19 January 2011 - 8:48Some Things…

… are better left to the professionals. Over the course of the morning yesterday, I found that stripping a frame of it’s paint, is a little like screen printing: better to do if you know what you are doing, and have the necessary equipment to do the job properly. This is why I don’t do things change my own oil or even point a wrench towards my car when something needs a fixin’.

But I was interested in the process, and went out and bought a wire wheel attachment for my drill, and 4 drained batteries later, found I hadn’t made a lot of headway. I had learned my lesson. While it was very satisfying to reveal the metal underneath the once glossy Root Beer SIR9 frame, I became increasingly aware that I would never be able to get the paint out of all the nooks and crannies of the drop-outs, braces, disc mount etc. This will require a media blasting to get rid of all the paint. It isn’t in my budget to blow a few grand on a proper sand blasting booth, so I called quits on the frame prep.

So I’ll be boxing the frame up and sending of to Bilenky, along with some liquid appreciation. Now I can get on with the task of picking what color it will end up. Right now, I’m thinking of a darker sparkly grey. All my supporting bits will be my typical purple/blue/silver/black flair.

I will say this though. I really enjoyed being close to the metal. A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away (England) I used to custom fabricate wheelchairs for the NHS at the apprentice level. Everything we did was spec’d to the individual person who would be using the chair. There was a lot of measuring, cutting, mitering, welding, polishing and painting. Different, but not dissimilar to making a bike. My experience yesterday made me remember those days long ago, and I think that I decided I would like to attempt to make a frame some day. Yes, I think that would be a very worthwhile dream to pursue some day.