Hi, I’ve got a Boardman frame that’s been acid dipped and rubbed down to a finish I’m happy with.

The only thing that’s not gone to plan is the filler that Boardman have used to smooth the welds at either end of the top tube. I’m not sure what to do with it.

I think I have the options of either leaving it as it is, painting it, covering it in something like 3M Di Noc, or trying to remove it.

Has anyone had any experience of any of these options? What did you do? Any help appreciated.

How about a coloured lacquer like what trek use on their bike to give it that brushed naked look

Nice finish, can I ask what you used once back from the dippers? Cheers. Oh, i’d leave the filler as it is, adds to the natural/industrial look.

I chipped and fibre disked it off. It took approx 100 hours 🙁

100 hours!!? I assume that was to polish it up too though? I must admit I got a bit impatient and went at the filler with a blow torch. This got a small amount off, but not enough and made the remainder look a bit mank so I now have to finish the job.

I bought a wire brush attachment for the drill and now have most off it off in under an hour, but this has had the undesirable effect of leaving some deep scratches in the aluminium.

So now I guess I’ll have to sand the scratches down to smooth it out again and then go over it with 3M fine synthetic steel wool from Homebase to get it back to how it looked before I attacked it.

Joy.

Interesting thread, keep posting pics please.

🙂

Most of the filler is now off. I ended up taking a drill wire wool attachment to it. It was rock hard so needed something quite coarse, but this also gave the aluminium a tough time and left some deep scratches. With hindsight I would just leave it next time!

Gave it a rub down with sand paper and wire wool, but it’s not perfect and there are still small amounts of filler left in difficult to access areas. It’s only a commuter build though and I’m lazy so it’s staying that way! Looks ok away from bright light, so perfect for UK conditions!

My road bike is a raw finish but with awful ‘triandrun’ decals under a lacquer.
How could I get them off? Sand blasting?

Looks great. Which grade sandpaper did you use? And how long to finish excluding the filler jobs? Cheers.