Kdogbikes

Now that riding season is about over,I want to take of this area on my 85 tempo. Originally I was just going to go fingernail polish route,but I'd like some advice first from you folks. The rest of the frame is virtually flawless except for this area. Thank you, Kevin

elmore leonard

I would remove the forks, clean them and the clean the inside of the headset tube, grease the head set, mask of the the good paint as close to the rust areas as possible, so just the small rust area's are showing, gently sand with fine steel wool, then touch up the cleaned up areas with a spray can or use a auto touch up paint.

Andrew R Stewart 

Pretty common long term rust. Initial suggestion is to tread the outsides. Scrape away the rust and loose paint with an Exacto knife. Touch up paint with best match. Some concerns about inside of frame condition. second suggestion to do full break down and removal of all components and bearing surfaces. Then address what you find. Andy.

Kdogbikes

I agree with you guys with on the breakdown of the fork and race. Never thought of automotive touch up paint. I'm just hoping that I don't find major corrosion. Such a damn nice bike,and I want to make it right. Thanks.

Crankycrank

This works great for sanding down paint in small controlled spots. FRYS.com*|*PHILMORE Can be found at auto parts stores, Amazon, EBAY, etc. Use a back and forth motion for larger areas or just spin it over small chips for a small round sanded area. This works fast so be careful if used on aluminum or soft materials. Make sure to wear rubber gloves and cover the floor under your work area as the small glass strands will imbed themselves in your skin and are a biotch to find and extract from hands and feet.

Kdogbikes

Thanks crank! This would be perfect for this area. I've done complete strip downs of frames but with this bike I just want to fix this area.

mtnbke

Steel bikes rust. While many gorgeous C&V bikes have gorgeous lugged construction and nice paint, many are giving up the ghost due to rust.

The real problem with steel bikes isn't the rust that you can treat on the exterior of the frame. What usually does steel bikes in is the "inside out" cancer from inside the frame. Many Colnago, Cinelli, Pinarello, Olmo and Masi bikes are finding their way to the graveyard. While steel technically is repairable, you can put the frame in a jig and braze in a new tube or stay, the reality is that most people that have repaired a steel frame and had them repainted, who were entirely honest about it realize that the frame doesn't handle quite the same. It just is never "the same bike."

Hilariously, after the whole disingenuous "crack-n-fail" slander of the early 80s that many LBS used to try to steer customers away from Cannondale and Klein bikes, most of those are all still on the road. People forget that the Cannondale 3.0 series frames not only were the lightest frame sets in the world, but the stiffest and strongest as well. Plus no rust! Now aluminum frame sets can technically fatigue, but you'll see dozens more crimped tubing on vintage lightweights that hit ruts or potholes before you'll see a C'dale road frame that failed not due to an accident.

Its funny how much of a false narrative exists in cycling.

The average LBS and the cycling industry in general is constantly trying to reinvent the paradigm:

slant parallelogram derailleurs
700c wheels
indexing and floating top pulleys
26" mountain bikes
Suspension forks
V-brakes
carbon forks
carbon frames
29ers
disc brakes
8 to 9 to 10 to 11 speed madness, "one more cog" really is about more "finicky" shifting
650b
electronic shifting

Most of all of the paradigm changing was based on a false narrative, and had much less to due with true performance advancements and more to do with needing to instill a notion of obselescense to sell the next generation of bikes.

I'll take an early 80s 7/8 speed indexing Klein/Cannondale anyway. Everyone else can have the finicky modern shifting and the throwaway carbon frame sets, and the rusty old boat anchor flexy steel bikes.

ltxi

With much, much luck that's external and correctable rust. But I don't think so. My, hopefully wrong, guess is that water/moisture collected in the bottom of the head tube and the inside's gonna be a rotted out mess.