I told you fine folks that I was hoping to get my front triangle finished (well polishing anyway) yesterday. I'm sorry that didn't happen. After wet sanding for 2 hours I really didn't have the mental fortitude to finish the job with the attention to detail that it deserved so I finished up a few other bits.
I did finish the front triangle today though and I am completely in shock to the fact that it actually turned out really nice. I guess it makes sense in the end but when you are so used to doing all this prep and the whole time it looks like a turd and finally you finish the hard stuff, you throw on the polish (which only takes like 15min) and BAM.
So without further adieu
Sans camera flash. Still need to clean the excess polish out of the welds.....
With camera flash.
And a few small parts.
I know I should get gold Ti bolts for the shifter but honestly I spent about 90 minutes on the computer the other day ordering bolts and didn't have the time or energy to go through all of my little parts. This will be done over time.And now I guess I should go to bed. I dislike going to bed about as much as I dislike getting up in the morning. Can't the two just get along??
Benno
Believe it or not I am still on the rollers riding every day too. How can you resist with such a dead sexy road bike.
ReplyDeleteVery cool - will you share the process end to end?
ReplyDelete(I own one of these http://www.norco.com/archives/2009/?id=48a31c95016f1 and the red bits I must change.
Well it pretty much just involves a lotta elbow grease. It is fairly easy to do with smaller parts and once you have some practice you can get good results fairly quickly. The front triangle took me about 15 hours from start to finish but it is a very large, intricate piece. My non-drive crank arm for example took about an hour and a half.
ReplyDelete* you always want to sand in the same direction.
-Sand down to bare aluminum. If it is durable paint or anodizing then I use a Dremel sanding drum.
-Polish smooth with Dremel polish bit
-dry sand with 400 grit
-re-polish with dremel polish bit if necessary
-dry sand with 400 grit again if you used the Dremel again.
-wet sand with 600 grit
-wet sand with 1000 grit
-wet sand with 1500 grit
-wet sand with 2000 grit
-polish with Turtlewax (semi abrasive) and Dremel felt pad
-final polish with aluminum polish (Master Formula Metal Gloss)
-seal with polished aluminum sealer (Master Formula Sealer Gloss)
*note the sealer is just like a wax. You cannot clear coat polished aluminum.
I am no pro so at this point I am not comfortable doing a DYI because I know I will find a better process with more practice. Once I get some more experience you might see a step by step how-to on this site.
And an FYI. For the frame, which is obviously paper thin aluminum, I stripped the paint off with TalStrip II aircraft paint stripper. Wear gloves!! lol
ReplyDeletehttp://i426.photobucket.com/albums/pp342/SirBenno/DSCF2342.jpg
ReplyDelete