So, I had a ball burnished Zaskar frame in '96 from new. Sadly sold it to a friend of the family (with a set of Ti dual crown forks from a Dyna Tech!), unfortunatley the guy wouldn't part with it so I've been on the hunt for another Zaskar for a while.
Finally found one on ebay that was local, made an ofer to end the auction early which was accepted and I picked it up that evening.
The frame had been painted by a car body shop in dark green with red/gold/purple glitter in the lacquer. The green by itself wasn't so unattractive but I really didn't like the glitter.
The previous owner had said that the frame was originally polished and, knowing how hard wearing the ball burnished finish was, I was certain that the frame could be restored to its former glory.
I set about removing the paint with Nitromors. I was a little concerned as I'd heard that it could etch the aluminium. I decided I had nothing to lose as the glitter was nasty and had to go, I could always get the frame powder coated anyway.
The frame didn't look too bad once stripped, marks from the scourer's that I used to remove the disolved paint were pretty evident.
As I'd previously owned a Zaskar I knew that Autosol was the stuff to use to get a great finish. That was until my dad told me he'd been doing some work for a guy who owned a metal polishing workshop and that he was owed a favour or two.
The frame was taken to the workshop and was returned on Tuesday looking like this. It came wrapped in cling film which has left some minor marks but these will be removed once I've built the bike.
My dad's also helping this guy set up equipment for anodizing which might come in handy!
So far for the build I've got:
GT/Hadley hubs - red
NOS USE post - red
NOS Wildgripper sprint - black tread/amber wall
Control Tech Bar - Silver
Hoping to have this together by next summer at the latest. I'm probably going to go for modern running gear, chianset & mechs etc.
Finally found one on ebay that was local, made an ofer to end the auction early which was accepted and I picked it up that evening.
The frame had been painted by a car body shop in dark green with red/gold/purple glitter in the lacquer. The green by itself wasn't so unattractive but I really didn't like the glitter.
The previous owner had said that the frame was originally polished and, knowing how hard wearing the ball burnished finish was, I was certain that the frame could be restored to its former glory.
I set about removing the paint with Nitromors. I was a little concerned as I'd heard that it could etch the aluminium. I decided I had nothing to lose as the glitter was nasty and had to go, I could always get the frame powder coated anyway.
The frame didn't look too bad once stripped, marks from the scourer's that I used to remove the disolved paint were pretty evident.
As I'd previously owned a Zaskar I knew that Autosol was the stuff to use to get a great finish. That was until my dad told me he'd been doing some work for a guy who owned a metal polishing workshop and that he was owed a favour or two.
The frame was taken to the workshop and was returned on Tuesday looking like this. It came wrapped in cling film which has left some minor marks but these will be removed once I've built the bike.
My dad's also helping this guy set up equipment for anodizing which might come in handy!
So far for the build I've got:
GT/Hadley hubs - red
NOS USE post - red
NOS Wildgripper sprint - black tread/amber wall
Control Tech Bar - Silver
Hoping to have this together by next summer at the latest. I'm probably going to go for modern running gear, chianset & mechs etc.
