does anyone know where I can
i) get an old steel frame sandblasted until it has that cool matte-steel tone
ii) get an old steel frame’s dropouts changed to normal vertical dropouts so that road wheels may slip in & out more easily
but not necessarily in that order
Hey David, I know a guy yes. Unfortunately, I believe that changing dropouts is a pretty costly thing to do. I’ll send you a PM with his email address and you can ask him.
As for the sandblasting, EXOR in Blainville can do it for you, but that is also pretty expensive. I recommend trying out the sandblaster in the engineering workshop, or simply try out a heavy duty chemical paint or varnish stripper. I bought a can at Cantire in august for 10$ and it worked like magic. Just don’t forget to wear protective eyewear, gloves, sleeves and pants!
Thanks for the dropouts, I’ll check it out.
Regarding stripping: I once used this spray paint-remover by Behr. It was quite literally the most volatile substance I had ever used. It immediately bubbled the paint off of the frame. Terrifying.
I was just talking about sandblasting it to make it look pretty, but that’s not a huge problem.
Oh you mean to take the clearcoat off and obtain a matte finish on your existing paintjob? Gotcha. Ask the droupouts guy too!
*dropouts
GURU in Laval (no bias)
Dave, pretty sure our sandblaster is up and running. If so you can come after hours and do the blasting yourself - for free. Its easy!
I’ve got a buddy who does steel frame work (pretty awesome welder) who can probably do the job cheaper than a shop - not sure if he’s still got his setup, I’ll double check.
You will absolutely need to repaint any frame after blasting and welding, otherwise it’ll rust to shit. If you want it to look like metal you can clearcoat it.