I need to know what kind of finish is on an early 80's Ripper. I'm talking about the silver ones, was it just highly polished or was it annodized? ( Or something else?)

Someone correct me if I'm wrong:

As far as I know the original finish was called:
'Ball Burnished'.

This is done in the same manner as sandblasting... only they fire very tiny ball bearings which polish the surface of the Aluminium. Then it is clear coat lacqured, to protect it from tarnishing / oxidising.

Has anyone had this process done to a P.K. Ripper, say in the last year or two? Did it turn out ok? How much did it cost you?

Thanks Diesel...

they were polished. i don't recall if they were also anodized/clear coated to protect it (i don't think they were, though).

one of my good pals had a silver looptail pk new back in the day. it did not have any type of clearcoat.

there you go I stand corrected.

Yea ball burnished , no clear coat , the ball burnishing stays bright for some reason.?

Rich

I polished mine,this was 1983. When I got it ,it was grey and dull-looking, so I brought some Simichrome polish and had at it with an old t-shirt. There was no sort of clear-coat on it, as I didn't have to polish it off. These days I would use Mother's Aluminum Polish. I wouldn't clearcoat it cuz if it ever got dull-looking again you would have to strip the clearcoat off before you could polish it again.

Do you guys think you could take a P.K. Ripper that has been painted, have it stripped. Then take it to anouther shop and have it "ball burnished" and it turn out ok?

Well Diesel you got it 3/4 of the way right! Also I just looked on ebay and "skatepool" has a silver P.K. for sale, and he says it has a ball burnished finish on it.

after doing a google search and some reading, it seems that ball burnishing is just an automated polishing process consisting of puting the item in a vibrating container of small steel balls. i guess that's sort of like using a giant rock tumbler.

exactly pgringo. The paint or powder coated frames are the same 6061 T-6 Aluminum so yeah if you got the paint (or is it powdercoating?) off you could then ball burnish it. I think polished looks better, but that is merely my opinion. I just think it's awesome that people are taking the time and have the appreciation for these fine machines that are so humbly called BMX bikes.

I checked into having one ball burnished. Our local guy did not have a machine big enough for a frame. He also checked other contacts around the country and it was the same story there too. He said when you do find a machine big enough, they won't talk to you because they usually deal in volume...no one-timers. So it went to the powdercoaters.

You may have better luck.....

Also, if you do strip one to powder or polish, never beadblast! It's hard on the finish...even if you are going to powder.

Cinelli
Shoot me an e-mail... I might be able to help you...
tburris@climatemaster.com

If you are stripping an aluminum frame, look for somebody who does plastic media blasting. It is delicate enough to leave the aluminum un-marred. It will prepare the frame for polish or powder finish.

bmxbully,
Can you tell us more about the "plastic media blasting?" I never heard of that one. I assume they use plastic balls? A while back I had one of my Cinelli's refinished and they glass beeded it and then powder coated it, and it turned out great! The reason why I brought that up is because while it is made from chromoly steel ( Columbus tubing ) and not aluminum, it is very delicate because the tubing is "paper" thin. The frame only weighs 3.11lb's!

Plastic media is ground up plastic. Glass media is a bit harsh on aluminum. I've use ground walnut shells on aluminum that is going so be polished.

They are not ball burnished, they are hand polished and Alliant(formally SE Racing) is to this day, still polishing frames by hand.

You take a buffing wheel, some polishing compound and go at it.

Bill,
How can someone contact "Alliant?" Can you send them a frame? What do they charge?

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