Raw bike? Show me and tips please

There is a certain ghetto-camo charm about it now. What about one of these to help with the removal? Wap it in your drill and keep the settings gentle, it could make the last step a lot easier:

Blowtorch for the stubborn bits?

I used a blowtorch to remove a stuck seat post a while ago and it did a pretty good job of burning the paint off!

I’m watching this thread with interest as I’ll be stripping a frame soon for a fixie.

Whilst refurbishing my Trailstar I soon realized that the original coating (powdercoat) was unbelievably tough.

I ended up just flatting it back and overspraying 😳

Looking forward to more pics though.

I used Nitromors on my inbred a few years back. Funnily enough, On-One paint comes off a treat! (often before you want it to!).

After a bit of wire brushing, I used 3M polishing pads to finish it (from Homebase). Only a few quid and worked a treat.

A good 18 hour soaking and a fair bit of scraping revealed…

Seeing this, I decided not to expect nitromors to do all the work on my behalf. It really is hit and miss with this stuff – it’s a little gift when a piece curls off without any effort but it mostly just weakens the paint ever so slightlty to allow easier scraping. Rubbing with wire wool or a steel brush seems to work on the softened under coat, but doesn’t do much damage to the top coat. A bit more effort shows the potential…

I’ve decided to change tactics and i’m playing my joker. This means the smoking is back (and marys joined the party), but also means i’ll happily rub and scrape for hours in a cold shed in a theraputic half-trance 😀

Ion-st in Raw

Looks good! That was some fast progress.
Can you see many oil marks? Look forward to seeing this finished.

I did my trance a while back. Nitromors is rubbish now, I took mine back to the shop for a refund as it didn’t do what it said on the tin. That was after night after night of trying and only lifting the lacquer.

In the end I went to my local car paint supplier and bought some car paint stripper and wow what a difference! Bubbled instantly and I got more done in a hour than what I’d done in 3 nights with mors.

Here’s mine, finished with wire wool:
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IMG_0058[/url] by Jackass123456789[/url], on Flickr

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Giant[/url] by Jackass123456789[/url], on Flickr

Jackass, is that finish without a lacquer? This thread is making me think about having the tatty paint off my Anthem.

I cheated and just bought a frame that came in a raw finish. I do think it looks smashing though:

Keep it up, and your bike could be as pretty as mine!

took around an hour (paint on the rocklobsters aren’t the thickest tho)!

quick buff with some metal polish brought the Easton tubing up a treat

Yeah no lacquer, every time it got a bit faded (which wasn’t very often) I just whipped over it with the wire wool!

I will also say, with the grey giant graphic on the down tube it looked awesome, ah miss my trance…..

Polish it up with brasso, did that on my raw bullit and it looked amazing 🙂

No oily marks of note ska.

Nitromors is rubbish now, I took mine back to the shop for a refund as it didn’t do what it said on the tin.

Mine is empty so i don’t think i’d qualify for a refund. But you’re correct, it is a shadow of it’s former self. I got a tin of Blackfriar pro and have just put a coat on. I’m quietly confident it will do a better job because is smells really strong and unlike mors, you can’t just pour it down the drain which is generally a good sign.

I’m off work today, and now that all the police stuff and anti theft devices are taken care of (some shits stole my heating oil on sunday night) i’m gonna get stuck in.

Can’t wait to start the buffing 😀

Awesome thread this one! Just bought a new house with 5…yes 5 sheds in the garden…apparently the previous owner liked trainsets! Anyway that leaves me with lots of workshop space and seeing as I have a spare frame or two lying about I will get to work on stripping down to make a nice little DJ singlespeed!

Theres a difference in paints too, nitromors always worked better on oil based paints, it just softened water based paints. The new stuff is woefull though. Still better than Focus’s own brand which I’m unlucky enough to have a bottle of in the garrage.

Done it twice now, next bike I do it’ll get blasted.

Starting to see results now. If you are thinking of doing this type of thing, i’d try this stuff

Noticeably better than mors.

Still a few snottery bits to get at…

A big thank you the Olly at DMR. I fired off an email, wondering if they had any old head badges lying about they could sell me as i’m aiming for a retro look. They didn’t but he’s sending me a big envelope of old skool DMR stickers FOC. 😀

Right, my hands have warmed up a bit. Back to the grindstone…

Do you have an email address for DMR? I tried their generic info@ email to see about where I could demo ride a bike and never got a reply or even acknowledgement of my emails 🙁

This is coming along nicely! Keen to see how you finish it all to keep rust at bay under British weather conditions.

