23skidoo

83 Trek 400 back from the plating company with a new polished copper finish and clearcoat.





All the pics:




https://s270.photobucket.com/albums/j...nish/1024x768/

riva

My thoughts are how the heck do you get clear coat to stick to polished copper? Oh, and WoW. You'll probly get a lot of that though.

RobbieTunes

I think it's really, really ugly. Box it up really, really carefully and send it to me really, really fast.
I'll evaluate it over the next 20-30 years or so, and have my heirs contact your heirs with the results.

Really.

We may have to kick you out of the "plain old Turbo" club for owning that beauty.

j. hughes

Amazing. Not to be rude, but how much does something like that run and where do I send my frame?

Oh yeah, what components are going on?

Metricoclock

sexy

honestly i would kinda like to see what the patena on that in a few decades

pass the peas

No clearcoat. Patina. I want it.

Amani576

It's simply ugly, terribly, terribly ugly. You can send it my way and Robbie, Rocco, Spinz and I can all admire the sheer ugliness of it. It'll be like a shrine we go stand by and think "WTH was 23skidoo thinking?!".
No, man... in all honesty it looks amazing. I bet it's so shiny it's crazy.
Couldn't have been cheap to do, though.
What are you gonna hang on it?
-Gene-

mackerel

+1 - nothing cooler than old greenish copper patina

RobbieTunes

You have got to use shiny state quarter for your head badge.

High Fist Shin

Stunning! Beautiful! Can't wait to see it built up. Speaking of which, how are you going to build it up?

Fidelista

With a green Brooks and green bar tape...matching rivets.
It's a stunning frame. Just...stunning.
Well done for having the idea and following it through.

squeaver

WOW. Awesome. F-ing awesome. Can't wait to see this thing built up. Please keep us updated.

fuzz2050

I accept that I would have to kill most of this thread to have a shot at the bike (it's even my size), but I just want to see a pic when it's got that nice green on it. Hurry up and get it filthy, wet and covered in salt already.

Big_e

Wow!

BobHufford

My eyes! My eyes!

Lovin' it ...

Bob

yepyep

That is inspired sir!

Spinz

Brasso is your friend. Lp

WNG

Wow, so much bling! Where's my shades?

Can't wait to see the build up.

Panthers007

The green patina on copper is from it's reaction with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. So that should turn green in no time at all. What with all the bike-nuts breathing heavy on it. Carry a rag. Wow...

23skidoo

Thanks for all the wonderful comments. To answer some of the questions, it is apparently an epoxy-based clearcoat which is why it will stick to the slick; I was really torn between the high polish, just plain plating which would be allowed to weather naturally, or having the plating chemically-treated to advance the natural formation of verdigris; the cost of stripping, polishing the bare metal, copper plating and clear coat was $285 by Industrial Plating of Omaha, NE; I'm undecided about whether or not to hang anything at all on it and may just sell it to finance a couple of other projects I'm thinking about but if I build it will be an assortment of stuff from my parts boxes as I don't have an entire grouppo of anything but I've been thinking black--you can see the beginnings of a black Tange Sekai headset that was foiled by attempting to install a 26.4 crown race on a 27.0 fork crown--as I've got a Suntour Superbe crankset with black-anodized chainrings, an NOS set of Modolo Speedys, Shimano 600 Arabesque ders and dt shifters, a 600 aero seatpost with a funky Brooks B-17 and Nitto Technomic stem with Nitto moustache bars.

The frame while straight, was fairly well-beaten but polished out pretty nicely, however I think with the right equipment and attitude I might be able to do a better job, especially around the bottom bracket lugs and some of the other tight spots that didn't quite get the full attention they deserved. All in all I'm pretty pleased with the results but consider it to be the first step toward some still vague, unformed end that is lurking in the back of my mind. If I decide to sell it, I'll post it in the For Sale forum here before I put it up anywhere else as my only motive would be to recoup my investment and pass it along to someone who might make a much better work of the build than I could; if I build it up I'll post regular progress photos in the thread.

23skidoo

Just for curiosity sake, here are a few photos of a Jim Blackburn aluminum rack I had anodized by the same company; it's going back on my 75 Gitane Interclub.

fender1

Amazing and really cool!!! Is that a 24" by chance? It would look nice with my other "modified'Treks. Just sayin'...... And I have a full Campy NR group looking for a home.

Bikedued

Wow, that looks awesome!! The frame is my size too, hehe. I will have to talk to my plater friend about having that done without the clear. Got to find a nice yet beat on frame first though, hehe.,,,,BD

rotharpunc

$285 doesnt seem to bad for something that really stands out like that, I think I will look into this as well

Blue Order

One comment-- it's really hard for me to get the full effect of the copper when it's against a red background. I see shiny metal, but it would show as copper better against a more neutral background (or even against something contrasting, like green grass).

But other than that, it looks sharp!

I wonder if chrome plating would cost the same. or if it the metal chosen affects the plating cost?







(...suddenly remembering that Diamond Jim Brady had a dozen Columbia's gold-plated back around 1895 or so...)