Question for aluminum and carbon Vitus frame owners/restorers....
11-04-09, 01:16 PM
#1
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Bikes: 1986 Alan Record Carbonio, 1985 Vitus Plus Carbone 7, 1984 Peugeot PSV, 1972 Line Seeker, 1986(est.) Medici Aerodynamic (Project), 1985(est.) Peugeot PY10FC
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Question for aluminum and carbon Vitus frame owners/restorers....
The aluminum "lugs" drop outs, head tube and aluminum 979 fork, are they clear anodized or clear finished with laquer from the factory? As some of you might already know, I'm presently starting on a general cleanup on my recently aquired Vitus Carbone frame, and i'm not sure on how agressive I should be with cleaning these parts. Will it be appropriate to polish them up to mirror finish spec, but that means that I might have to pretty much strip off any finish on the these parts if I do. I've seen restorations on these frames when owners do polish them up to mirror finish, but I suspect that removing any existing anodizing or clear coat that may be over them will mean that these parts would just get dull again in short order and maybe corrode more readily. I'm hoping that the original finish was more of a clear coat instead of anodizing, because I can re-clearcoat (automotive rattle can clear coating) these parts after cleaning and polishing, but re-anodizing (clear) is certainly not an option. Vitus frame owners/restorers please advise....
TIA!
Chombi
84 Peugeot PSV
85(?) Vitus Carbone 7 Plus
TIA!
Chombi
84 Peugeot PSV
85(?) Vitus Carbone 7 Plus
11-04-09, 06:38 PM
#2
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Bikes: 1986 Alan Record Carbonio, 1985 Vitus Plus Carbone 7, 1984 Peugeot PSV, 1972 Line Seeker, 1986(est.) Medici Aerodynamic (Project), 1985(est.) Peugeot PY10FC
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the lugs, bridges,btm-bkt, dropouts and crown are just polished raw aluminum- no anodizing, no clearcoat .
no 'stripping' of any protective coat should be involved.
hit it with some mothers polishing paste on a soft rag and lightly buff. they should gleem with very little effort.just use a little care to avoid "polishing" of the carbon tubes.
touch it up once a year or thereabouts to keep it looking sharp. they're surprisingly resistant to oxidization/tarnishing.
no 'stripping' of any protective coat should be involved.
hit it with some mothers polishing paste on a soft rag and lightly buff. they should gleem with very little effort.just use a little care to avoid "polishing" of the carbon tubes.
touch it up once a year or thereabouts to keep it looking sharp. they're surprisingly resistant to oxidization/tarnishing.
That's what I thought, but I had to make sure and check with guys like you who have more experience with these frames. I do think though that the aluminum fork blades have some sort of coating on them, because they look smoother and a shade different from the crown. Can you conrfirm this?
BTW, I have loved the pics of your Vitus bike since I started seeing it in this forum when I joined up a few months ago. Nice to know that there are still some here with pristene exaomples of the bike that everyone can use as a pattern towards their restoration projects!
Chombi
84 Peugeot PSV
85(?) Vitus Carbone 7 Plus
