I grew up on a bike, though I haven't owned one in years. Recently, the cost and stress of driving, along with a desire to get in shape again, have aimed me in the direction of bicycles. Though as an artist and craftsman by trade, I have almost zero interest in simply purchasing a bike - I need to build one. There is a fantastic resource in my city called The Bikery, a local, non-profit community-based shop where bicycle mechanics volunteer and help guide you along as you build your bike yourself from a rather large store of used and vintage bike parts for pretty cheap - so that's where I start.

At this point however, I am at square one: I haven't started anything. I am searching for the perfect frame first, which narrowed by my stature (6'4", 200lbs) and by my project guidelines (price, looks, intended use) is proving to be a bit more difficult than I thought for what I thought was an odd reason - I read somewhere on a forum that it is a bad idea to sandblast a bike frame. My plan was to buy an older road bike frame (I am currently the high bidder on a 60 cm Guerciotti Columbus on Ebay), sandblast it, then give it a fresh coat of paint and decals of my choosing. But if it is a no-no to sandblast a frame for some reason, how am I supposed to strip the old paint off? Wet sanding? I haven't been able to find any further info on this but it would be a shame to ruin a nice old frame simply because I didn't know something I didn't know I needed to know. Is there anyone here that can weigh in on this one way or another?

Nicholas