Originally Posted by ivegotabike
i removed my downtube shifter levers, but there are still little peices that look important sticking off of the frame, i dont want them to be messed up during the sandblasting process. How do i remove these bits? the shifters are shimano 105's. The peices im talking about are between the actual lever and the downtube, im not sure what they are called.
They are brazed on bosses for the shift levers and sandblasting won't hurt them. The only way to get them off is to heat up the tube and melt the brazing or grind them off. If you don't want them blasted your can use a paint stripper and tape them off with some type of tape so the blaster won't blast them. Just talk to your powdercoater. Ask them if they have done any bicycle frames and if they have experience with quality steel bike coating. Ask your local bike shops if they can reccomend a powder coater that knows what they are doing regarding bicycles. Most powdercoaters are pretty savy especially if they coat motorcycle frames (not much difference between the two) Sandblasting a light/thin guage tubed bike may demand that the blaster use less pressure on his blaster to avoid "eating" the tubing away and some shops can use glass beads or soda blasting if the material is thinner and more delicate. My bike was a fairly heavy guage chrome moly frame so I didn't worry about it. I'm totally happy with the job my coater did. The new Surly frames are all powdercoated so its not a big deal and nothing to worry about. Pick a nice color and have at it!
