1 Lugnut

A friend of mine has bought a 90's Specialized Comp Carbon frame. He'd like to remove the paint from the Aluminum Seat & Headtube lugs only, exposing them, while not ruining the the existing paint around the lugs. He has asked me to to do this for him, but I'm a bit hesitant about the whole process, esp after reading a few past threads about stripping paint on Carbon bikes.

the bike:


If this is possible, what kind of masking tape would be the one to use for max protection & would ordinary HD stripper be OK to lift whatever kind of paint is on there..?

rootboy 

Interesting idea. Never tried it but, here's what my 3 cents are. You could use masking tape and try to get a nice curved edge to them. Or even apply and cut along the lugs with a sharp blade. What a pain. But I'd use some of this:https://www.dickblick.com/products/wi...masking-fluid/
Liquid latex. Available at most Arts N' crafts stores. You could use rubber cement too but this stuff is less viscous and easier to work with. Make it nice and thick, which will take some patience and several coats. Let thoroughly dry. From there I'd use a good, HD stripper. Very carefully applied and removed. Try to get as little of the stripper on the rubber as you can. Before rubbing off latex mask, polish aluminum lugs to desired luster.

Option 2) Talk him into leaving as is. It's beautiful.

More like four cents. :>

JPZ66

The most reliable way would be to mask well and soda blast those areas. You will have no chemicals to worry about. Check around your area for a shop that does automotive restoration type work perhaps.

Joe

1 Lugnut

My thoughts too...!

thirdgenbird

I wouldn't get chemical stripper anywhere near a bonded carbon frame. It could soften the epoxy or carbon itself.

Sanding it down by hand likely wouldn't take long, but masking for safety would.

I also vote leave that beauty as is

koolerb

If you have air in your shop these work great. The salmon colored disc (SPA) removes paint and primer but wont affect substrate or anodized coatings. That's the one you would want.

Product 3M ID UPC 048011-33228-4 10/box Radial Bristle Disc (NAVAIR) SPA
3M™ Mandrel 990 048011-15012-3 1 each, 5/case Use with high-speed pneumatic die grinder rated from 22,000-25,000 max operating speed.
PRODUCT SOLUTION
Scotch-Brite Radial Bristle Disc (NAVAIR) SPA - Salmon/Orange
• Will not damage the substrate
3M™ Mandrel 990
• Can be used with 1-4 bristle disc(s)
CAUTION: Directional arrow on
center of disc must be observed. All
discs (max. 4) must be loaded on the
mandrel with the arrow turning in
the direction of tool rotation.

Couldn't figure out how to post the pdf so no pictures, and couldn't find pdf on the 3M web site to post a link.

But +1 to leave it alone and ride it.

1 Lugnut

I have air & some pneumatic tools (wife's a stone sculptor) & also have a Fordham flex-shaft setup. I could use these...

You mean these...?

repechage

I think I would wet sand the shorelines first and only consider removing the paint on the seat lug as Cinelli used to do on their frames, The aft region where the seat stays enter I would want to stay away from.
After you do this though, keeping things good looking will be effort.
And while I am thinking about it, heat from power sanding/buffing would not be what I would want to do to a glue joint.

Leave it paint. If you want bright, find a frame that has those attributes to begin with.

koolerb

Bingo! The Salmon colored SPA discs are for paint removal, and the green 360 discs are more aggressive.

1 Lugnut

Never botched-up spelling like that B4...sorry! I'm going to blame on the keyboard.

Anywho, thx for the replies & votes. I emailed the bike's owner this Thread & haven't heard back from him. Maybe he took the advise of the 'leave it aloners' here...?

lotek 

Fify

1 Lugnut

Despite all the responses to leave the frame as is, the owner insisted on moving forward w/ removing the paint from the lugs & rear dropouts. As it turned out, it wasn't all that difficult & took me a total of 4 or 5 hours & came out looking OK.

I opted to use the HD stripper he supplied instead of 'flapper discs' & went about carefully masking everything off w/ Aluminum Foil Tape, using a small sharp utility/razor blade to cut the lines in the tape where the tubes met the lugs. The stripper acted very fast & the paint came off w/o too much effort, using a couple of grits of steel wool & a brass wire brush. Some areas proved stubborn & needed additional slathering of stripper. Cleanup was done w/ Naphtha & Lacquer Thinner. My main concern was that no stripper would leach underneath the tape and act on the tube's bonding glue or any of areas where the paint was not to be disturbed. Being so sticky, when done, removing the foil tape was more difficult than putting it on...! Some of these model bikes came w/ unpainted lugs, so I guess that's what his intent is...?

vjp

You did a really clean job of it, but I like the look of them painted.

Chombi

Will you also be polishing those lugs? They may look even nicer if you do so. You can also go for a satin finish in which you polish it to mirror finish and then add a light "grain" to them with a fine scotchbrite pad which would imitate the fine grained clear anodized finish you find on some cranksets. Good thing is, you can experiment till you get exactly what you are loking for as you can re do the polishing as needed.
I guess the owner is looking for the something similar to how some slightly older Al lugged CF bikes looked like.

Which I myself prefer to ones with painted lugs.

Chombi

gaucho777 

Looks good! Now I'd take some Mother's Mag & Alum polish to those lugs and make them shine.

Edit: @Chombi, great minds think alike.

1 Lugnut

lol..! Originally the owner was looking at Alan frames since his name is Alan, but he wanted Carbon & most of the Alan frames he was looking at were Aluminum, so he went in the Specialized direction & landed the Carbon Epic frame for a good price.

As far as polishing the lugs, unlike an Alan's lugs, I believe the lugs are annodized on this one. I did this as a favor, so polishing would have been far more than what I wanted put into it. I'm not into dipping his bike in Drano. After 40 years of painting I'm futilely trying to omit caustic chemicals from my life. He can take it up a notch if he so desires. If it were my bike...I dunno?

add-in: He brought forks over & I stripped the fork crown only for him as well. He's happy & that's all that matters...

Sharp looking Alan Chombi

Chombi

Thanks,
Actually the lugs on my Alan Carbonio are anodized too, but they are more of a very smooth/glossy clear anodized semi-polished looking, satin finish like you see on cranksets which is a bit different from the lugs on that Specialized you are working on which seems to be a more like a clear anodized matte or raw aluminum type of finish. The anodizing will need to be removed to change the look of the aluminum surface of the lugs in any way.
BTW, the earlier Specialized Epic frames also had exposed Al lugs that he would have liked too.....

Chombi

ilikebikes

I LIKE IT! Mothers is your friend!