DRietz

Hey guys, so thanks to notworthy1, I am the proud new father of a Nishiki International that I will soon pass on to my brother in its Shimano 600-clad glory.

Now, I have a question. Being the paranoid kid that I am, I looked into the headtube to see what the inside of TT looked like. Small bit of surface rust. Completely acceptable, and I'm not worried about it, but I would like to "save the frame" from my brother's inevitable leaving the bike out in the moist atmosphere of Puget Sound. My question is really, can I put frame saver over surface rust? If I can't it's not worth it to me to give the thing an oxalic acid bath, as I know deep down nothing is really going to happen structurally. I just haven't gotten my C&V tinkering fix this month, and February is over in a week.

GV27

Yeah, you can just apply it right over the top. Rust needs air and water to continue to corrode. The framesaver keeps tat stuff out.

lotek 

I used a rough brush to clean off the worst of the internal rust before I applied Frame Saver.
It didn't remove all of it, but did a good enough job to remove any that might have flaked off.

Marty

southpawboston

just make sure the rust is thoroughly dry before applying framesaver. rust is porous and traps moisture (which is why it's so hard to stop the spread of rust). if there is any moisture trapped inside the rust, the framesaver may actually trap it in. since you can't fit the bike in your oven to dry it, the next best thing would be to let the bike sit in the sun on a dry day and get really warm to the touch for awhile before applying framesaver. that way, the rusty areas will at least be free of moisture before being coated by framesaver.

i've used framesaver on all my framesets after being powdercoated. the process of powdercoating essentially removes any protective coatings inside the frame, leaving the internals vulnerable to rust.