Originally Posted by
wrk101
Its up to you. Expose yourself to OA? Surely you are wearing gloves, right? Surely you are using very dilute solutions? OA removes all of the rust and none of the metal. Steel wool and other abrasives just remove the surface rust, and some of the metal and chrome as well. It does not discriminate. And there is the microscopic rust you probably can't see. Use something abrasive, and its still there, and it will be back. Lots of chrome on bikes is super thin layer, easy to wear through with anything abrasive. Now if you are cleaning up an old ashtabula crankset on a Schwinn, fine. But if you are cleaning the chrome on frame stays, beware. I've done some irreversible damage to chrome forks by using 0000 steel wool.
And try steel wool on a painted frame, or the inside of a frame. To me, OA is safe, but that is all up to you.
Good points. It's all in the technique. I have done hundreds of bikes, motorcycles, and collector cars and never
have damaged any of the chrome. After using steel wool and polish, the trick is to clean and wax properly.
Matter of fact, you would be surprised what I can do with oxidized aluminum using 0000 and semichrome.
Johnnybee.