Current Projects chat and miscellany

I’d appreciate a bit of advice. My old fixie frame (aluminium, nothing special, polished finish with clearcoat) was a bit of a mess, quite scratched and very ugly corrosion tracking under the lacquer. I have sanded off the old clearcoat and the scratches and have been polishing it back up. I have got it up to a good shine but not a perfect mirror finish - there are still some tiny scratches from the sandpaper, but it looks quite good I think. Current condition pictured below.

What I am trying to decide is whether to clearcoat it again. I have some spray lacquer but not sure if it’s worth it. What do people think? Does the lacquer over the top of a bare aluminium frame make much difference?

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Never tried this with a bike frame but in my (limited) experience lacquer does not play well with mirror polished Ali. A blasted/matted finish provides a much better base for adhesion. What grade sanding did you take it to before polishing? I don't think you should have scratches from the sandpaper left over. I'm looking into taking an Ali frame back to raw and once the paint has been stripped I will go down to 1200 grit before using something like a wire wool to get a more even matt finish.

TLDR: if you want mirror polished don't lacquer it and put aside a day a month to re-polish it.

OMGYES

Building back up my Fugio but gone and pulled out one of the glued in bottle cage bosses in the fork. Doh

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Looks good. Is it possible to glue it back in?

I'm also wondering this, chemically stripped a frame so nowhere near polished but don't know whether it needs protection

I have some spray lacquer but not sure if it’s worth it. What do people think?

While it's technically possible to apply clear lacquer to polished aluminium to make reflectors which are durable when exposed to air, it's unlikely that you can do it at home. As jono says, if you want shiny, you're probably committing to frequent repolishing.

It had cracked which is probably why it broke and came out in the first place. Have ordered some rivnuts and will try one of those

@jono84 @mdcc_tester thanks both!

I sanded it to 1500 but there are still some deeper marks from the coarse grades I used to take the lacquer off at the beginning. I think you’re right, would be better to lacquer over a very smooth matt finish.

I think I'm going polish a bit more and not bother with the lacquer for now. I’m worried that it might do something funny on the shiny finish and I would have to take it back off again. I will use some auto wax (i have used Harley wax on my steel frames with chrome forks, works nicely) and keep it clean. Could always give the lacquer a try after a while if the finish deteriorates...

Gonna be starting on this soon:

Expectations are high. Very, very high.

Wowzer!

Did you get that gunnar off retrobike a while ago?

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/343176/#comment15267812

I seem to recall it was an eBay purchase.

I'll see what I can do.

What are these cranks

What are these cranks

Do you even internet?
https://www.lfgss.com/comments/15252843/incontext/

Do you even write?

Do you even read?

Nope.

Hi all

A friend of mine bought a CAAD5 frameset. After having ridden it for a couple of days he noted that there is some loose piece of metal in the downtube rattling

We assume that the previous owner had a stuck bottle cafe screw drilled through and some leftovers fell into the DT

there is no connection from the DT to the BB, but a small hole connecting the DT to the HT,

However, when you shake/turn the frame, the metal piece does not appear at the HT-hole

Does anyone has a workaround of how to solve this?

Drill a hole from the bb shell to the DT?

Thanks so much

how to solve this?

Magnets?

It’s a bit of a bodge, but if you can’t get it out, maybe squirt a little bit of Evo Stik impact adhesive through a bottle cage hole and let it run to the bottom and stick the fragment in place?

Not had a great deal of free time to ride this but the riding I’ve done has been superb.

R7000 is great, the frame is super responsive but comfortable, the 32c gravel king+ are smooth and cling to the road. The bike descends and corners so well. In love.

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Groupset looks great on the frame!