Restoring ORIGINAL paint

Ironically the bike I intended to use for my experiments with advanced aerospace paints turns out to be.. one of the few bikes ever painted with advanced aerospace paints. I therefore want to keep this paint job and make it look as nice as possible!

As tough as the paint is, it is looking a bit grey (it should be yellow). I think this is due to thousands of scratches in the clearcoat. I found this

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28

on polishing them out. Any comments, other suggestions?

i recently bought a stumpjumper frame and I thought the paint was knacked, but with the help of a colour fast T-cut it brought it up like new

So would try some of that ..

PurpleFrog":1abt73of said:

As tough as the paint is, it is looking a bit grey (it should be yellow). I think this is due to thousands of scratches in the clearcoat.

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I've attacked my '88 Explosif with T- Cut a couple of times, but it didn't make any real difference to the appearance, because I think that most of the fading seems to be in the actual paint and all that the cutting compound is doing is removing some of the clearcoat thickness.
I don't actually think that mine has faded very much anyway - where the paint had been shielded from UV (by a self adhesive chainstay protector) the Pistachio Green is slightly more vivid - the biggest change is in the yellow spatter, where it has been exposed to light it isn't such a bright yellow but more a slightly mustardy colour. Until I removed the old c-stay protector I'd forgotten that the spatter was ever a really "yellow" yellow...).

I think that the best that you can do with these Konas is give them a T-Cut and a good polish and leave it at that.
To try and respray one (I know that you don't intend to) would be to remove all the character and part of the pleasure of owning one.

Mine was the first Kona on the Isle of Man (21 years ago of course), it still gets ridden regularly and (when it's clean..) it still looks damn good .

Andy R":9ejya1uw said:

To try and respray one (I know that you don't intend to) would be to remove all the character and part of the pleasure of owning one.

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I disagree strongly with this! It's the ride and toughness of these bikes that counts. Also I'm not big on yellow-grey... but the Imron paint is so bloody tough that I suspect that a powdercoater might end up damaging the bike trying to get it off.

Mine was the first Kona on the Isle of Man (21 years ago of course), it still gets ridden regularly and (when it's clean..) it still looks damn good .

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Yes, those early Kona paint jobs are something.

The 1988/89 Explosif is a work of art and at least half of its value is in the paintwork. It was hand-painted by Paul Brodie, the artist turned frame builder who instilled into first Rocky Mountain and then Kona the sloping top tube design that made them famous.

Anthony":mom0uvw4 said:

The 1988/89 Explosif is a work of art and at least half of its value is in the paintwork.

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I entirely agree Anthony - it would be sacrilege to strip and respray one IMHO :evil: