyl said:
Raw.

Basically strip all the paint, then take a 2" cone shaped fine steel wire brush attached to a drill to your frame, and wire brush it pretty thoroughly. makes for an awesome finish that requires ZERO upkeep and you'll never notice another scratch again! You can even go crazy and do little spiral circles over the entirety of it to go for the modern industrial chic look.

The cool thing about the wirebrushing is that when you ride in mud you don't get dulling like you would with a polished alu finish, instead you get the opposite, with the mud acting as a minor abrasive, and that in addition to water and riding gear rubbing on it polishes the frame a bit.

If you need an example I can post one.
Click to expand...
Yeah that would be great if you could post an example...I've got my frame stripped atm and not sure which route I'm going to go...Cheers
 
gonefirefightin

gonefirefightin

free wieners
Feb 5, 2007
11,249
4,922
Surrounded by Police in a hail of gunfire
you have to completely take everything out of your frame and dissasemble it all, take it to a metal coater where they can acid clean it then heat wash it. (about 50 bucks)

then you can take a mothers powerball and aluminum wheel polish and go to town.

you will be looking like minnar in the honda days.

dont have any pics, they were all jobs and didnt have a camera.
 
Bicyclist

Bicyclist

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2004
10,152
2
SB
bansheefr said:
I started to strip my Izimu this past winter and the powder coat is pretty tough... I ended up doing a half ass job and then just getting it powder coated.

One of my buddies spent a boat load of time stipping/polishing his... It looks great but I don't have that kind of patience. Note stripping the CNC'd section of the swingarm will be the toughest part.

My friends bike, polished:
Click to expand...

Oh man that looks awesome, I would LOVE to see a built up or complete frame shot of the polished one...I still have a ways to go before I amass all my parts so this might give me something to do in the meantime. :D
 
HardtailHack

HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,721
5,604
I blasted my frame with no dramas, you just have to use a fairly fine grit or get it soda blasted. However if you are slack with your taping of any small holes you will find your frame makes lovely noises when you ride.

You could do a Lynskey style finish, they polish a frame, put decals on it then blast it. It leaves a nice subtle matte logo or matte frame depending how you do it.
 
HardtailHack

HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,721
5,604
This is a pic from the On-One website of a Ti 456 made by Lynskey.


To do this you just polish the frame get some decals made in the style you want and then decide which bit you want polished and which bit you want matte, too easy.
 
Uncle Cliffy

Uncle Cliffy

Turbo Monkey
Jan 28, 2008
4,490
42
Southern Oregon
Diggin the raw... No maintenance.

Dudes were bashing their pedals on my frame the other night doing some shuttles but I didn't mind. No paint to chip. I might polish mine this winter if I'm bored, plus I know guys who do that stuff for street rods...
 
MobileChernobyl

MobileChernobyl

Monkey
Apr 16, 2006
392
0
Golden, CO
I Agree with sonic - and most people will put up with polishing their raw frame once or twice than just throw in the towel, then it just starts to look like a cheap ass walmart huffy polish job.

Here's a set of pictures of my two "Raw Brushed" look bikes some of you were asking to see. Sorry I'm no photog so these are about the best quality I can get for you guys.



Here's an example of the polishing effect from your riding gear when riding in mud - I didn't do a thing to get this awsome mother's like polish just neglected to clean it after riding! Sweet!


And here's an example of a DJ/Street hardtail I did it to (Shameless plug - It's also for sale for a good deal - PM me for more info)


 
P

pbskis14

Chimp
Apr 24, 2003
83
0
FINALLY FINISHED! The swingarm powder coating was a PITA! :evil:

Think it came out pretty good..









The finish is good from far but far from good. Pretty happy with it overall, Polishing it wasnt bad but stripping it s^ck3d. If I took more time to prep it and some wet sanding I think the polish would have come out more even.

Didnt leave it raw because the Red Clay at Plattekill will stain the Aluminum.


Oh and currently 37.18Lbs!!

-Pete
 
Bicyclist

Bicyclist

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2004
10,152
2
SB
OH DAMN, I was totally thinking of doing black in the cutouts today as I was stripping my frame.

Mine is currently raw but I'm pretty tempted to do polished after seeing yours! Now I would feel bad doing black in the cutouts since you already did though. :p
 
T

TGR

Monkey
Jan 9, 2006
263
3
I'm about to strip the paint off from my frame. It's a 2007 swd crazy 8 which is made out of 4130 chromoly. Could it actually damage the frame if I use paint thinner? (I've seen quite a few people on bmx forums that did that to their rides)

It's quite cheaper than dipping it in an acid bath or having it sandblasted so that's kinda why I'm heading that way... And don't worry, I know I'm gonna have to clear coat it...
 
Bicyclist

Bicyclist

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2004
10,152
2
SB
Well I stripped the frame tonight. It went from this, white with pretty bad paint in some spots:



To this:







I still think I might polish it though.
 
Last edited:
Kanye West

Kanye West

220# bag of hacktastic
Aug 31, 2006
3,741
473
Don't color the cutouts. The machine works looks badass being displayed like that.

What stripper/technique did you use?
 
Bicyclist

Bicyclist

Turbo Monkey
Apr 4, 2004
10,152
2
SB
I think I'm just going to polish the whole thing, I don't really want to color the cutouts after all.

I used an aircraft paint stipper called "Dad's" in a spray bottle. Overall it worked pretty well.
 
S

Sov

Chimp
Jan 1, 2008
73
19
Adelaide, Australia
You could do a half-arsed polish. Just whack some Autosol metal polish onto it without any more prep work than you have done so far, and buff it up. The straight tube bits will come up quite shiny but all the nooks and crannies in the machined sections will still have a raw look to them. Raw, but classy.
 
J

jake133

Monkey
Jan 21, 2005
373
0
SLC, Utah
For you guys who stripped your frames, what aircraft paint remover would you recommend using? And where can you buy it? I''m in SLC if anyone is local.
Thanks, Jake.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom