Hey, I've been searching around for some good techniques for bike restoration. Weirdly enough I can't find much beyond "...use an Oxalyic Acid bath..." when I'm looking for more of a step by step with listed materials. Maybe that doesn't exist but I was hoping to at least get some subjective experiences.

My main questions are:
1. How to remove rusted scuffs and rust under paint (and how to tell how far the rust goes under the paint)
2. How to protect the frame from future rust/What type of paint to use to hand touch up spots.
3. How to protect chrome from future rust.
4. What kind of wax or polish to use on paint coat to protect and buff it.

Also a side note, I'm currently working on a 4130 frame and a TSX. I know the TSX is much thinner and I'm curious what sort of precautions should be taken on a lighter tubeset such as this.

Thanks,

There are many different ways depending on many variables. As a general rule, I would:

1. If there is significant rust under the paint I would sand the area down to bare clean metal and then prime and re-paint the bare spot.
2. Protect the inside of the frame with FrameSaver. For hand touch-ups, go to an auto parts store and find a good match to the original color.
3. Once you remove any existing rust from the chrome, I would just keep a good quality wax on it.
4. For polishing, I like Meguiar's ScratchX. I then use a good quality carnauba wax (non-cleaning wax) to protect the cleaned and polished finish.

Others will no doubt have suggestions but without seeing specific areas of concern, I follow the above.

Here's an album of the TSX bike I'm working on. The last images are the ones showing the areas of question. There is a section on the drive side seatstay that has rust and I have gently sanded down some of it to the metal but there seems to be some pocking and I don't feel comfortable removing a lot of metal from this area by sanding. That's why I'm hoping to find a rust dissolving solution.

Thanks for the other suggestions though. I';ll have to look for this ScratchX. Do you happen to have a recommendation on a brand of carnauba wax? Also would this be the same kind of wax you would use on chrome?

Nice bike! I don't see anything that looks serious enough to compromise the strength of the frame but I'm not familiar with TSX. The oxalyic acid should be able to dissolve the rust and get down to clean steel.

I use a brand of wax called Finish Kare, but Mothers California Gold Pure Carnauba, Griotts Garage Best of Show wax, Meguiar's #26 Hi-Tech Paste wax and others are good products. I also use the same to protect the chrome that I use on the paint.

...the old standby for small spot rust conversion was naval jelly, but this stuff called Evapo-Rust is water based, less toxic, and easier to work with. You still need to find out if there's deep enough rust that there are pinholes in thin walled tubing in order to avoid riding on something that might fail. It takes some courage, but the best way is with some sharp pointy thing like an ice pick, pushed into some of the deepest pits. If it does not push through, you should be fine. You can fill the pits with some kind of epoxy or body putty prior to painting once you have treated the rust. Otherwise, it's pretty difficult to get your touch up paint smooth.

...just read the label on the can of paste wax you select. Johnson's makes a paste wax that is largely Carnuba wax with some solvent carriers to soften it. I use a different wax, called Nu-finish. I get good results with it.

Judging from those last two pics, you have nothing to worry about. Get some black nail polish, cover the spot you've sanded, smooth it out by wet sanding with 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper, followed by a bit of rubbing compound and then wax it.

Using naval jelly will remove whatever paint you get it on. That's overkill for what you have there, and assuming you're not going to leave the bike out in the rain all the time, rust simply isn't going to be an issue if you get something to cover the area you've already cleaned up.