Classic Trek Y Frames (Y11 , Y22 etc)

[Mr Purple]

Hi
I always fancied one of these. I have often wondered if it is possible to strip a coloured Y frame back to carbon or repaint in a different colour? Any views appreciated

[egomeister]

Shouldn't be a problem. I can get you the details of a chap who used to paint F1 cars for a living so has a reasonable idea about working with carbon...

[Mr Purple]

Cheers for that - i just wondered if you were to strip back the coloured paint , wouldnt you get paint inbetween the weave? or did they gel coat the weave first then add the colour therefore it would be much easier to 'play' around with

[markoc]

Pretty sure they aren't too pretty without the paint

[theboymoon]

There's a chap on here who has 3 of them!

[neil_bolton]

Eeeeeevnin.

Yup, Moon's right, three of the buggers.

Some of you are right, they're not pretty underneath the paint. The weave of the Y22/Y33 models was artificially added; the frames are actually a matt grey/black when the paint taken back.

You can respray them, however they need to be treated in a different way to normal frames due the heat debonding the OCLV lugs. Any painter whom does carbon stuff should know how to do this.

They're very good frames - I'm building one up as a single speed which should pop in at around 23lbs for a 4" travel full susser...

[egomeister]

Mr Purple said:

Cheers for that - i just wondered if you were to strip back the coloured paint , wouldnt you get paint inbetween the weave? or did they gel coat the weave first then add the colour therefore it would be much easier to 'play' around with

The carbon fibres themselves will be fully surrounded by resin, so there shouldn't be anywhere for paint to get behind. Quite often carbon will be manufactured with a gel coat like treatment, but it's dependent on production process and whether the material was ever expected to be seen etc.

As someone else has mentioned, it's probably not going to be too pretty behind the paint. The process of removing the old paint would not leave you with a cosmetic finish anyway, so if you are going to strip it then repaint is likely to be your only option.