Cannondale Aficionados / Owners

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JamesQGM
Despite loving it dearly my System Six has started to get the inevitable worming/corrosion on the top tube join between aluminium and carbon. It happened in a alarmingly short space of time, despite the bike having never been put away wet. I know it's not structural but it's kind of annoying. My options are;
1. Leave it
2. Sand slightly on the join and apply a thin layer on clear-coat top to try and prevent it getting worse
3. Try and remove all the clear coat around the join, clean up the corrosion and reapply clear coat
4. Take it to a professional painter, get them to remove all the clear coat and respray the whole frame either clear or with a custom paint job.
The only DIY carbon/clearcoat repair i've attempted was with some brake levers - which worked well but i'm nervous about touching the frame. Thoughts?

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Howard in reply to @JamesQGM

Thoughts?

Cannondale were pretty specific in that these frames shouldn't be re-painted. Their concern is whatever solvents in the paint getting in to the joins and weakening them.

The Six13 I posted a few pages back has had the clearcoat removed - but only on the aluminum portions, which were then polished.

Personally I'd leave it until it gets really, really ugly.

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JamesQGM in reply to @Howard

Cannondale were pretty specific in that these frames shouldn't be re-painted.

I didn't know that. What did race teams etc do?

The Six13 I posted a few pages back has had the clearcoat removed - but only on the aluminum portions, which were then polished.

Yeah I've seen the thread on WW, but I think he did remove the clearcoat from the carbon and then reapply (but left the alumnium raw). Not sure if I like the super polished look or if it's a bit too bling.

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