Removing Lacquer
 

Hello,

I bought a rather scrappy bike frame with the idea of "doing it up". Unfortunately, I seem to be stuck quite early on.

The bike frame has lots of faded lacquer (pics to follow) which has led to white swirls all over the frame. I thought i'd remove them using nitromors (from an aerosol) but, after two days of applying coat after coat, the swirls are still there. I've used an entire can now.

I then decided to go out on a limb and try using acetone. That didn't work either.

Am I doing something wrong? Why does nitromors work for everyone else, but not me?

Apparently, the nitromors in a tin (that you apply using a brush) is stronger. Should I try that?

What material is the frame? Are you trying to completely remove all the paint?

Maybe it isn't lacquer.

I don't think any maker uses lacquer. The paint could be enamel or a catalyzed polyurethane or even a baked on powder coating.

the clear coat over the bare steel so the robobrazing is seen on Bromptons ,

Whether its a Bug Body Based traditional lacquer or a synthetic, IDK



OP you are talking stripping and repaint?

if powder coat just turn the job over to a specialist ,

blasting the surface clean is prep for the powder application.

Hmm, maybe this problem isn't what I think it is. The man who sold it to me said it was lacquer and gave me the aerosol of nitromors.

As you can see from the pictures, i'm not stripping paint. I'm just trying to get rid of all the swirls on it. My overall plan is to remove the swirls, put the pieces on and ride it. Since it's an aluminium frame, I don't need to put paint on it.

Here are some pictures:

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ps0d282f13.jpg

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ps192178a7.jpg

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ps8960803e.jpg

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ps20ce5791.jpg

http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o...ps1ee2fdeb.jpg

The first picture is of the overall frame, just to give you an idea of what i'm working with. The other pictures show the swirls.

Any ideas?

Just have it painted, pick a colour..

looks like un finished polished as raw tube stock aluminum to me ..
Want it kept spotlessly shiny? you have a lifetime of hand polishing ahead of you ..

Uh, not quite all. Gold for example. But some construction material metals do like to revert to oxides more than others. That's for sure.

part of what make Au so valued is that it is corrosion resistant & conducts electricity great.
what supernova explosions do for you .. leave heavy elements

Get the Al frame Au plated that would do the trick...

So should I just get some primer + paint and do it myself? Summer is coming, so i'll have consecutive days of dry weather. It could also be interesting (and cheaper?) doing it myself.

Or is this a specialist job?

What it appears to be is a polished aluminum frame that was clear coated, could have been lacquer, powder coat, urethane, etc. I would be sure to strip it completely before refinishing, what is on there is delaminating and simply covering it with a new finish will result in problems sometime later. I would use a stronger stripper, bead blast, or a lot of hand/finger sanding work to remove all of it.

It may or may not be cheaper DIY, depends if it's done correct and what you are after. There is no doubt it would be easier to have a specialist refinish the frame.