Rusty, but irreplaceable, hardware
 

How do folks deal with rusty hardware? I'm restoring a mid-70s Motobecane Grand Record. I have little bits, like the chainring bolts on the TA crankset, that can't be easily replaced but have a fair amount of surface rust. Simple Green won't touch it and EvapoRust turns the shiny chrome a dull gray color, albeit not rusty. Is there some other solution I'm missing? (No pun intended.)

If the chrome is gone, your best bet is evaporust, then grease to protect. It’s now “rider quality” hardware — perfectly functional, but not for a show piece.

Simichrome could restore some shine and leave a protective layer.

Looking forward to pics of the GR! I have one and really like it.

Thanks - will definitely post some photos after I get a few more posts in. After doing an old GT mountain bike with Spray.Bike over the summer, I decided to get this one professionally painted, and it came out pretty nice. Now slowly building it back up.

And thanks for the perspective - that makes a lot of sense.

Steelwool can do a wonderful job sometimes with removing surface rust and then even polishing the hardware a bit. Finish off with the proper metal polish.

Not sure which TA crank you have but Velo Orange has these listed as working with some TA cranks. I was able to use them to mount new chainrings on my Stronglight crank sort of. They worked to mount the chain rings together just fine but weren't quite right for mounting the rings to the crank arm. Can't say how they'll work on your TA but for less than $20 might be worth the gamble.

https://velo-orange.com/collections/...0-4-bcd-cranks

buffing
 

I use a high a speed buffing wheel and some white polishing compound and a little hand vice to hold the small parts.it just takes a minute.Polishing sand paper works 400 600 1000 2000 grit.That usually take two cups of coffee

I mostly use fine and very fine wire wheels. The 6" fine wheel is on a low power bench grinder, a cloth wheel on the other end. I like the low power grinder as it cannot rip a small part out of your hand. Gentle brushing but fast. I've used industrial grinders that were #*^%~ scary! The very fine wheel is only 3" diameter so the radial speed is low too. I chuck that into my ShopSmith/drill press. I've brushed a lot of aluminum alloy parts (ex: Campy brake calipers, stems) with that and it does not harm the aluminum. Good for caked oxide.

For steel parts and hardware, these days, I'm just wiping on a film of boiled linseed oil. Maybe 2 or 3 coats if I have time. It appears to protect well from more rust. However, except for multi day tours with camping, I'm a fair weather camper. The BLO may not hold up well to regular dew or rain.

On old rusty bits I have sandblasted then used a high speed wire wheel. I can get a pretty nice shine.

Chrome plating with surface rut, not pitted, can be easily dealt with with aluminum foil. I never use wire wool to attack chrome issues. Too hard, too oxidable and too bad about the first two.

Use a soft wire brass brush, to knock as much of the oxidized material as you can followed by a gentle rub with crumpled up aluminum foril...
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...84323dd2a5.jpg

These head tube lugs were done with the brush, foil and elbow grease - and nothing else...
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7df3b18df2.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d4336d6747.jpg

Sadly, rust pitted surfaces do not respond well to the aluminum foil thing. The fenders were just too damaged for decent repair, so I cleaned them off, roughed them up a wee bit and painted them to match the old Torpado...
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...2196c5bd51.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c2a3aa9eec.jpg

Dish washing plastic scrub pads are helpful and I do use them for surface cleaning and even low level alloy polishing (not a shiny shine but a satin like patina when done on alloy)...
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e0618c91fa.jpg

Hope that is a help.

I don't remember the process I used on this but it was a combination of wire wheel, OA and paint.
before:
https://live.staticflickr.com/1443/2...605ed28b_b.jpgP1020420 on Flickr

Pitting was not a plus!
https://live.staticflickr.com/1612/2...2fb1b108_b.jpgP1030637 on Flickr

I had a good version of the hardware but didn't think this bike was the right one for it.

https://live.staticflickr.com/3822/1...1cacf740_b.jpgLC_HdSt_00 on Flickr

i am curious about "hand vice"; I've flung more than a couple of parts across the workshop in recent months while buffing.

