I am rebuilding my vfr nc30 and am after a more factory finish. Does anybody know what the swingarm and frame is finished in? Is the frame laquered? Does the swingarm have some kind of coating or plating, the layer looks way too thin to be paint.

Tim

I think you'll find the frame and swingarm are anodized,the frame spars polished first,
It's a natural finnish for protection.

I thought that you can't anodise cast parts?

Tim

They're anodised (or some other similar process). Paint stripper doesn't remove it, but acid does. Trust me - I've polished them and never will again!

Nah not going to polish it, been there done that, sick of the work needed to keep it nice.
Want to keep the standard look anyway.

The reason I ask the original question is because I wanted to bead blast the swingarm back to bare metal to get it totally clean, but before doing that I would want to know how to get that original finish back.

Tim

definitely anodised mate, have a look on google, you can get kits or there people who can do it, I've been looked at this before as there is no point in polishing bits if they are going to tarnish in no time at all, life is far to short for that!!!

Anyone had anodising done or tried to DIY it ??

I would very much like to know if anyone has re-anodised thier swingarm/frame and the exact process that was used.

I was under the firm impression that anything cast could not be anodised, is this not true?

Tim

I'm rebuilding an NC24 and have had the frame powder coated in metallic silver by Triple S in Bingley. I'm really pleased with the finish, the frame has a "natural" look although it is brighter than the factory finish.

Anodising can be carried out on some castings but it depends on the alloying elements present in the aluminium alloy and also the quality of the casting. I briefly considered having my frame anodised but decided against it due to the preparation involved. The coating needs to be chemically stripped under controlled conditions and then the frame manually polished to remove scratches and scuffs before anodising so I would expect it to be relatively expensive. I don't believe that acceptable results could be obtained by any DIY anodising process.