Originally Posted by
tsappenfield
I've been following this thread about various products that block rust. Very interesting and very informative. Here's my dilemma and associated question. I'm restoring a 1959 Raleigh Tourist. It wasn't exactly a well cared for bicycle. There's a lot of rust I'm dealing with. The underside of the front mud guard is the worst. I've sanded it down (by hand) to bare metal, treated it with navel jelly, resanded, resanded, resanded. Getting boring. I'm going to do electrolysis next. There will probably still be pits where the "rust bug" resides. So, do I prime, paint, and then apply these rust inhibitors i.e. Corrosion Block, Frame Saver, Boshield, etc., or do I apply the rust inhibitors first?
TSapp
Framesaver is put on the inside of the tubes, so it doesn't rust from the inside out, if the frame is completely stripped you put it down the seat tube, and any open tube ends in the BB shell and head tube, it's a once in a life time application. Considering the number of frames that were built before Framesaver was invented that are decades old and have only surface rust, it's requirement is debatable.
For painted surfaces, Navel Jelly or a product like Tremclad or Rustoleum works pretty well. In the case of Navel Jelly it converts iron oxide to ferric phosphate, Oxalic acid does something similar. This can be scraped off or simply primed over then painted. Tremclad or Rustoleum are paints, which can also be used the same way you would a primer, you put them on, allow to dry and then paint with the appropriate colour. One thing with painting though, if you colour does not match 100% you can often get away with it by painting to a natural division, for example if you touching up a chain stay, then paint from the dropout to the lug, it will be harder to tell then if you paint only part of it.
If your paint is a dark colour, then use the black Tremclad as a primer, if your paint is a light colour, then use white, for medium colours use grey.