Painted ti question
 

So I may be purchasing a ti frame in a short while -- I'm enamored with raw ti and white graphics/logos, but I also have the option to paint. If I got the bike painted, and wanted down the road to refinish down to the bare ti, is that possible?

Thanks!

Yeah no problem (though you may want to tell your finisher that you are thinking about that option down the road, they say that Serotta really roughs up their ti under the paint to get it to stick well). I just had an IF that was all painted except for panels blasted and repainted just with panels (so mostly raw) and after blasting I just went over the frame with scotchbrite and it looks awesome (Moots like finish). If you want polished you'd be in for a much bigger commitment, but for a standard durable ti finish, no worries. If you want a quick and easy way to polish a ti frame (or anything else) by hand, shoot me a PM, and I'll hook you up with my method. Someone else here told me, did a whole frame in a few hours.

controversial
 

some say no. i can't imagine the right sort of blasting in competent hands would cause any problems. i think there is more concern about going from high polish to another finish. but again a good blaster could probably blast off polish to create a sound surface for paint or powder.

Wouldn't it be better to get Brushed or Beaded Ti now, and then "down the road" paint if you don't like the raw finish?

How about you get it painted and exposed? Best of both worlds and a good compromise.

That's what I did by having the rear triangle on my bike bare Ti. I felt it was right to, in a sense, pay homage to Ti.

Seems to me I read somewhere the paint needed to be blasted with a different medium. I want to say walnut shells, but I can't remember what I had for lunch, so I very well might be mistaken.

I would call Tom Kellogg. He rides a lot and builds and paints a lot of Ti bikes!

Yeah, it's tricky -- see, I *KNOW* I'll like the raw ti (more of a brushed, darker finish) with the white, but at the some token, I'd started that whole thread about how I could never decide what to paint a bike, and something kind of came to mind - thing about that, is that i was always thinking about steel, so paint was always going to be the option on that.

I know the Ti has the potential of being a lifetime bike -- so my thought was if I painted it the way I figured I'd paint a custom steel, more or less, that it might do the trick and kill the bike lust for a bit. Or I get the raw ti and down the road some ways, finally go for that custom (say, Bedford) and paint it up... Raw ti will go with everything, and seldom looks bad, but the paint could look so so right... decisions!

Yup, I feel you, this was recently all orange. And this was pre-polish.

And here is my magic secret of ti polish. A guy who sold me a used ti post here made this a sent it to me, I can't remember his name but it has been very useful. I assume he won't mind my sharing.

You'll need a few sheets (8.5" x 11) of green Scotchbrite and and a roll of Gorilla Tape (VERY! strong duct tape if you don't already know) and a mask (a paper painting mask should work, but I have a rubber ventilator with filters).

Then cut the two strips of SB the exact width of the tape or a touch wider. Then cut approximately 3 feet of Gorilla tape and put the SB strips in the middle 22". On each end fold the tape in on itself (14" folded in half will leave you with 7" handles) and you are left with a very durable (you could do it with regular duct tape but it will fall apart much faster) strap that works like a shoe shine rag. Then I make the same thing with a strip half as wide as the tape (I think the roll is 3" so a 1.5" strap 11" long with whatever sized handles you like (I go about 4" on these, so leave 8" on each end, so a 27" strip of tape cut in half the long way, and a very narrow one (about .5" inches) by 11" with handles. You can get into just about every crevice with a back and forth buffing motion, I did a complete frame in a few hours. They also work on seatposts and stems, and anything ti with scratches.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...psbc1dc37f.jpg

that is just such a beautiful frame..

so essentially, yes, I can get back to bare ti, but I probably would be better off having it done professionally, right?

DRZRM, gorgeous frame. My Hampsten is brushed ti with white DT graphics outlined in black, Andy on the ST, and a standard Enve fork. I do love the look of white panels on ti and the white fork is a great touch.

I think you had posted the orange version a while back -- or someone else had a mostly orange IF. That was lovely too.

Excellent method. :) Velcro strips work well for the backing, and are reusable. Available in different widths.

Sure, this was blasted and painted by Toby at Hot Tubes, but he would have charged a fair bit more to polish (and I don't mean high polish, just smoothed out...like a Moots). This is an easy way to keep prices down and to refinish when it gets scratched up.

Velcro strips, genius!! You learn something new everyday.

+1
My opinion too. I've had both and like the bare Ti better.

I've had brushed and 3/4 painted Ti...my preference is for the painted Ti along with a painted fork, as the raw Ti was more of a maintenance issue to me...lemon pledge and such.

However, I do like the look of most of the raw Ti bikes posted here...think red/mango headsets, white tape and saddle. For the cost of painting, then removal, you can have a nice set of wheels built. Some consider painting Ti to be sacrilegious as well.