Tom, i just selected the random question option from their contact page.

More wire pads then a little white spirit to clear the gunk and give a better picture of what’s still do do.

Final blobs (hopefully) of stripper on now. Once the paint is completely off, i’m might be allowed to finish the rest in the warmth of the kitchen 🙂

good progress being made, and good updating too!

Have you been hitting that with sand paper? It looks pretty scratched up.

I did mine with wire wool and that gave a nice matte finish.

Took my Dixon to a local powder coater who stripped it to bare aluminum by shot blasting. That left it looking just weird so I went to work with autosol and a rag and it came up with a really industrial looking dull metal look. I really liked it as I was trying to get somewhere near the intense raw finish, so rough looking and one that will not look bad as it tarnishes. It has held up really well with no obvious corrosion and as with each ride it get’s an interesting new patina that I rather like. However a quick rub with autosol returns it to perfect finish whenever you like.

you need to speak to midlandtrailquestgraham from this ‘ere parish..

I say that cos I remember as a kid at weekends, fixing up the dents and dings in my old man’s knackered old bus.. Before I could fill the dents, I had to strip a LOT of paint..

The stuff we used came in big drums, and could literally make your skin blister in seconds.. It could also remove the serious paint finish on the coach work in short order..

I think MTG works in that field IRRC and might know of a similar product

Have you been hitting that with sand paper? It looks pretty scratched up.

I was trying to persuade the nitromors to work by attacking it with a steel brush. Polished out ok with wire pads. Started at the back and got as far as the seatpost. Plenty to do yet, but me and this frame are becoming good friends 😀

I wish i’d had some of that military grade stripper, but thankfully that part is mostly over. Mostly.

Now that looks nice!

Okay, I am now really thinking of stripping my fixie, may I ask how you are polishing the frame, to achieve the look you have got in the last pictures?

Looks nice. Emery paper would have been a good thing to use as you an wrap it around the tubes and polish / sand off the paint really easily.

My Canny, stripped with Nitromors.
Cannondale make it a tad easier by smoothing the welds for you, but if I was doing it again I’d have it dipped or blasted I reckon.

Using these pads (grade 2) from homebase and just rubbing perpendicular to the length of the tube. A firm rub to get an even colour then lightly flossing in the same direction to take out any scrapes.

I was originally hoping for that lush, dark grey like wot ska had, but the only dark bits appeared under the odd paint flake that came off without any labour. Happy enough with the pseudo ti look though.

Thoughts have already moved to the forks. Not sure all white will work and rawing them might not work either as they’re ally and might look a bit off. Black/white/red??? I’ll see what decals turn up before committing.

Here’s my Kona Stuff jump bike.
Stripped it with B&Q paint stripper, then polished with wire wool and Autosol.

Fishcake

See, now white forks look good again.

Lots of lovely bikes 😀

Done for the night.

Looks alright, that 8)

I think silver/grey forks looks good but I’m biased cos I always loved how my Bullit looked with em!

Before I got those 55s I had some old Boxxers in a browny-grey finish that also looked great. Don’t think you can go wrong with many colours on raw, it goes with most things.

Good job. Doing it yourself is certainly a labour of love…the Chameleon took ages, but it dulls really quickly. Apparently certain aluminium types don’t like being left without lacquer.

Going to start on my kona today, get it stripped down with B&Q stuff as mentioned earlier…the previous owner covered it in stickers – best to use the paint stripper on these two on scrape them off?

Get stuck in timbo! Let us know how you’re getting on.

Tom, you’re right, raw does seem to work with anything. I’ve had an idea for my forks (and frame in places) but i’ll need to test it to see if it works.

I’ve had a two day break from mine, time to get stuck in again.

Arghhhh

Why do you guys do this to me, just finished the service and rebuild on my commuter/fixie, and now want to go and just take it all apart again and strip the frame as I love the way the polished raw stuff looks…..

I hate love hate love this place

I was debating getting it re sprayed but decided now that polished aluminium and black is the way to go

Why do you guys do this to me,

Yep, got me too. Raw fixie project begins this weekend….

Glad to say my frame is now as paint free as it’s getting. All semi shiny and looking lovely. I’ve a few days to wait for the decals, so the other bits will be getting a good cleaning. Operation could look good – could be rubbish will begin on the frame and forks tonight.

My raw Morewood…. raw finish with clearcoat over it is a great thing, bought the frame without seeing the finish in person, was delighted when I saw it.