I fancy doing a complete respray of an old aluminium frame (my road training bike). Can anyone recommend me a good and safe on alu paint stripper, and alu primer if they have done a similar thing.
Thanks in advance. its currently mad black, and not laquered, if that makes a difference.

Having recently had the unbounded joy of stripping paint off an alu frame, I would have to say, get it done professionally. It is laborious, time-consuming and thankless task. And by the time you’ve totted up all the paint stripper, sandpaper, wire wheels, steel wool, etc etc, plus the primer and paint, you won’t be far off the cost of having it done by a powdercoaters. Armourtex near me do a whole frame from £65 inc stripping, coating and lacquering. In just a few days.

Trust me; if you do decide to DIY, in about a month you’ll be cursing and wishing you’d followed my advice….

What Elfin said.

Either get the stripping and repainting done in one go by your refinisher of choice, or find a friendly acid dipping place – company round the corner from the office stripped my frame for a fiver, dropped off in the morning picked up on the way home, money well spent.

It has headshok road forks aswell (its a cannondale road headshok bike)- was concerned about avoiding damage to headshok parts hence me doing it and being careful. No one looks after their own stuff like yourself!

don’t need stripper. just give the paint a key and paint over the top.

any plasticote will do.

you’ll have to strip the frame completely whatever you do so once you’ve done that you’ve got a choice?

are you looking to get fork done as well?

not sure how easy removing the headshok parts from the fork is hence was going to mask off carefully- the headset is rough so that will be removed, hence main frame could be dipped etc.

my mate did this Intense M1 downhill rig frame 10 years ago during the foot and mouth outbreak, so he had plenty of time…. 😯

he should have spent the time on his pointing.

is he american?

As above, if you’re insistent on DIY, don’t try and strip the paint. Just sand it down with fine wet and dry to give the new paint a good surface and to smooth out any chips. Plastikote is good paint to use – I’ve had good results on a few things including frames with it but make sure you leave it at least a couple of days to harden before doing anything with it.

errrrrrrr, No…. 😕

oh dear.

It’s an awesome job he’s done but …

primer /sand / primer sand until it is smooth.

paint is only to colour it – you don’t need lots of layers of colour.

lacquer to make it shiny.

Getting the old paint off can be a chore. Best thing is nitrmors paint stripper put plenty on let it work wash it off before it drys out. Scrape of small bits of paint with a small knife etc around welds etc.

The finish on the bare metal revealed is what the manufacturer painted onto. Good enough for them good enough for you. DONT waste hours of time making the alloy tubes silky smooth…. The paint will not key into it if you do.
Use a good etch primer in a can.
Acid 8 buy U-Pol etch primer warm frame up with a hair dryer / hot air gun.
Use primer spareingly and one can will probably be enough for a frame. Let it dry! Properly! If any areas look rough / bistered etc rub them back with 800 grit wet & dry paper and re primer.
Warm it up again (hot air gun) not too hot as you will blister the primer. Once warm apply a decent aerosol top coat. Let it dry and apply another coat or 2. Always let one coat totally dry before applying the next. That should give a decent finish. If you use metalic colour let it dry again before using laquer.

Nitromors http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9254581

Acid 8 primer http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290290424889

U-pol web site lots of paint (in Spray cans) info
http://www.u-pol.com/product-cat/116/aerosols.htm

Thanks everyone, some good tips there. I will investigate professional options, esp if not too dear, as i only want a plain colour, with decals I have bought and then a top lacquer to make it shiny. DIY sounds like it would keep me out of trouble for many hours though, the mrs will be delighted.