A few weeks ago I took this frame and fork to my local auto body shop to get "stripped" and clearcoated. They did not look too excited about the prospect of screwing up the carbon because the guy does not have any experience with this material so I decieded I would try this myself so if/when I screwed it up, it would be my own fault. I started with the fork because it is much easier and cheaper to replace it than the whole frame. And I still might put a WCS fork on it. I started with plain old sandpaper and quickly found out that would take a LONG time and my arms would fall off too. So, on to the Dremel. The Dremel did almost all of the work. I also quickly determined that the stripes are paint and not stickers. After getting all of the paint off(at this point I thought it was all ruined) I sanded the whole frame then cleaned with mineral spirits. Then I applied 3 coats of the poly. This is the first experience I have had doing ANYTHING like this so I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I did rush more than I should and yes if you look close you can see some imperfections but all in all, I'm happy with it. If I can do it, anyone can. I will weigh it when I find a scale and I might have some custom stickers made up.

Nice work, looks far nicer IMHO

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Vorsprung Durch Tortë http://www.costablancacycling.com/

Couple more pics. Man's 2 best friends. It will be interesting to see how long the polyurethane lasts. I will probably wax it to help it last longer. The cool thing is I can just sand it away and try again.

I can only see the frame, I can't see the dremel

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Vorsprung Durch Tortë http://www.costablancacycling.com/

What a nice job you did!! I have the same frame (yellow-white) and I was thinking to change the yellow in white, or just leave the white stripes. So your project is really interesting for me. Do you think it is possible only to erase the yellow stripes?

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There's no point in living if you can't feel alive - JB

Well done...

How much for a can of Minwax and where did you buy it? Is that stuff comparable to the original clearcoat finish?

Yes, I removed them one stripe at a time(mine was the blue and white one).

absolutely beautiful....i'd be scared myself to use a dremel for fear of cutting thru the carbon....i'd use regular sandpaper if i were to attempt the same project for my frame.

Thank you. I'm not sure where you live, but I bought the "clearcoat" at Home Depot. Its intended use if for wood, so not sure how long it will hold up on carbon being used outdoors in sun and rain. Can only hope.

I started with sandpaper and saw that would take a long time. With the dremel, just have to stop below the paint, but I'll let you know if it comes apart on me while going down hill.

Nice work!

A couple of questions :
1) What size is that?
2) Did you weigh it before and after the clear coat?

Never a more timely post, as I was just wondering about stripping paint off of carbon. I just acquired a set of used Zipp 440's that have white paint on them. I see my project for the upcoming week. I will post updates and results when I get underway.

Lots of Home Depot's around my part of earth.

I wish to do the same thing to one of my bikes, and have no doubt about my ability removing decals, but it is the clearcoating part I am most worried about as I want to get the same 'high gloss' look of the original...

Looking at your job, it looks like it is entirely possible...

yeah, it's go me thinking too (i have an '05 TCR0 frameset). good work.

*what dremel attachment have you used there?
*how 'deep' do you have to go? is the paintwork only very superficial?

It is a small and no, I haven't weighed it yet but will before I build it up.