Satin titanium finish?

Disco Drive

Disco Drive

Senior Retro Guru
How does one acieve that lovely velvety satin finish that you would find on a brand new frame.
I've just bought an early Dean and i'd like to turn back the years.
Seem to remember hearing that it is done by bead blasting?
 
yes, bead or shot blasting

Argos Racing Cycles have a shot blasting tank to remove all the paint off frames before respraying, they should be able to do that.
 
I heard about scothbrite.
That sounds like a great proposal.... if the finish is the same?
They come in different grades so i suppose the coarser/harsher will give a duller finish?
 
You can even buy mops and flap wheels to cut down overall frame finish time to couple of hours

<http://search.ebay.co.uk/scotchbrite_W0QQ_trksidZm37QQfromZR40QQpqryZscothbrite>

but don't go too fine or you'll end up with a mirror finish ;-)
 
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whoah, slow down! if you want a satin finish, then it has to be the blast finish, but dont get it bead or sand blasted, the grit very often is too harsh, and it will end up looking like a mess.

scotchbrite will give a brushed finish, that can be refinished very easily if you scratch the frame, and looks good for ages. the green grade is the best for this purpose.

dean, and i think moots have a very fine satin finish to them, but they mark very easily, and look tatty after a few muddy/harsh rides, and this is acheived with a glass bead blasting, the beads are only 1/10th-mm sized. the machine i have access to is called a "vapormat". very fine finish, but costly to run.
 
Moots also recomend the use of Pledge to give the frame a lusterous (is that a word?) finish.
 
Thanks for the advice guys... very enlightening.
Will try and find a local 'blaster' and then apply a set of custom Dean decals :cool:
 
Vapour blasting... it's the way to go. We have plastic parts finished like this to dull them but keep their size. Generaly less agressive than shot blasting too.
 
Hi, posted this few times before, but to summarise...

http://inbredtripping.fotopic.net/c1029276.html

this frame was painted
it was an on-one
tubes were not well finished
lots or circumferential sanding with 400grit
lots or circumferential sanding with grey scotchbrite
lots or circumferential sanding with green scotchbrite

looked good in the end, and easy to clean/freshen up if marked
I used GT85 on tubes to give a deeper lustre

This is way different finish to highly polished and bead blasted/burnished ti, so would think twice before scotchbriting a diff finish.
Hope this helps!
:D
 
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