I just bought a new caad 9 frame off ebay, got a great deal (at least I think). My question or dilemma is this, it is a custom team frame and on the top tube it has the team name/logo. The area of the frame that it's on is polished aluminum with clearcoat. Should I get this repainted or just leave it alone? I guess what I'm asking is what is the general opinion. I'm pretty neutral, I just don't want people to think I'm an idiot riding a frame with the name of some team that I've never been on on it. Thoughts, opinions?

If you really want to get rid of it, then because its just a clearcoated section it should be fairly easy to sand that part down to bare aluminum and re-apply clear coat to the area with easy blending. There may be some distinction of the area in the right light and angle, but it should come out nice.

Lol, that's my frame! So I'm guessing your either the person who sold it to me or someone else that was eyeing it too. Would you take it to a body shop or just do it yourself?

unless you have the equipment to spray and buff a urethane clear coat, i'd take it to a body shop. better yet, find a frame painter.

If the bike has a history, there's no shame in keeping it that way. Heck, it's better than a "team edition" bike that just had stickers on it to help it sell at the LBS.

As a junior in the 90s, I rode a 1976 Olympic team bike (Schwinn Paramount) on the velodrome that had some custom painting on the top tube that said "The Rack" on it. I had no idea what it meant until I was at the junior national championships and the announcer looked at the bike and said "that was my bike!" to which he enlightened me that his nickname was "The Rack" because he was in a race that had a Blackburn bicycle rack as the prime for every lap and he took them all (I believe he suffered in the final sprint because of this). It was also fun to talk with a local rider who was a former '76 team member, as he tried to decide based on the size and fork (sprinter) which member it had belonged to.

No, there is a great search box on Ebay even for completed auctions, or there are other ways.

I might be inclined to try it myself, because if it didn't come out acceptable then you can always take it to a body shop. You might want to ask around motorcycle shops for custom painters, as this type of small job should be better suited for them. Do some research first on painting frames because there is lots on the internet. You will of course get an excellent job from a painter and probably pretty cheap.

oh by the way, nice frame

Train hard, move to southern Cali and join the team!

I don't think I could find a frame painter out here in West Texas, best I can probably do is a body shop.

Tete, that's not an invasion of privacy, if it's on the net then you should expect the world to be able to see it. BTW I did get a good deal didn't I?

unless you have some skill you'll almost certainly end up with some seriously undesired results.

please. trust me.

Well, I wasn't seriously considering doing it myself, I couldn't live with it if I messed it up. Do you think a body shop could be trusted?

well you have to ask them if they think they can do it. if it's brushed alu, then you run the possibility of sanding through the decal and "brushing" the aluminum the wrong way. and at that point in becomes hard to fix.
a good painter will have a portfolio to look through so you can judge for yourself if you think they should do it or not. it's actually kind of a tough call.

ask if they can do it and what happens if they mar the metal on accident.

I got the frame in the other day, it actually looks pretty cool. I'm just going to leave the paint alone.

I agree....leave it be.