Jack and all,
Deffinitely best NOT to sandblast paint off of a frame. Chemical strip b
y hand. Sandblast lightly around lugs and braze-ons. Hand sand with 80 g
rit emory cloth to the final finish. Then you can see what's going on. N
o dye needed; just a good pair of eyes through a magnifyer.
>From there, immediately clean with solvent and then prime the frame righ
t away. Needless to say, the frame alignment check should happen after i
t's stripped but before it's blasted and sanded.
Garnet sand, AO, or angular metal grit are the best media for blasting b ike frames. Stay away from glass beads and silica sand.
Brian Baylis
Busier than hell in La Mesa, CA
Fortunately, I LOVE my work!
Jack wrote for Matthew: I think you a Masi Prestige built by Alberto. Th e f ork is the first clue for me. I think it is restorable. The first way to fi nd though is to get the frame bead blasted to make sure it is sound. Whe n y ou have it bead blasted and cleaned up you will be able to see if there are any cracks in the frames structure etc. Good luck let me know how it go es. Jack __________________________________ I just wanted to add that the bead blasting should be done at a low pres sur e and of course at and angle. I usually see paint being stripped at 90ps i w hich is a very high pressure. I chase away the remains of chemically str ipp ed paint at 40psi and wouldn't recommend using more pressure than that. If
you are going to have it blasted make sure the guy with the gun has expe rie nce with bicycle frames - it's easy to poke holes into something so thin . S ince the Masi has been through intense heat I would also recommend check ing the lugs with dye-penetrate to see how well the brazing held up in the fir e. Most any good machine or welding shop can do this for you.
Regards, Peter Schwar keeping it all together in Montreal, Canada
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