Rawing/painting a mangalloy frame?

hi guys, ive recently been converting an old peugeot racer into a fixie.. just about finished now, waiting for some wheels to come in the post tomorrow and i should have most of the essentials sorted...

although the frame is in good condition, the paintworks looking a bit ratty, so thats something im thinking about getting sorted. however, the frame says its made out of "mangalloy" (probably just some marketing speil for a pretty standard alloy compound..?). would this need any special treatment before painting? originally i was thinking of stripping the paint and then clearcoating the frame, as i like that raw, almost industrial kind of bare metal look.. but am i right in thinking this is due to the colour of steel, and if i was to do the same thing with an alloy frame it would be a considerably lighter, shinier colour?

also, i saw in another thread someone was able to determine the age (and, more importantly, the bottom bracket thread type) from the serial number of a peugeot frame. i had a look at the website that was linked to, and although i was able to find the serial number, i wasnt really able to determine what year the frame is, or what type of bottom bracket thread is. if i was to post the serial number up here, do you think one of you could have a look for me? sorry to sound like an imcompetent retard, but i did try and i really cant work it out!

Firstly,

there is nothing special you have to do to prepare your mangalloy frame. Elements such as manganese, molybendum & chromium are added in small quantities to steel to produce alloys which are stronger and more resistant to corroding. The name of yours indicates some manganese. But overall such a made up name means very little.

Your frame is steel and can be stripped cleaned of rust, and clear laqeur added to make a clear raw finish which would look good.

In terms of the whole peugout non-standard sizing. Cannot advise you with that, but im pretty sure you wont find somewhere that gives you all of the info just from serial number. The standards can vary hugeley.

yeah i thought this might be the case, coming from a BMX background ive heard a lot of these terms applied to the material frames are made from, didnt think it would make much of a difference but just thought i should ask first before screwing something up!

http://cyclespeugeot.com/SerialNumbers.html is the website that was referred to in this thread: http://www.londonfgss.com/thread11067.html

i also read this in the same thread: "no it wasn't french, the lady at the bike shop said when they have a UK stickers they have "standard" thread."
the stickers on my pug say "12 vitesse" and then "speed" underneath, so i am unsure if these would be american stickers or english ones?

there is very little rust on the frame, the bike was donated to me by my dad, who had received it from a friend who no longer needed it (my dad and the majority of his close friends are keen cyclists). its in beautiful condition really, but there are quite a few chips in the paint which i think are probably from storage. im thinking either clearcoating it, or maybe getting it powdercoated brown, due to the braze-ons. am i right in thinking the marks from where the braze-ons were (when i finally remove them) will be pretty obvious if i was to just clearcoat over them?

thanks for your help!

If it's Mangaloy 2001 it's a Tange trademark for their magnesium molybdenum double butted tubing. My blue Harry Quinn is made of it. It's more or less the same alloy as Reynolds 531, but thicker, and seamed rather than drawn. It weighs about as much as a 501 frame but is a lot stronger.

It's a nice lightweight steel. It might look very nice clearcoated, though on a lugged frame I prefer chrome or paint.