Just get a nice clearcoat on it, instead of the wax, but goodluck getting the wax off if you choose to listen to us. lol
I’m no chemist, but i don’t think oxidation penatrates aluminum like it does steel. one good polish, and it should be fine. when you buy a bare aluminum bike frame, it will be polished (no clear coat).
Aluminium forms a protective oxide layer the moment it touches with air, making it inpenetrable to water. Oxidization will halt at that point.
Indeed, and infact the blue colour that comes as standard is anodising, where the oxide layer is dyed as it forms. Your bare frame will be as well protected as the stock frame ever was. As proof, the branding on a KH frame (the signature and ‘KH 20/24/29’) is actually where the frame is completely bare, rather than being anodised, and this area does not corrode despite being unprotected.
Kington, that’s just not true. That’s a powdercoating. Look at the blackened paint around the welds on Hans’s re-welded KH frame if you don’t believe me. Anodizing can be welded right over and grinds off easily. Powdercoating, like on the KH frame, is very thick and takes much longer to sand off, and if it gets heat affected will boil, blacken, and produce awful fumes. Even if it were anodizing, aluminum naturtally forms an oxide coating with a thickness on the order of 0.0005" or less. Anodizing, in contrast, forms an AlO coating of 0.0015"-0.0025", which is significantly thicker. BTW< aluminum oxide is the same stuff used to make grit in grinding wheels, if you wonder what its properties are.
Unicyclepa, next time try a sandblasting booth. It should take that paint off much faster and with less damage to the base metal. I tried a wire wheel on a bench grinder when i did a KH frame, and didn’t like how it galled the base metal.
Jason, you’re thinking of steel and iron, I believe. Aluminum when exposed to dry air by ITSELF will form a sealed oxide layer (similar to anodizing, but thinner) and not continue decaying. It is when water gets into the mix that things go bad. The carbonic acid in water will slowly react with the al, producing this weird flaky white stuff. We see it at work all the time. I’d clearcoat the frame, but so long as you sue it a lot or dry it before storage, you shoudl be fine.
Sweet looking uni. If you want a sweet mirror type finish go to an auto parts store and buy Mothers brand aluminum and magnesium polish. Then some fine steel wool. Rub the polish on until it turns black, then wipe clean. It will give it a highly reflective shine. You can probably do your seatpost too but the sanding will be tough.
Edit: If you decide to do that you will not need wax but you will need to polish it once every month or 2. A $3 tub is a lifetime supply.
are my eyes deceiving me or does that seat look like hunter/olive green… very nice i like it
Chase
great minds think alike? thats what i used to polish it