I am rebuilding a 1998 Quintana Roo Kilo for my wife. The plan was to sandblast the frame and then to paint it. But now I am starting to wonder if sandblasting would damage the frame. Any thoughts?
It is a local motorcycle detail guy that is going to sandblast it for me. He is a professional but I’m still wondering…
Well first off have you seen this: http://bit.ly/ugNBdV
Secondly, is the paint in bad condition? Still have decals on it? Are you painting it with spray cans or having it professionally done?
There are certainly media available that would strip the paint without compromising the aluminum. Plain old sand blasting sand would be too abrasive in my experience but a nice range of harness of media exist. Walnut shells Various types of plastic beads.
Aluminum can be sandblasted, but you have to be carefull because if you blast past the point that the paint is removed you will destroy the frame. As the previous poster said, other media is around that is much safer. Keep in mind motorcycles are typically steel.
Yeah, thanks ass. Already googled it. I was turning to the fine people of ST to see if anyone had any personal experience with this, especially regarding QR or this particular model.
That is what I had found and what I was thinking. I do not know if he has any other mediums available since he is used to working with steel, but I will find out tomorrow I guess.
It looks like I may be going the chemical stripping route though.
And to answer your question, the paint is in kind of rough shape and I really don’t think my wife will like the look of the decals that are on there. They are pretty beat up as well. The guy that was going to sandblast is going to paint it. A white base layer, than I am going to have some detail work done with decals and then he is going to finish with a clear coat.
I like to chemically strip my projects that are steel or alum and then media blast using plastic or glass beads. Sand is ok if it is already a bare frame and just being used to prep for paint. the problem with harsh media is when you try to strip a frame that has decals and other resistant material on it. If you can see the outline of whatever you removed when you are done then it was the wrong media. This is why I have my own media cabinet to protect delicate projects.
Here is the last ROO that I painted a few years ago. Yes that is all paint and no decals.
I do custom air brush paint jobs and personally, I would not consider sand blasting aluminum. It isn’t necessary. If it were me, I would get the guy to buy some aircraft aluminum paint stripping gel. It won’t damage the surface of the metal at all. I also use aircraft primer. It’s not cheap but is practically bullet proof, can be sanded to a very fine and even surface and takes paint very well.The quality of the paint job is only going to be as good as the prep of the frame. That said, there are many ways to skin the cat here depending upon what you want. You could go to ten different professionals and get half that many different approaches. Depends on how good the guys is, with how he chooses to work. PS… NICE paint job.
I agree that sandblasting is not the media of choice. Thanks
I’ve used stripper before. But honestly all you need to do is sand the frame to make it smooth. Ive burned off decals with great success before too.
I’ve had three bikes powdercoated. And have rattle canned about 7 bikes. Never sandblasted the can jobs. The powdercoater always did a chemical dip.
I had my Giant TCR Zero which is a 1000g very thin aluminum frame blasted a few year ago and then painted at Rocky Mountain bikes. They did not sand blast the frame but like others have mentioned, used a different material which worked out great. I would say have it stripped and do up a nice new coat.