James T Kirks' Magnesium respray

Has anyone any experience of painting magnesium ?
I have a Kirk frame in need of a complete paint job and am aware that
certain special techniques need to be used with this material.
I would be interested to hear from anybody who has refinished
a Kirk frame, and can give me some information about it

Without your help it may simply be a case of ...........................
.... 'Boldly going where no man has gone before' ( James T Kirk )

Please no jokes about frames burning as bright as stars !

Thanks

As you're in Bristol, speak to Argos Racing Cycles. One of the best bike frame restorers and painters anywhere, and local to you. I bet they've done a few over the years.

Re: Argos

Asked at Argos a few years ago. They were concerned about the porosity of the material, and problems
of paint adhesion amongst other things, so its a no

Re: Argos

focomat 1c":25h2iaox said:

Asked at Argos a few years ago. They were concerned about the porosity of the material, and problems
of paint adhesion amongst other things, so its a no

Click to expand...

Looking on line I found these hope it helps,

http://www.pfonline.com/articles/painting-magnesium

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=234930

Re: Argos

focomat 1c":3b0tz2nd said:

Asked at Argos a few years ago. They were concerned about the porosity of the material, and problems
of paint adhesion amongst other things, so its a no

Click to expand...

Obviously I wasn't expecting that kind of response, and I suppose I should've expected you'd have known of Argos already, being a Bristolian and a member of RB for a good while.

Following the thread with interest for the technical answers...

I painted some forks, I used Alodine or Alocrom as a pretreatment before priming them.

Anyone who has successfully painted earlier RockShox forks should be able to help you out (they are mag lowers)

My Mag 20 and 21 peeled badly quite early on so out came the paint. Just etch primer and cleanliness and heat but not hot. The finish was good and it lasted longer than the original but only just. Magnesium oxidizes when your back is turned so thick thick layers. to try and counter and contain the bubbles

Re:James T Kirk

Strangely, I have a pair of RockShox forks under the bench where I am working on the Kirk.
The fork lowers were sent to Argos with a frame for a paint job some time in 1997. The
paint is still adhering well. The forks date to 1997, am not sure of the exact model/material.

I will continue to chemically strip the layer of existing paint. I have found no signs of corrosion
under the paint surface or any signs of electrolytic reaction where various steel bolts secure
the brake pivots and rear dropout reinforcement plates to the frame. I have no reason to remove
these bolts so will leave them alone

A portion of the frame I stripped back to bare metal at least 5 years ago does not show any sign
of corrosion apart from a slight darkening in colour. I aware that the very first Kirks were made
of Aluminium, due to technical problems with the magnesium process, and wonder whether in
fact the production frames were an alloy rather than 100% magnesium

Re:

I doubt that 100% magnesium was ever used!
Kes

EDIT: I've just realised you didn't mean that the way it sounded!