yeah thats the problem, theres soo many colors id enjoy having it in, Each color would make a completley different bike cause it could be used with different colored wheels and components… hard ass decision.
A little update on my bike, Ive payed off 9/10ths of it so its basically mine… Heres the skeleton of it, i will hopefully be riding it in the next couple of weeks.
Lots of upgrades will be done over time before its complete though.
The picture quality is horrible, just to give you an idea, its much prettier in real life… The wheels and bars i had just laying around, i got the post and stem for $15 together… I plan to get some black velocitys, a black thomson elite, A black chainring, some drops and a good chain in the future.
I plan to leave it bare and if i can research how to do it right, polish it to be somthing like this:
Or if not that shiny just get rid of the marks from the sanding the previous owner did. If i polished i id have to do somthing about the hideous welds.
Just wanted to share some of the excitement about this build, it would be soo much quicker and easier if worked though. I plan to fix that.
[/quote]
I own this shirt and wear it regularly. It would make a great bike.
dark green?
im a fan of pale pastels.
PS maaco (yes, they paint cars) will paint a frame for 60-75 bucks if you have it sanded and taped off
approved
Polished aluminum is pretty. Go here:
http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/index.htmlGet yourself some buffs and some brown and black compound. Sand that shit with 3M imperial wet or dry. 400/600/800/1000 and maybe 1500 if you’re feeling industrious. Then attack it with a drill motor, a buff, and some compound. At that point, you can get it clear powder coated or seal it with this:
http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/zoopseal.html or this: http://www.caswellplating.com/vht/vhtclear.htmAlternately, you can just re-polish when it starts to get oxidized. That could take a long time, depending on the weather and riding conditions.
I’m going to strip one of the tubes on my Concept. Just to be lame.
[quote=“halbritt”]Polished aluminum is pretty. Go here:
http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/index.htmlGet yourself some buffs and some brown and black compound. Sand that shit with 3M imperial wet or dry. 400/600/800/1000 and maybe 1500 if you’re feeling industrious. Then attack it with a drill motor, a buff, and some compound. At that point, you can get it clear powder coated or seal it with this:
http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/zoopseal.html or this: http://www.caswellplating.com/vht/vhtclear.htmAlternately, you can just re-polish when it starts to get oxidized. That could take a long time, depending on the weather and riding conditions.[/quote]
Thank you, I couldn’t find any clear directions. All i knew was to wet sand but i didn’t know what grit or anything about buffing.
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I own this shirt and wear it regularly. It would make a great bike.[/quote]
The 2010 Valhala edition Langster.
Yep. Like this:
What’s in the gig bag? My guess: A mexican strat, midnight wine finish. Am I right? Pics please.
[quote=“Al_”]
Thank you, I couldn’t find any clear directions. All i knew was to wet sand but i didn’t know what grit or anything about buffing.[/quote]
Read this:
http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/buffman.htmYou don’t have to wet sand up to 1500. It really depends on what supplies you have on hand or can get expediently. Each buff you get will need to be dedicated to that grade of compound. If you wet sand up to or above 800, you can get away with one set of buffs and some white compound. Or you can wet sand up to 600 and two sets of buffs with some brown and white compound.
Yep. Like this:
What’s in the gig bag? My guess: A mexican strat, midnight wine finish. Am I right? Pics please.[/quote]
Well the gig bag came with my boring old squire strat, I dont know what the finish is called but its dark red, probably similar to your guess. But actually in the bag is an all black epiphone g 400, its the only gig bag i have. My friend and i had just gone to use a recording studio for the first time for free since my brother takes a recording studio class at community college and its part of his final project to record a song.
[quote=“halbritt”][quote=“Al_”]
Thank you, I couldn’t find any clear directions. All i knew was to wet sand but i didn’t know what grit or anything about buffing.[/quote]
Read this:
http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/buffman.htmYou don’t have to wet sand up to 1500. It really depends on what supplies you have on hand or can get expediently. Each buff you get will need to be dedicated to that grade of compound. If you wet sand up to or above 800, you can get away with one set of buffs and some white compound. Or you can wet sand up to 600 and two sets of buffs with some brown and white compound.[/quote]
It’ll still work fine if i just use whatever buff and buffing solution i can find at my local hardware store, right? maybe just not as perfect and nice. I might sand kinda high just to make it look nicer… ill see what it leads to and decide on an ending point when i start sanding.
how much would it wear off my tubing with all that sanding, I know its fine grit and all, but im just wondering. This bike has pretty thick tubing at least i’d think compared to other aluminum frames… people always say concepts and track pro’s have thin tubing and dent easily…i can apply as much pressure with my thumbs on this and it doesn’t give in at all.
