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Right…sorry…. Been arsing about all day on the trails at Dolby forest with the boy.. he’s been showing me how the combination of a 13yr old and a weight weenie can fly up hill, whilst I’ve shown him how fast a 51yr old on a steel bike can go down one !
Anyway… lets try to tidy this up…
“Raw” Aluminium frames tend to be finished in one of three ways, & I’m not sure what yours is. But there are;
1. Anodised (sometimes polished, sometimes satin)
2. Lacquered or clear powder coated.
3. Raw polished and waxed/treated
I wouldn’t go anywhere near anything with Autosol or Brasso, unless of course all I wanted to do was freshen it up and then flip it. Things have moved on in leaps and bounds with regard to polishing technology, so much so I can’t understand why those products are still around, except for perhaps they’re cheap?
Cleaning of the above 3 finishes can be done by so many different ways it really isn’t worth listing & unfortunately there isn’t any magic wand to get rid of worming to an anodised finish.
So, what can you do?
Well if you want to keep as much originality as possible;
Clean it with something like Bar Keepers Friend, and or petrol to remove road tar. Then coat it with a quality shinobi wax.
If you want to go restoration, you have two initial options;
1. Have the anodising stripped, then the frame polished (combo of machine and hand) then re-anodising.
This option is expensive, and you will have to make sure you remove any steel, these items (bearing surfaces etc) are often push fit so this can be very tricky.
2. Strip it yourself and polish to a high shine by first going through the wet & dry grades then polishing with a modern metal polish such as MAAS (other brands are available) these have anti-tarnish corrosion inhibitors in them that really do work.
If this is a bike you really want to look good but ride hard on the trails you may want to invest in a layer of clear powder coat. This will protect your new graphics and the polished finish from flying debris and the end of ride jet wash, although it will never be quite as dazzling.
Only powdercoat, never clear lacquer. PC is much more flexible and able to cope with the expansion and contraction of an aluminium frame.
Below are a few shots of my work using MAAS.... that was a year ago and my Lotuses still pop in the sunshine...
Anyway… lets try to tidy this up…
“Raw” Aluminium frames tend to be finished in one of three ways, & I’m not sure what yours is. But there are;
1. Anodised (sometimes polished, sometimes satin)
2. Lacquered or clear powder coated.
3. Raw polished and waxed/treated
I wouldn’t go anywhere near anything with Autosol or Brasso, unless of course all I wanted to do was freshen it up and then flip it. Things have moved on in leaps and bounds with regard to polishing technology, so much so I can’t understand why those products are still around, except for perhaps they’re cheap?
Cleaning of the above 3 finishes can be done by so many different ways it really isn’t worth listing & unfortunately there isn’t any magic wand to get rid of worming to an anodised finish.
So, what can you do?
Well if you want to keep as much originality as possible;
Clean it with something like Bar Keepers Friend, and or petrol to remove road tar. Then coat it with a quality shinobi wax.
If you want to go restoration, you have two initial options;
1. Have the anodising stripped, then the frame polished (combo of machine and hand) then re-anodising.
This option is expensive, and you will have to make sure you remove any steel, these items (bearing surfaces etc) are often push fit so this can be very tricky.
2. Strip it yourself and polish to a high shine by first going through the wet & dry grades then polishing with a modern metal polish such as MAAS (other brands are available) these have anti-tarnish corrosion inhibitors in them that really do work.
If this is a bike you really want to look good but ride hard on the trails you may want to invest in a layer of clear powder coat. This will protect your new graphics and the polished finish from flying debris and the end of ride jet wash, although it will never be quite as dazzling.
Only powdercoat, never clear lacquer. PC is much more flexible and able to cope with the expansion and contraction of an aluminium frame.
Below are a few shots of my work using MAAS.... that was a year ago and my Lotuses still pop in the sunshine...