Vice grips - Irwin Vise-Grip® Locking Pliers | Emedco

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...82126a702.jpeg
This is what comes to mind for me

[MENTION=57478]repechage[/MENTION] - LOL a big clothes pin with a patent pending!

hand vice
 

Hand vices come in all shapes and sizes some are wood some are metal.I have collected a few. Jewelry makers supply have them sometimes called a ring vice.Machinist use them to grind out small parts, violin makers use them to make bridges .Most are simple and easy to make but some are intricate examples of the tool makers fine art

Hand vice? Just two days ago I found all pictured at the dump. Looks like I might have found a hand vice or two plus another clamp thing that have no idea about. I am going to clean the tools up and see how they can fit into my bicycle tools box...
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9855c5b028.jpg

Thanks, all. This is really helpful. Most of the bigger pieces on this bike, like the cranks themselves, the Weinmann centerpulls, the Nuovo Record derailleurs, cleaned up pretty easily. It's just the little bolts here and there that look awful! These chainring bolts went into the EvapoRust last night. Going to fish them out now and see if I can get them to shine up at least a bit with some Flitz and elbow grease.

shop tip
 

When you are using the buffing wheel to polish parts you only use the bottom part of the wheel never polish above the center line on the top of the wheel.That way parts dont go flying and you have way more control. A wire wheel is the easiest way to remove heavy rust from steel too .then buff.There are many grades of polishing compound.The course will grind away the metal FAST dont use on aluminum and the finer ones put on different levels of shine but still remove a microscopic bit of metal. Jewelers rouge is for polishing silver and gold and wont remove metal.Change wheels for different grades of compound.If you polish plastics or softer material you must use a slower spinning buffer.The high speed buffer will melt it

To an antique tool collector those two hand vises are prize finds.You done good.

If you go down to the woods today.
 

I still have a cursory/forlorn look in the hedge for bits that flew out the effing window decades ago. One of the best ways that stops this is screw/fasten the fiddly bit back into whence it came or a dismantled bigger bit and dremel wire brush it 'insitu'. Never throw away old frames - cut them up and use the bits for what was called BITD 'special service tools and jigs'. Those old cranks, head tubes, chain stays, seat tubes etc (that no sane person wants)are very handy mounts when they are 6 inches long and can hold a fiddly bit nice and secure whilst you attack it with abrasives. Oh yes you must wear gloves and safety specs - the newfangled Kevlar gloves are great for closeup work.

That makes sense. I presume the trick is, tight enough to hold the item despite the torque of the motor, but not so tight you gouge the metal.

Some of those look really cool. :thumb:

No one has ever told me that! Great tip.

And then I lose TWO parts. Or so I did last week - I have hopes of finding it. Er, them. :o

Why hasn't anyone mentioned electrolysis? It's simple, effective, and able to get at places where a wire wheel or sanding block can't reach.

Has the OP removed the parts? That's a necessity. Otherwise, it's easy to do with any number of DC sources, a non-conductive pan, stripped conductor, water and baking soda. Google it...

When I did my “Rusty Resurection” ItalVega a few years ago, everything was rusted beyond belief. I used a whole bunch of different grades of steel wool after I chiseled the crust off. Yes, I had to chisel my way through the crusty rust using a screwdriver that I didn’t care about that was cheap and soft. I could have just replaced the Campy bits but chose to keep them with the bike for the whole patina look. I held them with a pair of needle nose vise grip with the jaws wrapped with layers of electric tape and then put a dab of Mothers Polish in the steel wool and worked the bits back to life. Some bits came back almost unscathed by the surface rust , others lost some of their chrome. The bike came out with a cool look of exactly what it is, a high end racing bike that was abandoned in a field in a Central California beach town. I wrote about it on my blog and there are pictures of the whole bike. joesvintageroadbikes.wordpress , see Rusty Resurection

I have been machine polishing bits and pieces for many years and never had something grabbed. I use loose cloth, not padded cloth, wheels (softer and less likely to grab). The user must never allow the wheel to turn into the object being. Knowing how to used a polishing wheel safely (gloves, eye protection) is very important. Also, when machine polishing alloy, wear a mask or filter to prevent the suspended aluminum oxide from being inhaled (you can actually smell the product soon after the polishing begins...
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8c1ed8dd1f.jpg

Machine polishing compounds are available in at least three grades, from coarse to very fine...
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fec822d2d0.jpg

Small bits and pieces, that are threaded, can be held by attaching to the end of an appropriate bole.

