Ren Rawbor
Fat Chance Fan
So, you decided to make it fit in with the modern bikes then
What to do when a bike looks like this.
- Thread starter Spankyfart
- Start date
Yeee… rust converters are for the naive. In my experience they never quite work. They dont work even a little bit.
Frustrating as it sounds youve got to get the rust out 100%.
A bike frame will fit in a blasting cabinet, mask all the good areas and then go at it with glass bead and take all the rust to bare grey metal.
The glass bead makes a surface thats hungry for paint. Its awesome.
Hit with 2 part epoxy primer. Now you have a stable bike and you can fret about an authentic paint job, or not. You have decades to debate.
I bought a rusty cielo and cleaned up the rust. I experimented with feathering on stem since it needed a full redo. Feathering doesnt work. Just mask with straight edges.
My repair wont be in any museum but the rust is gone and the metal is stable.
I zapped inside of frame with fluidfilm.
Frustrating as it sounds youve got to get the rust out 100%.
A bike frame will fit in a blasting cabinet, mask all the good areas and then go at it with glass bead and take all the rust to bare grey metal.
The glass bead makes a surface thats hungry for paint. Its awesome.
Hit with 2 part epoxy primer. Now you have a stable bike and you can fret about an authentic paint job, or not. You have decades to debate.
I bought a rusty cielo and cleaned up the rust. I experimented with feathering on stem since it needed a full redo. Feathering doesnt work. Just mask with straight edges.
My repair wont be in any museum but the rust is gone and the metal is stable.
I zapped inside of frame with fluidfilm.
PhillB
GT Fan
Looks great!! and yes getting the rust right out is obviously the best route in the long term. Sometimes though there is a balance or choice to be made to keeping the rust under control to maintain an original design or paintwork , versus a strip back and repaint..... it's a matter of personal choice, rather than naivety.
The naive part is thinking the converter or miracle chemical is going to make the problem go away. The rust is still there and is still hungry, and now you can't see the surface so the problem is hidden.
The only case where a rust converter has 'worked' for me was using POR15 on rusty 3/16" steel. It might rust underneath but who cares. I've made quite a few messes with lots of chemicals and repaired after others have tried similar things.
Warning about POR15: Its SUPER toxic. I have a paint suit and a proper respirator and I'm still never using it again. That is truly the smell of chemical death.
Reason Im advocating the glass bead is that it can get all the rust out from tight spots, for example around those rack mounts. Is very difficult to get everything with a wire brush without damaging the metal. The fix means getting the paint off the rust, then getting the rust out of the metal.
There's quite a few media cabinets sitting idle in the world, the problem is that the people that have them don't tend to advertise it. Scout around old body shops, almost certainly there's on in the back behind some racks.
In all honesty I don't think calling it naive is very nice. You're advocating for far more involved process, which is no doubt great, but also way more costly. My impression of OP's post is that he just wanted it a bit less crusty looking and as such light sanding and rust converter definitely cleans it up nicely. Obviously doesn't provide lasting protection, so he'd have to decide on some options to protect. A good rub with some BLO, provided it is stored inside should suffice. Using any sort of rust remover/converter and painting over should also be perfectly adequate.
Right, I see the majority of the project's time will go to doing the paint. The rust would be gone in an hour with a media cabinet - no time at all compared to masking, sourcing paint, practicing, vacuuming, etc.
It just doesn't make sense to paint without getting the rust out.
Nice or not I 100% think rust converters are a scam.
You're of course entitled to your opinion and your results certainly speak for themselves, so no hate from me. It's just not everyone has the resources or finances to do it that way. If the bike is being stored away from the elements from now on, I have no doubts that minor 'patch' treatment of the rust and some sort of protection (paint, oil etc) should suffice. I have done several bikes like so and I have zero complaints. So I think calling it naive is a bit belittling and it sort of exudes the energy that any restoration done is only right if it follows that criteria, while many builds I've seen have turned out just fine without going the whole nine yards.
Spankyfart
Marin Fan
Yeah it's not for me, it "might" be built for someone else.
Or it will get sold and it's another mans problem.
If it was mine to ride I'd do a full repaint and have someone with airbrush skills paint the marble.
It was just to make sure what was the best way to safely pass it on to someone I know and doesn't have the money.
Clearly sandblasting and repairing paint is the proper solution, a new Ferrari is also a better car then a 30y old beemer.
Not a car guy, so a Ferrari might well be as shit.
Or it will get sold and it's another mans problem.
If it was mine to ride I'd do a full repaint and have someone with airbrush skills paint the marble.
It was just to make sure what was the best way to safely pass it on to someone I know and doesn't have the money.
Clearly sandblasting and repairing paint is the proper solution, a new Ferrari is also a better car then a 30y old beemer.
Not a car guy, so a Ferrari might well be as shit.
If you just want it stable until it finds a new owner:
1) store it in warm dry place
2) spray/wipe it down with wd40 or fluidfilm or kroil, some light oil. The oil barrier isnt durable but will impede rusting. Inside the frame too!
