The Clean Up

I've had some unpleasant results with oxalic acid on 50 year old bikes recently, paint discolored, decals removed, and some paint removed. I decided to try a couple of alternate methods on the chrome of this bike.

Alternate method number one was Evaporust gel. Apply to rusted area, "Allow to work for 1 to 2 hours until rust appears removed. Rinse off." Not quite so simple in practice: After sitting for an hour at 65 degrees Fahrenheit the gel had dried out and appeared to stop working. Two additional coats were required until the rather light rust on the fork blades had been removed.

Alternate method number two was the crumpled aluminum foil method espoused by several members here. I had tried it before with close to zero results, but it is so well recommended by some here that I decided to try again. Again, very little success. It did slowly scrape away some rust but a brass brush worked quicker. But on one area it did polish up the remaining chrome quite nicely. Looking more closely at that area I saw that the foil was removing the old cloudy clear coat that had been applied over the chrome, revealing the shiny finish underneath. In some areas where the clear coat was deteriorated the foil worked quite well. In areas where the clear coat had retained more of its integrity the foil was very slow going. I found that a small aluminum scraper and a brass brush were quicker. The photo below shows the fork crown with the right side of the clear coat removed. In other areas on the frame the clear coat was not so yellow, more a hazy grey.



The tear down did not reveal any great surprises. One of the Campag bar end shifters has an incorrect screw and is missing a lock nut. If anyone has a lead on these parts I would appreciate a heads up. I was not terribly impressed with bar end shifters when I tried them several decades ago, but since this bike was originally equipped with them I will try them again.







Here's how the frame and fork look now, after some polishing and waxing.



Brent