If the chrome is pitted from rust blisters, there is no way to restore the part. But if it's just surface rust, an overnight soak in dilute oxalic acid will remove the rust and then you can buff it clean using any one of many methods described above.

Here's a before and after shot of a pair of Bluemel fenders whose stay hardware had a lot of surface rust. One was before treatment with oxaclic acid, the other after.However, if there is no surface finish to protect parts that rust a lot, like this one, it's useful to apply a protective coating to resist further rusting.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c0110e214c.jpg

Vise, as opposed to vice.

I deal with rusty bright work all the time when I restore bikes for the bike exchange. My first step is to remove everything small enough to fit in a quart plastic freezer bag and immerse it in a large open mouth container half filled with white vinegar. I fill the bag with vinegar and drop it into the larger container . this makes retrieving everything later easier. then I put larger items like center pull brakes and the front derailleur in with them and let everything sit overnight. The rear derailleur goes in another container filled with mineral spirits. The next day I remove the bag and empty the vinegar back into the container then take the bag into the bathroom and fill with water to rinse, dump out the water, and take back to the shop where I set everything on clean paper towels. Next I will use brass or steel wire brushes to brush off the rust that the vinegar has loosened. finally, I will buff on a buffing wheel attached to a bench grinder. Often I will use a wire end brush chucked into my bench model drill press to remove rust from small parts. It doesn't seem to harm the finish and works on chrome and aluminum parts. It is also handy to clean the threads on bolts and remove crusted grease from the teeth of chainrings. In fact, I seem to find new things to use it on almost daily. For removing heavy scale I will sometimes use a cheap retractable blade box cutter laid flat on the surface to scrape it off , being careful to keep the blade flat to avoid gouging paint. another thing to keep around is Brasso , which works well as a metal cleaner, as well as Dupont No. 7 white polishing compound, which I use to deep clean the painted surfaces of scuffs and dirt that gets embedded in the paint.

I'm surprised to see no mention of using a "unitized" abrasive de-burring wheel.

It's basically like highly-compressed ScotchBrite material (some are even made by 3M), which makes it like a very fine grinding wheel that has a somewhat flexible surface.

So choosing a medium grit grade does produce a polished finish in very short order on surfaces with all kinds of defects and/or residual platings.
The aggressiveness of the cut is determined by wheel diameter, wheel speed (mine runs at 1675rpm), grade of the abrasive, contact pressure and finally what type of metal.

It's hard enough that it won't round corners if the part surfaces are held flat to the wheel surface.

Again, at grinding-wheel speeds, these wheels work really fast. Used primarily for de-burring and for removing sharp corners on parts at certain stages of manufacturing, even post-machning and post-casting.

The only thing is that it does usually leave a bare metal surface, so better for drier climates and followed by a wipe of light oil or wax.

I've restored many a hex-bolt head with mine. Also useful for adjusting press-fit OD's and other very light machining purposes like massaging the tips and corners of cog teeth for enhanced shifting on troublesome drivetrains. I've even used this to "adjust" for an indexing mis-match, encouraging faster shifting in one direction or the other (typically to or from a larger or smaller cog), and also to make middle and big chainrings shift with more authority in either direction.

The level of surface finish is impressive coinsidering how fast that wheel does it's work, mangled quill stem hex heads bring 'em on!

Shown at the far end of my then-new bench here, attached to one end of a standard motor. Again these wheels are available in a very wide range of abrasive grits, so can produce high polish on any metal and do it fast.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...22b526715e.jpg

I've got the Velo-Orange bolts. They look wrong on TA cranksets, IMO. You can still buy new bolts from, say, Specialites TA itself (https://specialites-ta.com/105-plateaux-vintage) or Spa Cycles or Velo Duocycles in the UK .

Much more force, the jaws are hard leather, like a heel, the wedge really can apply force.

Nice job!