What polish and laquer for bare metal?

if you are getting it blasted, you will not be able to polish it up, it would takes weeks, blasting gives a very grey matt finish.
see here

Yes, i know about that, that is why i will sand it down with fine sandpaper and then polish her up.

Eddie - keep us updated - would be good to know how things go!!

I should be getting it back from the sandblasters sometime middle of the upcoming week. Ill take some photos to show how things develop and what things work and what dont.

...as i can see naked frames are becoming very popular.

I am finished with mine, polishing took at least 6 hours but its very shiny now, i have put 4 layers of hammerite clearcoat on it. The bike is going to sleep outside tonight and its snowing so i guess i will see tomorow how the clearcoat has held up.

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If you've just sprayed it better to keep it warm.
The fumes will help you to relax.

i sprayed it yesterday, it had some time in front of the heater to harden, i needed the bike to take me to the trainstation otherwise i could have let it harden some more.

I am Dutch i got other fumes to help me relax :D

Faint smell of tulips, right?
Looks like a lot of love has gone into that paintjob.

yeah i spent way too much time on the polishing and painting than i wanted to, i wanted to go for the rusty look but after i had the holes filled (soldered) and was sanding it to get it smooth i changed my mind and went for an all polished look. This bike is at the trainstation all day and it was supposed to be ugly so it wouldnot get stolen, i just bought a better lock instead :)

This is one I did a couple of years back. One of those wire brush thingies on a drill to get the paint off. Quick clean to get the grease off, then clear powder coat.
This is how I got it.

wow, that looks pretty good.

^^ that is absolutely stunning
did you have it powdered professionaly or yourself? how many layers?

Cheers. Had it done professionally at a powder coating firm. Only cost £40. It looked really good 'cause it picked out all the brazing. Sold the bike as it was too small. I'd definitely do it again though.

40 quid aint cheap though in my opinion, but it does look great

Cheers. Had it done professionally at a powder coating firm. Only cost £40. It looked really good 'cause it picked out all the brazing. Sold the bike as it was too small. I'd definitely do it again though.

mine cost me 40 too, also likes the way it cleaned up the welds

This stuff is good, although i wouldn't fancy polishing up a whole Frame with it! I've used it before on non bike related items, and it protects really well. Im not sure if it would attract dirt etc though. I have some you can have if you want to give it a try.

http://www.picreator.co.uk/articles/3_renaissance_wax.htm

A full Frame would require ALOT of...

WAX ON WAX OFF!

I had the misfortune to be in the stove enamelling trade for 27 years.

We were often asked to lacquer straight onto steel but in the end we refused to do this because the customers always came back complaining of rust. This was using wet stoving lacquer, not powder, which might be better, but I wouldn't be too hopeful about this. I always regarded powder as a 'puddingy' industrial finish, which also had the problem that it would sometimes fall off the coated job in some places while whatever coating was left stayed in place almost whatever was done to it. You can't blast it, because it just gets warm which makes it soft and resistant to the shot.
I've been out of this game for 10 years now, so it's possible powder might have improved. I will be happy if I never see the inside of a paint shop again, but I do know how to stove bike frames & I would be happy to pass my knowledge on, but I'm not going to describe the process here. If some one's interested, let me know.

Just a final note on polishing. If you want to polish something don't on any account blast it, especially not with a hard medium like chilled iron which is normally used for removing paint and rust. It will be next to impossible to polish out the abraded effect of the blasting. If you've gone to all the trouble of polishing a steel frame, you're most of the way to chroming it, so I'd be looking for electroplaters.

Yes, i know about that, that is why i will sand it down with fine sandpaper and then polish her up.

@ eddie,
this is why i said what i did. see below.

If you want to polish something don't on any account blast it, especially not with a hard medium like chilled iron which is normally used for removing paint and rust. It will be next to impossible to polish out the abraded effect of the blasting. If you've gone to all the trouble of polishing a steel frame, you're most of the way to chroming it, so I'd be looking for electroplaters.

.

well ive already sent it off to the blasters, but it should be fine dude, dont see why a good sandpaper wont take the top layer off.

anyway, i test, youll learn from my mistakes
ill post some pictures to inform on the process as i get the frame back.

oh and also i found anti-rust hammerite...thinking of saving up to cover it with that before applying the laquer...will still investigate by giving my local B&Q a visit

what frame do u have 3trum ?

the one up there :)

actually not sure, some 70s english high b/b, sprint track thingie.

anyway, i picked up the frame today and it is verry grey. Thats not what im dissapointed about, i knew it would be, i dont think they took off all the paint that i needed. You can see that some is still left on the drop outs. But ill be able to tell you how good it worked once i sand it down a bit.

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/5700/dsc0221as9.jpg

oh and the threads dont get fucked if anyone is wondering (mine came back exactly the way i took them away)

anyway, i tried to sand it down a bit and it cleans up, rather fell actually. All the paint has come off thankfully, i just think they didnt blast the drops. The coolest thing is that all the welds can now be seen and none of the 30year old paint is in the metal pours.

The image below is just from a good scrubbing with a sandpaper sponge.

you can see the huge difference between the top tube and the bottom one

that looks well shiny already, you gonna fill up the holes to get the bottom tube smooth?

that looks well shiny already, you gonna fill up the holes to get the bottom tube smooth?

probably not actually, i had a long think about that, but i think they add asymmetry to the top tube...

i just think putting in some nice bolts there might add a little touch to the frame, say colour ones to match colour rims.

okey dokey, here she is
cleaned her up, although not final, she will be keepin it dry away from rust in me room while i fetch some polish and lacquer.

oh and the rear brake hole im going to fill in aswell

looks good, want a beater done like this, so not bothered about high quality finish

i wouldn't bother with the brake hole

1. clearly a road bike with those dropouts
   
2. can see where you've taken off the cable guides
   
   

you going to polish now or leave it?