Raleigh Centenary, rusting between gold plating & laquer

Percybigun

Old School Hero
I have a raleigh centenary ltd edition with the gold plated frame. I bought it about 5 years ago, it was already rusty in several places between the gold plating and the laquer when i bought it.
Now the corrosion is getting worse, and its hard to treat because the rust has thick laquer over it, but in a few places the laquer has loosened & broken up. If i scrape the loose laquer off with my thumbnail, the rust underneath usually polishes off quite easy. I would like to remove all the laquer, However on most of the frame where its healthy, it is very tough to scrape off large areas because it is so well bonded. I darent use any type of scraping tool or chemicals for fear of damaging the gold plating?
Any ideas on how i could get all the laquer off?
I realise i'd have to get replica centenary decals made up, but its a small price to pay to save the frame from potential future terminal corrosion.
 
I think you have been lucky, on mine where this happened the gold plate came off.

When the laquer broke and the rust was removed it left the chrome finish no gold. I'd worry that if you tried to remove the laquer that you'd lose all the gold and be left with a chrome frame.

Personally I'm still not convinced that they are proper gold plate, there is no mention of it on the paper work and you'd think they would shout about it. Also the cost was only £320 you'd think it would be a lot more for real gold.
I still think its a form of coating like the gold burners had.
 

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