hit the now dull but smooth spot with some polishing compound
Does car wax qualify as "polishing compound"?
I had a go yesterday sanding the rust down. Unfortunately, I didn't have any sandpaper so I wrapped tin foil around the end of a pencil. It worked quite well. For some reason I seemed to scratch down to the metal, but when I wiped it over with a wet rag to get rid of the dust more rust showed up at the edges of the scratch. I think it's absorbing the water, or i'm wiping the dust into it, one of those two.
this process is a lot of work, so unless this is a rare or vintage frame where you're trying hard to preserve the original paint, disassemble and take the frame to your nearest powder coater to have it sandblasted and powder coated.
I only paid £30 for the bike and i've spent about £100 changing the wheels, brake levers and brake cables. I don't want to spend too much money!
Also, i've got some decals (or stickers?) on it that I can't seem to find on the internet.
Then my wife chimed in "just mix two colors to get what you want".
I didn't know that either. If I can't find anything good at the automotive shop, i'll try this. My other bike is white which made it much easier to find something that matched!
I'll post some pictures of the scratches later on today. The more I look at the frame, the more I seem to see!
Now you need to grab a sanding block an some wet-dry sandpaper and wet sand the spots to smooth them out and bring them flush with the original finish.
EDIT: Why should I wet sand it? What does wet sanding do that dry sanding doesn't?