[amol4184]

Thanksgiving is a time of the year which is cold, dark and wet. Riding is down to near zero and usually a period when I take up a project. For a long time I have been wanting a bling bike and finally decided to take a go at it as I found a frameset ripe for this type of undertaking. There are various processes to strip the paint. You can use chemical stripper (which I used), you can simply sand the color, you can scrape it if you are skillful or you can use media blasting at paint shop. Except for media blasting, rest all are time taking slow processes. Amongst them, I found the chemical stripping easier on elbow grease.

Without further ado, lets get into how I proceeded with this...rather labor intensive task.

Finding the right frame

Aluminum is one of the easiest frame metal to bring to mirror polish shine. So it had to be an aluminum frame. I am massive Cannondale fan/nerd so it had to be Cannondale. I wasn't yet ready to sacrifice a new or expensive frame for this . Amazingly a Cannondale R900 2.8 which was a predecessor to iconic CAAD series of bikes, showed up on FB Marketplace near me at rather lucrative price. and I had to get it.

Take a look -

I didn't expect it to be in such good condition. My only criteria for frame selection were - no dings/dents and no cracks. With such low benchmark, that frame was 9/10 easy.

Day 1 guilt sets in

I almost felt guilty doing this because of how good it was. Looked at it for some time and then looked at bunch of other projects bikes staring right into my eyes and go right to it. No time for tears. Here goes nothing.

Removed the fork and gave it a nice wash. Next up, removed all the screws, other bits and bobs and placed them in a zip lock before I lost them somewhere.



Then I gathered up all the supplies.



Here is the list of products used:
1. Citristrip chemical paint stripper
2. Scraper with curved blade as well as flexible flat head. The curved blade is a blessing on frame tubes
3. Brass and stainless wire brushes for hard to reach nooks and crannies
4. Scotch Brite pads
5. Microfiber towels (many!)
6. Wire mesh cloth
7. WD-40, of course
8. 200, 400, 600, 1000, 1500 grit sandpapers
9. Mother's metal polishing compound

Not pictured:
1. Elbow grease
2. Time
3. Spray bottle and water
4. Dirty gloves

Once the setup was done, the frame was mounted on my trusty maintenance stand but not before covering other bikes with a plastic sheet. The Citristrip is a low fume, safe to use indoor stripper that works slow. There are some strippers that get to work in 2 or less hours, not this one. That's okay. I had plenty of time. To keep the original "Handmade in the USA" sticker to remain intact, I put a thick transparent tape cut to shape on it.

Placed the can indoor for an hour, wore my mask and with heavy heart and uncertainty I sprayed the first coat of 'strip on the beautiful red frame:



About 3 hours after I went out to see if the stripper had started its work and nothing! I could simply wipe off the stripper with no damage to paint below. Should I do it? Ugh. With mild trepidation I left it and retired inside to cozy warmth of my house.

Day 2 point of no return

Nearly 24 hours later I went out and inspected the frame. I was expecting the whole frame to bubble and peel off but that wasn't the case. Somewhat disappointing, I thought?



You can see paint starting to peel off in some places but generally it was still well adhered to the frame. I peeled off whatever I could and noticed that the stripper had worked on the paint but not on the primer below. Alright then, time to bring out weapons!

When I started to scrape the paint off, it was not as bad as I thought. Even though from the outset the paint looked like it was intact the stripper had made it soft. I feel terrible saying this but scraping that paint almost felt therapeutic. It was SOOO satisfying.

What was not satisfying though was the parts where I had to use the wire brush (used the softer, brass brush for this). That took considerable effort and frequent wiping. See how the paint peeled left the frame easily in some places and clung to it firmly in others:


After nearly 3 hours of scraping, brushing, Scotch-briting, I decided to take a break. This is how it looked then. The tape over the USA badge did its work too.


The primer was soft in places but generally pretty hard so decided to spray one more coat of Citristrip and let it rest.

Day 3 getting there

The stripper doesn't work the same on primer - something I didn't know prior. It softened it but didn't peel off anywhere. Scraping it was much easier than the paint, thankfully. I used scraper, Scotch Brite pads and wire mesh cloth to wipe off the primer. In about 2 hours, the frame looked pretty clean to me. Did the same with the fork which took another half an hour.



I decided to work on the fork first to get a taste. The process I followed is this:

1. Wet sanding with 200 grit sandpaper
2. Wet sanding with 400 grit sandpaper
3. Wet sanding with 600 grit sandpaper
4. Wet sanding with 1000 grit sandpaper
5. Wet sanding with 1500 grit sandpaper
6. Final polishing with Mother's metal polish

Each step took about 15-20 minutes give or take except the final one where I spent a leisurely 45 minutes just to get the finish exactly how I wanted. Collage below shows progress after sanding passes of different grit sandpapers.



For the polishing compound, I did two, sometimes three passes. Its an incredibly satisfying process.



Decided to take a break for the day as my fingers, arms and elbows started to complain not to mention I looked like I crawled out of silver mine.

Day 4 it all comes together

This was a big day. After having excellent results with the fork I was stoked and got to work even before my cats woke up.
Followed the same process as fork. 200, 400, 600, 1000, 1500 grit wet sanding followed by Mother's. Contrary to fork, this was way more time taking with each grit taking about 45 minutes. For the final 1000 and 1500 grit I spent a nice hour and half. I will let the pictures do talking.

