View Single Post
Old 03-07-23, 09:24 PM
  #8  
jasoninohio
Newbie
 
Join Date: Oct 2021
Posts: 72
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 33 Post(s)
Liked 38 Times in 22 Posts
I have very little experience with this but I did some research last year and I think the conclusion is that for a bike, you can certainly do the raw look for the sake of the aesthetic but it will develop some kind of surface rust even if coated or treated, which might actually look great but point being it should be a fair-weather bike and will need to be wiped off with WD-40 or whatever periodically if actually raw, if under clearcoat or powder it just gets that spiderweb rust patina under it..

I was interested in doing a cold-blued look; the one I did was a 90's Giant steel road frame, stripped it entirely with a wire wheel (which takes forever), buff it with WD-40 and #2 steel wool, clean with brake cleaner and let it dry, then I did the black oxide/cold bluing liquid applied by rubbing on with cotton balls, then wipe that down with a wet rag and let it dry and we're done, I'll see if I have some pics to attach (I haven't even built the thing up yet)

My take-away was that I am happy enough with how this cold-blue thing came out, I'm not going to clearcoat it or anything more and I wouldn't do it again because of how much work is involved but it was interesting and a fun project for a nice retro bike that had bad paint...





Freshly stripped, flash rust happens within days

Ready for cold blue stuff

Result was a smooth even dark finish


jasoninohio is offline  
Likes For jasoninohio: