Frame Restoration/Rust Questions
 

Hello All,

So I have a vintage concord raven road bike that I've recently committed to refurbishing into something fresh.. having said that.. I did some research and started by sanding down my frame/fork with an angle grinder and wire brush attachment. The frame to begin with wasn't that rusty and in decent shape so everything came right down to the bare metal. There were a few tiny brown spots where metal meets metal and in tiny corners that was bothering me so I took a small brush and threw some vinegar or these spots and left it hoping it would take care of the tiny rust areas.. well when I came home it seems like all the areas where I had spread the vinegar are now brown and rusted? I had no idea or intention of this... is this even rust? Is it oxidation or something weird like that? Long story short.. I was wondering if this is actually rust and I should sand what I can again? I can wipe a good amount of it off with just water, but there's still some minor brown residue all over where I had vinegar.. Am I being too paranoid about rust? The frame was basically rust free except for a few minute areas, which is why I tried this to begin with. Should I simply wipe off what I can with water and spray the rustoleum primer on it? Or should I wipe down what I can, re-sand with the angle grinder where I can (this might be hard because the majority of the areas were the corners I could not hit with the grinder) or put some kind of compound on this?

Sorry about the novel.. I was just super pumped to come home and prime this thing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Much Thanks

Why vinegar? It's acetic acid and probably caused the extra rust you are seeing. If you want to clean off rust prior to painting, get some "rust converter" (basically phosphoric acid), or citric acid or oxalic acid at a hardware store and use one of them.

I used vinegar because I've been reading all over that soaking rusty parts in vinegar will remove rust just as effectively as oxalic acid. I understand this isn't soaking per se, but you get the drift...

Vinegar is sometimes used to remove rust from things, but not the way you tried to do it. I've seen it used in removing encrusted rust from steel or cast iron tools. In that case the tool is immersed in vinegar solution (citric acid also works). When the part comes out of the bath, it is immediately rinsed, thoroughly dried, and often a rust preventer is applied.

I would lightly sand to remove the new oxidation. (By the way, rust is a type of oxidation.) You should be aware that recently cleaned bare steel can rust again pretty quickly, especially if it is at all humid where the part is located. You will probably want to move onto the next step promptly.

I'm not an expert on bike painting, so I'll sign off here....