would acorn do a complete frame in 3DV?
Yes, they did this Pace RC200 that I repaired for Daveyla (Dave Bond) last year.
It's certainly a nice purple...I've never really seen the difference with 3DV. Does anyone have a side by side comparison?
I has chemically stripped some of the original purple anodising for the welding repairs, then carefully stripped the remaining anodising by hand (rather than dipping the whole frame) so as to to affect the original surface finish too much.
Acorn then did a light sodium hydroxide strip, followed by a nitric acid de-smut to unify the finish and clean off the precipitates from the alloy (the grey/black smuts on the surface) before the anodising, dyeing and sealing processes.
I completed the finish with a couple of coats of good wax car polish to feed the surface and make it less absorbent, as the anodising is very 'dry' when fresh. You can feel this when it sucks the oils and sticks to your fingers.
Any steel inserts will need removing, so generally just any rivnut bottle bosses etc, but on the Pace, there were also some helicoil thread inserts for the seat clamp and chain catcher.
I didn't polish to any sort of uniform finish, as the waxed can affect the uniformity of the finish.
All the best,
