I’ve got an Orange Sub 5 frame in the garage. It was white and these days looking a bit sorry for itself. Last time I rode it (with some Revelations up front) it was quite a bit of fun. Since I happen to have some Maverick SC32’s knocking about (with wheels) I’ve decided to build it up again.

Rather than just building it as is I was thinking as a bit of a winter project of stripping it back to the metal, giving it a good polish, puting some new decals on and giving it a couple of clearcoats for some protection.

Can anyone recommend anything that I can strip it with? The only thing that comes to mind is something like Nitromorse. Also, what would you use for the clearcoat? I’m guesing the likes of Halfords would have something.

Nitromors will do it, though some bike finishes are very tough- I needed a wire wheel to finish my old carrera off frinstance, the paint that hadn’t fallen off in the last 20 years was pretty stubborn…

As for clearcoats, the Halfords aerosols are, well, s**t frankly. Cellulose clears are very soft. I was planning to leave mine raw and clear it with 2-pack but the idea of polishing it up put me right off in the end.