Masking before Bead Blasting

General Help
1

Hey guys,

I picked up a deal on a new frame which I want to play around with and change from it’s stock colour. It’s a Specialized Carve (pictured below) and will be paired with a matte black rigid carbon fork.

I basically want to take the frame back to raw alloy but leave the white and black panels extending back from the HT and also the black panel on the ST, so that lead me to wondering if and how it’s possible to mask the areas and then bead-blast instead of paint strip, due to a cleaner finish with much less swearing.

Has anyone got any experience with this? or could recommend other options of media to blast with etc?

cheers

2

Do you want to leave it raw? Bead blast can leave it a bit orange peel looking, May be soda blast would be better, as for tape may be some aircon alloy tape thats is real thick and just put a few of layers on.

3

yep, I want to leave it raw. and then will probably have a big ‘SPECIALIZED’ decal printed in white to run down the top of the DT.

I’m not real up to speed with the different media’s to use in blasting and the effects they will achieve on an alloy frame, so would love to hear peoples experiences etc.

Good tip on the alloy tape, cheers.

I could probably just call a blasters but hey… internet.

4

thinking of using this joint FWIW.

W. Granowski Pty Ltd | Abrasive Blasting and Degreasing Technology

5

By the sound of it i would ask for the plastic beads, They say that it is for thin alloy and where damage from a course material is a problem.
The white decal you probably have at work ? They came as a pack with the 2013 shivs so you could chose your colour didn’t they?

6

I don’t have any and we don’t do much Tri stuff. I’ll have it vinyl cut by Brett from Signtorque here in Melb to the size I need along with a couple of extra decals to customise the frame. He does heaps of work for peoples bikes here.

7

is the bare aluminium going to be a pain to keep looking good? i imagine it will tarnish reasonably quickly

8

It’ll oxidize and I’m happy for it to tarnish and contrast against the paint/decals. I’m not going to be too precious about it. If I finish the frame and decide I really want it to stay ‘as is’ I guess I’ll hit it with a few coats of clear.

9

i have a drawer full of the fuckers. let me know if you want a selection

10

(like seriously a billion…second largest shiv dealer in the world)

11

That’d be wicked man, I’ll defs hit you up once I get this thing stripped, cheers!

12

Hey Sime, McGreggor has been doing some backyard blasting recently he may not be up for fancy taping but I’ll ask, also I left the chainstays on the spooky raw when I painted it and they’ve survived pretty well… aly4lyf

13

thanks Jez!