dealing with a bonded aluminum frame
 

Picked up a weird old MTB today. All aluminum. "Lugs" are cast and then bonded to the tubes. Not welded, but bonded. Presumably this means glued somehow?

The main triangle is just polished aluminum. The rear stays are painted red. The red paint is pretty nicked up. So here are the questions:

1. If I can take off the red can the newly exposed aluminum be made to look like the already exposed alum?

2. Once I get the paint off, how should I buff the alum? Rubbing compound? 000 Steel wool? other?

3. I have used "Aircraft Remover" in the past to remove paint. Works great. But, and here is my main question, will this in any way harm the bonding of the lugs to the tubes? I might cry if I managed to disolve that glue and it fell to pieces.

Don't let me make a huge mistake,

thanks,

jim

I don't know anything about aircraft remover, but yes - if you can remove the paint then get some smoother sandpaper and just lightly scrub it for a while, till it's smooth to the touch. Then get a tube of AUTOSOL metal polish and read what it says on the packaging.

You should be fine.