Restoring ti finish

[Bear-Chan]

spent 2 hours last night cleaning my new kahuna frame and its looking very lovely indeed. however, some areas of the frame have become more polished that others - mainly the top and downtubes. while it does look very nice and shiny, i wondered if there was a way to get it back to the slightly more brushed finish? at the moment its more like my xizang in places and then brushed/more matt looking in others....
heres some pics, any tips much appreciated!

 

[Err]

Very careful rubbing with scotchbrite pad? Or micromesh finishing abrasive. Might take a little experimenting with grits to get the right effect.

You could try a green scourer pad from a super market, or a pencil eraser, the one with grit in it, have heard of people redoing the brushing on watch cases with these.

 

[andy.l]

I used to use a 'Sandflex' abrasive block on my Vit T to keep the 'brushed' look

 

[DM]

Medium (green) 3M Scotchbrite scrubbie pad plus lemon juice.

 

[Bear-Chan]

cheers guys - much appreciated! think i might give the scotchbrite pads a go as i think they should be easy to find. what magic does the lemon juice bring??

 

[DM]

Not sure exactly - think I've just absorbed a bit of accepted wisdom from "Singletrack" re. maintining Ti finishes with WD40, lemon or similar...

[Googles...]
OK, there is some truth in it. See Lennard Zinn, here:
http://www.velonews.com/article/7567

And further tips here:
http://archive.roadbikereview.com/04/0EFD7D27.php

There is a "non-abrasive" Scotchbrite pad (?the "white" one?) but I think, generally, the medium "green" is the way to go.

The link above suggests rubbing in circles rather than straight lines "along" or "around" the tubing - not sure I agree with that. Anyway, Softly, softly - you don't want to make a big scuffed-looking area on that beautiful KK.

 

[mechagouki]

Kona's official advice: (Image from KonaRetro) sorry 'bout the large pic!

 

[camokid]

cheers guys - much appreciated! think i might give the scotchbrite pads a go as i think they should be easy to find. what magic does the lemon juice bring??

I expect it is as a mild degreaser to remove fingerprints etc, you use lemon juice cleaning a DeLorean as well.

 

[DM]

I expect it is as a mild degreaser to remove fingerprints etc, you use lemon juice cleaning a DeLorean as well.

Of course! :roll:
I should have remembered that - I ALWAYS use lemon juice on my DeLorean, too!