Paint Removal Advice??

a few hours and some sandpaper is my only guess, I don't think there's an easy way around it

well, not a guess, I know you're not gonna listen to a guess about what to do to your bike, I have painted bikes before, and sandpaper was the best I could think of, someone may have a better idea, but it would probably be expensive if they did...

The Ride of 05 said:

Going to be repainting the bike this winter, but don't know the "best" method to remove the current paint.

Since it's steel it'll happily withstand being sand blasted. If your local sand blaster can offer it as an option, ask him to use a fine grain sand for the blasting. Not really needed, takes a bit longer (=costs a little more) but leaves a smoother surface. Make sure to pick it up immediately after it's been blasted, and preferably drop it off at the painter's the same day, 'cause the blasted surface is very susceptible to corrosion.

Having a steel railing sand blasted can obviously be done for $12/foot, so a bike shouldn't set you back too much.

Here's a link to another forum where someone did just that.http://forums.howwhatwhy.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=repair&Number=202194&fpart=2

See if the sandblaster has walnut shells instead of sand.

You could powder coat it at home instead of paint. Eastwood sells kits to do it nicely.

When I was in the middle of my "Peugeot Project" (restoring an old UO-8), I took the frame to a local sand blasting shop that specialized in soda blasting. This process utilizes baking soda instead of sand or walnut shells and is WAY gentler on your frame.

To illustrate what I mean by gentle, the owner of the shop propped up an empty Coke can and soda blasted just the paint off, leaving the aluminum can shiny and smooth but not pock-marked or rough. An empty Coke can is a really fragile item.

My cost to do this? ZIP, ZILCH, NADA... The frame was too small of a project for him to estimate a price for.

My bike frame was done along with a pile of other things that the blaster had to do. He just kinda made some space for it at the same time. This might take a couple of weeks but your wallet will love you for it.

The end result was a smooth, polished looking shiny steel frame that was almost a shame to cover with paint. Beats the hell out of sand paper or chemical strippers EVERY TIME!😉

I just bought a wire wheel for my power drill and that worked great! Just make sure to wear goggles and a face mask. Also there was a thin layer of paint dust on everything on my garage when I was done. Just something to think about.

10timesbetter said:

a few hours and some sandpaper is my only guess, I don't think there's an easy way around it

Ever heard of paint stripper?

Id be very wary of taking a frame to an industrial sandblasters. My local framemaker have said that they dont recommend it, they are pretty harsh.

For steel they use a low temp torch to burn the paint off, for ali they cant do that, then they put the frame into their blasting booth and use a fairly small sand blaster to do the job. Much less harsh than the industrial ones.

till