[quote=“Al_”]
It’ll still work fine if i just use whatever buff and buffing solution i can find at my local hardware store, right? maybe just not as perfect and nice. I might sand kinda high just to make it look nicer… ill see what it leads to and decide on an ending point when i start sanding.
how much would it wear off my tubing with all that sanding, I know its fine grit and all, but im just wondering. This bike has pretty thick tubing at least i’d think compared to other aluminum frames… people always say concepts and track pro’s have thin tubing and dent easily…i can apply as much pressure with my thumbs on this and it doesn’t give in at all.[/quote]
Whatever buff and buffing solution you find at your hardware store is likely to cause much grief and sorrow. You don’t have to order that shit from caswell, but you do need to get the right stuff or it’ll just take forever and likely look like shit. Seriously, either do it reasonably well or don’t even begin the process. However, if you do a decent job, it’ll look tits.
You can find tripoli (brown) and jeweler’s rouge (white) compound at most hardware stores. You can also find sewn and unsewn buffing wheels at most hardware stores for either a drill motor or a grinding wheel. Total expense will likely be around $20.
As for sanding, foot the bill for the 3M imperial. It can be found at auto parts stores in the body work section. You really only need 400-800 if you want to be cheap. Also, while you’re there, get some emery cloth from coarse to fine.
You’re not going to accidentally sand through the tubing and not notice it. I can’t tell from the photo, but if it’s got paint on it, strip it any way you can either with stripper or a 3m roloc or whatever else. If the surface is pretty smooth, start with fine emery cloth to smooth things out. If fine emery cloth makes the surface less smooth move on up to wet-sanding with 400.
Wet sanding at 400 and up most definitely will not hurt the tubing, sanding with coarse emery paper might, but it’s doubtful. When sanding, go primarily in one direction with one grit and 90 degrees from that with the higher grit. You know you’re done with you can no longer see the sanding marks from the lower grit. If the surface is clean and smooth, it really shouldn’t take much more than a quick once-over. Then go at it with the buffs.
I’m guessing you’re a twit, you’ll likely fuck this up or be too lazy to finish, and that my essay is a wasted effort. There, I’ve called you out, now you have to man up and prove me wrong, fucker. There will need to be photos.
[quote=“Al_”][quote=“halbritt”]
I’m guessing you’re a twit, you’ll likely fuck this up or be too lazy to finish, and that my essay is a wasted effort. There, I’ve called you out, now you have to man up and prove me wrong, fucker. There will need to be photos.[/quote][/quote]
I really appreciate the help, if i pay for all the supplies im not gonna do it right. The only thing that deters me from going through the whole process is having to order special buffing shit to give it that amazing finish, which will be somthing i can be proud of in the end. Im not one just gets lazy and gives up, ive applied stripper to this frame 5 separate times to get it bare, and i’ll still have to do one more stripping to get every last bit of primer out of the welds and behind the fins on the back triangle. Ive put enough work into it that i dont just want to cover it in paint and call it done, i wanna finish what i started and make it something unique that i can be proud of. Im just a little confused on the buffing subject because its somthing ive never done. You dont need to explain it again, ill just read over it more.
Edit: Heres a couple better pictures, i only snapped 2 before my camera died.
Note the hideous welding, If i tried sanding at least the ridges off, would it hurt the strengh of the frame at all?
I would ride that as is. Looks bad ass.
I think you can sand the welds down a little, but you have to be careful to not take off too much material. Probably should get a second opinion on that.
[quote=“phil”]I would ride that as is. Looks bad ass.
I think you can sand the welds down a little, but you have to be careful to not take off too much material. Probably should get a second opinion on that.[/quote]
I may just keep it bare, polishing is just a consideration. As clean as it would look polished, Im not sure that i want a flashy ass bike.
I wouldn’t sand those welds. I’m not sure that it would compromise anything, but I do know that it would suck to have your frame fail because you were trying to pretty up the welds.
I know more about welding than I’ll ever know about bike shit. Don’t sand the welds unless you know what you’re doing. Those welds might be large and hideous, but to someone that’s done TIG welding, they’re not that bad.
With the better picture, it’s obvious. Start wet-sanding with 400 and up. My point earlier was that tripoli (brown) compound, white rouge, and the necessary buffs can be found at a hardware store. Go find 'em and get to work, sparky.