After 200 grit sanding:


After 1000 grit sanding:


Mother's polishing compound in progress:


Fully polished v/s 1000 grit sanded portion:


Fully polished fork v/s 1500 sanded frame:


First go with Mother's polish:


After two or three passes of Mother's:


Frame is all done!


Moment of truth:


Nearly 14-15 hours of labor but it was worth it! Decided not to assemble immediately and called it a night.

Day 5 real moment of truth

Raided my parts bin and put together the bike. Didn't have a good spare wheelset so cannibalized it from my CAAD 10. Decided to go 1x for clean looks keeping in line with minimalist theme of the frame. A while ago I had bought Cannondale decals (another project coming soon!) and used couple from that set. It's not period correct but it works well with the theme. I might actually get properly reproduced, period correct decals for this.

Extremely happy how it turned out. Much better than what I expected.

Final look:


fin.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[viXit]

Absolute Madlad!
I can't even imagine the amount of elbow grease needed to polish a painted metal frame to a shine by hand!

I struggle with a rotary machine!
Looks stunning

Are you going to protect the finish?

[amol4184]

Originally Posted by viXit

Absolute Madlad!
I can't even imagine the amount of elbow grease needed to polish a painted metal frame to a shine by hand!

I struggle with a rotary machine!
Looks stunning

Are you going to protect the finish?

Thanks! A day after building this bike I bought orbital sander and polisher...guess I have to strip another frame now
However there is very artisanal feel to doing it by hand for hours.

As for the clear coat, I am undecided. Some people say naked Al oxidizes fast, while some have reported on the contrary. I am just going to wing it for some time and see what happens. I am not opposed to polishing it every month or so but if it starts getting dull sooner than that I have 2k clear coat can handy. Fingers crossed!

[alphamike_1612]

Absolutely beautiful.!! The shine on that crossbar in the last photo is absolutely stunning.

As for the clear coat, you might want to clear coat a small patch so that you can compare how both fare after a period of time and grime.

Cheers..!

[RiderZone]

The result looks absolutely fantastic, but the amount of effort that took seems crazy This is the level of patience I hope to achieve some day, but right now seems impossible. I have only seen Titanium bikes with such a shiny finish, very interesting to see it on an Aluminum one.

[amol4184]

Originally Posted by alphamike_1612

Absolutely beautiful.!! The shine on that crossbar in the last photo is absolutely stunning.

As for the clear coat, you might want to clear coat a small patch so that you can compare how both fare after a period of time and grime.

Cheers..!

Thanks, and that's a good idea. I might do that!

Originally Posted by RiderZone

The result looks absolutely fantastic, but the amount of effort that took seems crazy This is the level of patience I hope to achieve some day, but right now seems impossible. I have only seen Titanium bikes with such a shiny finish, very interesting to see it on an Aluminum one.

Thank you. The task looks daunting in the beginning but becomes easier once you get in the zone. At about 800-1000 grit sanding you start seeing milky shine and you forget about it as you get a peep at upcoming reward

Or you can get electric sander and cut down time/effort to half, may be even quarter. I plan to use orbital sander next time.

Or you can aim for brushed aluminum look like Cybertruck and stop at 1000 grit. At that point it's already pretty smooth. Cannondale and Specialized both sold bikes like that from factory.

Aluminum is fairly malleable and can be polished to near mirror polish easily. I reckon titanium to be an absolute pain to achieve that effect, no idea. I wish ti frames were cheaper so that I could buy and experiment.

[ringoism]

I have collected (I suppose) approx 40 cycles by now of all colors/ graphics/ brands/ types of finish (incl. a powder-coated Kross hybrid export model), but all my favorites are the polished aluminum ones, and they get the most attention from others, as well.

Yes, you can do it in considerably less than 15 hours if you use a small angle grinder first with "Scotchbrite" and then compound on felt polishing wheels. I'm sure I spent more like 1/3 of that time on the pictured FF 29er hybrid conversion. Haven't re-polished in probably five years, so mirror-look is gone, it's more "burnished" now:



Have done this on at least two other MTB's, and
I also have a Dutch-made Gazelle and of course the old Hero Thunder MTB which both came in polished/clearcoated state from the factory, and will likely be doing 1-2 more this way.






A good choice and nice work on your part.

Obsession with originality can rob us of so much.

-Eric

[amol4184]

Originally Posted by ringoism

I'm sure I spent more like 1/3 of that time on the pictured FF 29er hybrid conversion. Haven't re-polished in probably five years, so mirror-look is gone, it's more "burnished" now.

5 years is a long time! I have heard the oxidization sets in just weeks. Mine is still as new as of yesterday so I am still undecided about the clear coat. Honestly though, polishing is rewarding so I might just let it wither every few weeks and polish again.

Originally Posted by ringoism

Obsession with originality can rob us of so much.

that's an excellent way of summing up something like this!

[Sudarshan_SMD]

Looks rad! Very well done.
It will look the part at Crit races.

I have a Specialized Allez Sprint(2016) which I might keep always. It likely will under this treatment eventually.

[amol4184]

Originally Posted by Sudarshan_SMD

I have a Specialized Allez Sprint(2016) which I might keep always. It likely will under this treatment eventually.

I think there was a polished aluminum Allez Sprint directly from the factory. If you do go down this path yours will look right at home! Do post photos and good luck