To respray or not?

[Void(EN12-82)]

if you scraped the paint off (pretty easy, it'll flake off) there'll will be white powder-like stuff underneath. just alu corrosion.

This guy is a psychic... man you were so right. I actually drove home from work this afternoon just to get me a potatoknife from the kitchen and cut the paint off there. And what came from underneath was powdered sugar (or maybe powdered toast... poooooowdered tooooaaasssttt maaaaaaannnnn)

Anywayz, got the whole area cleared of paint, made me some pictures (for them grandkids and the album hehe). And after getting to it with a steel brush (medium and flixible one of course) it now looks as normal clear aluminium. That white powder even came off with a damp cloth.

Me happy, me gonna get a respray when I get some money again hehehe

 

[Void(EN12-82)]

As for carbon......... Don't start me on that one.

So if I told you I also have a Scott Scale 20 as my other bike that would make you ROFL right? ;-) Oh yeah, of course I also still have my first Stumpjumper from 1992, that's a steel one... and yeah, steel is real

 

[get a bigger hammer]

I would like to thik that the frame will be fine. Just depends on the wall thickness and factor off safety incorporated into the design. The white salts are the easy bit to get rid off. Make sure you polish out all the pitting as well otherwise even after a nice spray job you'll be doing it all again in a couple of years.

At the end of the day just enjoy it. Steel is definiately the best material but also has its failings if somewhat more predictable in fashion.

Have a read of the following to see how serious small scratches can be.
http://www.kirotv.com/news/3273758/detail.html

 

[Void(EN12-82)]

Make sure you polish out all the pitting as well otherwise even after a nice spray job you'll be doing it all again in a couple of years.

Well, the guy I contacted for a respray told me not to worry about that. He will treat the frame with some stuff (dunno what it's called in English) before the ground coat. That would stop any corroision that could happen. After that there will be a ground coating on it, then there will be two layers of colour (so the black and green). Then the decals go on (if I find them) and last there will be either 2 or 4 layers of clear coat on (my choice, but I think I'll go for 4).

But as he told me, that first special stuff is not always used by companies and that will make any corrosion from below the paint impossible. Well, can only take his word for it since I dunno anything about it...

 

[get a bigger hammer]

He's probably going to use a rather poisonous chemical called alchrome 1200 which converts the surface of the material. Basically its anodic chromate solution conversion so thats good news. I would suggest a vapour wash which is a very fine and gentle form of sand blasting around the coroded area prior to the alochrome. Post conversion he should use an etching primer for alloy and then finally the colour of choice. Sounds as though the guy knows his stuff though and I hope he manages to get the frame looking like you wish. Theres nothing better than seeing your old frame revitalised in fresh paint. For me its even better than new

 

[Void(EN12-82)]

Post conversion he should use an etching primer for alloy and then finally the colour of choice.

Yeah that's the one: etching primer! He called "ets-laag" (so ets-"layer"), didn't know it was called something like that as well in English.

Well anywayz, first to save up about 200 euros for the paint job. Wellm actually first trying to get those d*mn decals. I hate waiting :twisted: