i have a 2013 V3 Supreme FR that i fancied polishing after stripping the paint (powdercoat) off as although the paint is virtually unmarked (invisiframe kit fitted from new) i just fancy a change to its look. The frame has painted details and the only sticker kits i can find just have a dozen or so of the same commencal logo and nothing else....has anyone managed to find sticker kits that have a similar look to the original style eg different head tube, down tube, seat tube, seat stay and top tube...preferably for any of the supreme fr's 2012-2014. Highly unlikely i know but maybe someone has found a work around for this.
brought myself a vinyl plotter and have downloaded some vector logos of the main commencal lettering but does anyone have any for the other stickers eg supreme fr and headtube badge....im new to this graphic design stuff...
here is a pic of it polished....it needs a wash to remove the residue but looks pretty decent as is. taken me longer than i wanted as i didn't donate as much time to this as quickly as i first intended. made my stickers but am yet to fit them.
cheers for the idea but i have a vinyl plotter and have cut some now just need to apply them and take some more photos with the drivetrain back together. Team associated are cool....i have a team losi and some hpi stuff and have a few stickers somewhere though they are much smaller.
i used some paint remover that you just paint on and leave......it wasnt super aggresive so i left it on overnight then the next day i would repeat the process with any stubborn bits. so after the first coat it looked like this
once the paint was removed i thought i could maybe get away without sanding so i grabbed the metal polish and after some time got this
it looked ok at first glance but it actually had a tone of small imperfections from the manufacturing process so i then sanded it several times with various grits of sandpaper from 800 down to 1400 grit......this was the time intensive part
i left the bb in as its metal and a sod to get back in (although i spent a bit more time to get the paint stripper round here so apart from right underneath the cups which cant be seen there is no visible old paint (well mine was powdercoat actually) left)....the main pivot bearings i removed after stripping and was gonna chuck them but they still felt smooth so put them back in. the ones in the chain stays i left in and was just careful around them and did my best to mask them and clean them afterwards as i had no bearing press to fit them. the headset cups were removed for this.
then i polished it with meguiars nxt metal polish (normally use autosol but its so messy and harder to get out of the welds). i did use a dremmel with some polishing pads but it didnt work that well apart from the welds but i still did most of the welds by hand. best of luck for your project.....its not too bad just takes a bit of time but when its done it looks ace and im very happy with the results. but it only looks good as your sanding process is ie dont be tempted to rush this part. Once i get a bit more spare time i need to finish mine and upload the pics (should be done in a few days time).
well finally finished this.....i have been super lazy recently and kept putting other things ahead of this but finally got round to putting it back together and adding the stickers i made. Quite happy with how its turned out.
lol cheers.....yeh looked a little too plain before i stuck them on,
just nipped out for a quick 9 mile ride round one of my local trails just to check all is well. Its not exactly the best trail for a bike with so much travel but its not too bad considering if just a bit more effort required than my meta sl. surprisingly dry considering how much rain has fallen.