Frame Anodizing

[Cunnerz77]

Dear OSS family,

Hope like me you are at the very least benefitting from some additional shed time lately.

My 92 tiger has always been a bit of a '2 meters bike' and I decided it deserved a very deep clean. and try to get to look good up close too. I have now ended up with a bare frame, which is good because that is really the main thing letting it down. Everything else is pretty sorted. But the frame has several terrible streaks in the anodising by the swing arm pivot, presumably from some sort of truck wash. Worse still is my attempts to smoothen out those areas, obviously to available with it being a clear hard coat. Also the swing arm has a different kind of clear coat and looks kinda crappy.

So I have a found a local anodizing guy in Rotterdam that does a lot of colour work for Philips. They've offered me what I though were pretty reasonable prices from a specialist:

1. Strip the frame and swingy - 170 EUR

2. Strip and re-anodize in any colour - 450 EUR

3. Strip, pre-treat (I think a type of blasting) then re anodize - 750 EUR

Thats for the frame, swing arm, rear sets. 

I'm interested to hear if you guys have experience with this. My initial thought was just to strip it and then do a scotch brite brushed finished myself. But then I thought maybe the re-anodized in gun metal grey would also look cool. But the cast areas wont anodize as well, thats for sure. Worth a shot perhaps.

Any experiences and advice much appreciated. Cheers.

Mike

 

 

 

 

 

[Blubber]

Powdercoat it black would be my preferred action... but thats not what you asked. 

No first hand experience with reanodising.

[Gixer1460]

That doesn't sound very cheap to me! There really isn't much to an anodising process - lots of degreasing / washing / caustic dipping / acid dipping / dyeing / washing etc. Most anodising dyes are 'flat' colours with a satin finish being the most blingy. One thing to note is that you will have to remove EVERY piece / bit of steel from the frame and the arm before as the corrosive chemicals will destroy them!

[jonny1bump]

I recently did a swing arm it came out awful anodized,  re stripped it I was that disappointed. 

This stopped me doing frame. 

I'm fully aware cast,weld different types aluminium will all come out different shades in same vat but really shocked how bad it actually looked.

Anodizing only good on piece that is made out of same plate or blank. I'm fan of anodizing too.

As ian said that's huge amount of money and could look rubbish. 

Save your money polish or paint.

[stellafella]

Took the anodising off my slab and slingshot and scotch padded it using gt85.  Real ball ache to rub the anodising off but worth it.

[Cunnerz77]

21 minutes ago, stellafella said:

Took the anodising off my slab and slingshot and scotch padded it using gt85.  Real ball ache to rub the anodising off but worth it.

Perfect. Yep this is what I'm going for. Using the pro guys to do the anodise strip off. 

Cheers

[jonny1bump]

43 minutes ago, stellafella said:

Took the anodising off my slab and slingshot and scotch padded it using gt85.  Real ball ache to rub the anodising off but worth it.

Does the gt 85 preserve it for a while.

[Gixer1460]

A company that does anodising / plating / chroming should be able to strip any previous dyes through the prep process - the biggest difficulty is finding someone having a bath / tank to fit a whole frame in and submerged in one go.

[stellafella]

49 minutes ago, jonny1bump said:

Does the gt 85 preserve it for a while.

Yup,  rode it through winter last and my slingshot this winter. 

Wash down every week or so and gt85 it again.

[stellafella]

I used a caustic soda wash for a minute or two on a bit at a time, then wash off with plenty fresh water, then scotch pad, takes the anodising pretty good .

[Joseph]

Digging day, sorry

Price aside, would reanodising in clear provide any finish issue ? I take it that it is only colour anodising that can prove difficult on different grades of alloy and be uneven ?