'Raw' aluminium frames – what coating?

Quite keen on going raw on an alu frame, has anyone (successfully) done this, and what treatment did you use on the frame? I’m guessing a clear matt lacquer will be required?

Will it need any further prep after sand blastign to remove the old finish, or will this be sufficient? (I’d be happy with a slightly ‘distressed’ look, and it would match my own 😉 )

My raw Liteville has no surface treatment and is holding up well. Not sure if they pick a specific Al grade that allows this though.

My Turner Flux in raw (came like this as new) is exactly that – tubes exactly as they came. They are a pleasant ( to my eye at least) blotchy dull oxidised finish. Is your frame aluminium or steel? I’ve seen some nice steel bikes that have been intentionally allowed to rust a little on the surface and then had a clear layer of lacquer added to ‘lock in’ the level of surface embellishment.. If what you mean by raw is actually polished then you might want to lacquer it after polishing so stop it oxidising and going dull but to me the advantage of raw is that the dinks and scares add to the ‘patina’ of the frame rather than make it look tatty. Lacquer is just paint without pigment so will get chipped and scratched just like normal paint.

This is what I’ve just done to mine:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152421448082100&l=8b6ff819ed

Orange raw’d it for me which left it all kinda patchy and dull. As per their advice I took a scouring pad to it and got it looking like it does now. Can’t wait to finish getting it built now…

My flux is raw and has no coating. The aluminium oxidises with air and gives a matt finish. It only needs coating if you intend to polish it shiny, then clear lacquer will keep it shiny.

Every now and then I polish it till it shines just for a change.

Be careful on the way you strip the paint off. Sometimes sand blasting can leave the frame pitted.

My friend used a gentle soda blast which takes longer but leaves a better finish.

As above lacquer will scar in the same way as paint. Brillo pad and brasso works well from time to time.

Yeah I would go with nothing on it too.
Anodising is a process that brings forward the oxidisation of aluminium so after a time you will get a nice matt silver finish.
Known in the aluminium business as natural anodising.

Keep your raw frame well away from wet, salty winter roads or make sure you rinse it off as soon as you can.

I’ve ran raw ally frames all year round and they can handle wet muddy conditions but salt makes a right mess of them…

Sounds a lot simpler than I thought then. Basically I’ll do what I did with my ti frame, nitromors, elbow grease and 3m polishing pads 😀

Oh and a good wash off after beach rides – its a fat bike

No coating on mine either. Just used nitromors and some wire wool. Used some fine metal brushes from B&Q to work around the welds and cables stops.

Nitromores and wire wool for me. It was a right bitch but looked good in the end.

When the finish went a little dull I just rubbed it down a little with wire wool.

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here’s mine. not bothered with any kind of coating. but made sure it was dipped rather than blasted to avoid having to deal with the dimpled effect.

Lots of Nitromors, wire brush, small pick, 1200 grade wet and dry followed by a polish using a………polishing kit . Leave it raw, then Solvol to finish. Re-polish with Solvol a couple of times a year.

This Boardman frame was a pig to do. The colour came off OK but the black primer was a right pain to remove.