going paintless...

[dirtypete]

i'm going to de-paint my current frame - it's a banged up trek 1000, i don't much like the paint scheme anyway - so, i know stripping the alu is no problem - but what about the carbon forks? i hope this isn't the dumbest Q ever - can they be stripped? what'll be left? will they be weakened in any way? I read on another page that it could be done, with a very fine sandpaper, leaving black - but i've not much faith in it.

should i leave them as they are?

[Peterpan1]

I don't know how they do carbon forks, but what they do with most carbon is there is a really tough clear coat like an epoxy or some kind of urethane I haven't run accross. Graphics are normally silk screened over that in very rugged paint. I have removed a lot of those logos, and I normally scrape them off with a scraper or razor blade at 90+ degrees. Obviously you can't allow the blade to stutter and dig in, but I haven't ever had a problem normally the clear coat is very thick. The reason for the thick coat is that the graphite itself is very suceptible to any nicks, or sand throughs.

You don't mention what you need to strip. If it is a total coat, I would sand that carefully. If it is screening, then back the paper with a very hard backer so that you don't just lower the whole thing equal amounts, which results in going deeper where the paint isn't. Also carefully regard any nooks etc... it should be easy to sand open areas, but tight around stuff when mistakes count is another mater entirely.