What’s the best way to strip, polish and lacquer an aluminium frame?

Nitromors? Blowtorch?

Blowtorch?

I don’t think an alloy frame will like that.

Nitromors and plenty of rubbing.

Personally i wouldn’t bother. I’ve just picked up my enduro frame from the powdercoaters an hour ago. I decided to get it coated again because I just could not get an acceptable finish by polishing it. I’d done the following;

Strip with nitromors
Wet+Dry with 180, 400, 1200, 2000 grit
Polish with brasso (works really rather well)
Lacquer with halfords stuff (left to go off for at least a week)
Rub back with rubbing compound
Polish

All was going well until I got to the rubbing compound stage; I went straight through the lacquer in places back to the bare metal. You just can’t get a tough, all over nice finish by hand. Taking it to get it coated was a hard descision though because i’d invested so much time into polishing the damn thing (I reckon getting on for 40 hours!!!)

I’ll try and get some pictures up when i can. Express coatings in sheffield have done a top job in 1.5 days and for £30 🙂

I took a fully painted frame to the polishers and they did the lot for me. looked well nice.

with painting / polishing / anodising / whatever its ALWAYS best to leave it to the professionals. it may cost you a few quids extra but you’ll get a much better finish.

oooh and respray for £30… i was quoted twice that from the cycle shop. i might go for that on my commuter.

Thanks all.

No blowtorch? 🙁

Had a frame powdercoated by Hendersons in Edinburgh before. £60, which seemed a bit steep. Did a decent job though.

The reason I was going for the polished look is I’m trying to recreate a bike that got nicked. Might have to go the professional route after all.

Anyone know any good polishers in Edinburgh?

check the yellow pages for metal finishing. it was easy for me as my mate owns a chroming firm so he has contacts in the business

It’s pretty easy really but very time consuming –

Strip with nitromors or get it chemical/alcohol dipped to remove the paint, if you use nitro use a brass wire brush to remove the bubbling paint.

If the metal hasn’t got any major scratching you could probably start with 400 grit or maybe even 600, you don’t need to go any higher than 800 though.

Next you either need a bench grinder/polisher or a drill along with a selection of mops and blocks of polish. A bike frame would probably be easier with a drill.

Start of with a sisal mop and a course polish and this will remove the sanding marks.

Then a closed stitch coloured mop with a medium polish which will remove any fine marks and colour the metal to an extent.

Then finish off with a loose stitch mop and a blue or green fine polish which will properly colour the metal and give you a mirror finish…if you’ve done all the other stages right.

When using the mops keep them moving as they can generate a lot of heat very quickly and it will give you a flatter/better finish.

Check out the polishing shop for all the different bits you need, I’d imagine £30-40 would get you up and running…

Also laquering polished aly is pointless, it can’t grip the surface and will flake off very easily, also the slightest chip water will get underneath and corrode the metal. Better off just giving it a clean/polish with some belgom every few weeks/months.

There are proper coatings for polished metal like por-15 but they’re £40+ and although they say they don’t the do dull the finish.

Wow 😯

So it’s not only easier, but probably cheaper to pay to have it done.

Fairly sure the frame I had before was lacquered, but could be wrong.

Hmm, maybe back to powdercoat. What colour..?

silver? :p