I was re-finishing a bike I got for cheap off of Craigslist. It had about 8 layers of paint off of it. I thought it was aluminum, but after removing all the paint, sure enough, it's a steel frame. I took it into the LBS because I needed help removing the BB, and the owner gushed over the frame, told me although he didn't know the exact brand said it looked 1970's vintage and said I shouldn't paint it, should just detail the braze-ons, etc. and leave the steel bare. He suggested enamel clear coat.

It is a pretty frame, I'll get some pictures up after work.

Now, here's my question. I've scoured the forums and most of the threads re: clear coat and steel are not encouraging: people talk about rust appearing under the clear coat within months. I even saw pictures of professionally powdercoated clear coat gone bad within a year or two.

Two other options I saw while searching are waxing the frame regularly and using a hot oil. Waxing is self-explanatory but could someone explain the hot oil in a little more detail? There was little description accompanying the post.

I tried talking with an auto mechanic this weekend to no avail. Other than an underbody treatment which would discolor the frame he didn't really know what to tell me.

When all's said and done is having an unpainted steel frame viable at all or is it more trouble than it's worth? I'm a one bike guy so I use this bike for my commutes, exercise and tooling with the kids. I don't mind putting in some regular weekly or monthly work to keep up appearances but I really don't want to be scraping away steel and rust every month

I live in northern Alabama where there is relatively high humidity throughout the year. It'll sit outside on a bike rack while I'm working but in a garage at home.

Thanks for the advice.

The LBS owner is an idiot. Sounds like you did your research and you know the answer. Paint it!

You can see a prototype of the Rivendell Bombadil in glossy clear powdercoat over bare steel on their site. It doesn't appeal to me.

https://www.rivbike.com/products/list...s#product=none

You will be buying into a lot of maintenance to keep rust at bay.

for all thats holy-paint it man,paint it !

Or if its really nice ---chrome it !

Yeah, just paint the thing. Hehe.,,,,BD

Yeah, it looks surprisingly bad. I guess this is an attempt to be totally honest about the material and construction: a naked bike sealed in resin for the world to see. But it looks like they've sealed over rust and scale as well as that honest steel and brass.
I compare it (in my memory) to some of the "naked" samples shown at the NAHMBS by such as Richard Sachs and Jeff Lyons (?), examples that were made to show how cleanly those guys braze, and their stuff just gleamed compared to this. Of course, there's a difference between a frame made for show display and one made to ride.
Too bad there isn't a steel bike tubing with the properties of Cor-ten construction steel: made to rust on the surface only and then stop.

Either way, if you're not going for a real classic look, powdercoat is your best option. A friend of mine who built her own frame at Yamaguchi's school did a semi clear powdercoat.

https://mothattackbikes.blogspot.com/...ercoating.html

It's got a bit of color in it, akin to a celadon pottery glaze. I think it looks amazing, and should be as durable as any other powdercoat. Wet paint can be prettier, but powdercoat can look pretty damn nice, and is just so durable.

I'm with your LBS owner. Why deal with painting it? Hell, why even bother with even just the clear coat? Just leave it as-is and just maybe you'll end up with something that will look this good and last just as long.

With your humid environment and outside storage, that frame will be rusted through within a few years. Paint isn't just to improve saleability and product appeal, it's to protect the base material from the elements. Red paint also makes bikes faster.

that's one of the nicest clear(ish) powdercoat jobs I've seen. I like the way it pools in the lug banks and valleys, it's pretty thin for a PC, too. What shop did the powdercoating?

There's a guy I know over in England who has a tube frame Buell motorcycle. I believe he looked into the clear coating and came to the same conclusions as you and ended up having his frame nickel coated instead.

I'd suggest getting the frame painted or powdercoated, then detailing around the lugs where the brazing is with a fine brush and contrasting/complimentary paint color. Will give the feel of seeing the brazing but won't have the issues with discoloring. I've seen some really nice detailed lug work.

Edit to add some googled image links:
These sort of show the type of detail paint I'm referring to. A Raleigh I had years ago had a black paint with gold line work on the lugs.

https://apt11.com/wp-content/uploads/...abela_lugs.jpg

https://patentpending.blogs.com/photo...s_bike_021.jpg

https://www.vintage-trek.com/images/trek/TAheadLugs.jpg

https://static.flickr.com/37/81138683_e31c4b664d.jpg

Thanks for the input and validation.

On a whim, I tried just detailing it while the bike was stripped down. It is pretty, I will give the LBS owner that much. I painted the braze-ons, head badge and trim black and detailed the edges in red. I really like the look especially with red bar tape, black/red tires and black/red seat. It's slick, but it'll never work out - there's already a thin layer of oxidation after two days.

It's getting painted over tonight. But I wanted to see what it would look like, and I did. Will post pictures tonight before I give it a shot of primer and paint it straight black (which was the plan all along)

Thanks again,

I thought Yellow paint made things faster?

I was thinking black ...

My first "real" bike was a Trek 720, cherry red, but alas, was stolen in college. It was speedy.

Nope, red. Any shade of red even, it's just that powerful.

https://www.thegunzone.com/rust.html

Olympic Powdercoating in Santa Ana, CA

Any pics? Just wondering what you have there - might be something special.

Sorry, got busy last night. I took pictures, I'll post them when I get home tonight.

I'd love to identify the frame, but I have no background in bike history. The frame had a head badge, metal, of a bullet, but it was attached to the bike with glue after numerous re-paintings so I have no idea if it's the original badge or ornamental.

The dropouts are campagnolo. I can't find any other identifying markings.

We love a challenge! Details of all the lugs is a must, and various views of the seat cluster and of the bottom bracket (underside too). Campy dropouts are a good sign.

I started a new thread as the title of this thread isn't really appropriate, check here.

I have some pictures posted but can take more, I'm stripping the frame down to the metal tonight to give it a paint job this weekend. So let me know what you need and I'll take it. Again, besides the campy markings on the dropouts I can't find an identifying mark for the life of me.

I appreciate the help!