rosyjazz

I just bought a schwinn traveler which has some rust spots. I found the following online and wonder if its safe to use on bikes and if it really works?

Turtle Wax Chrome polish and rust remover T280RA- ReadReviews onTurtle Wax #T280RA

thx!

gringomojado

yes,better than Coca cola!

Jeannean

Use aluminum foil wadded up with water. It works better for removing rust in my experience.

jamesdak 

This method ruined the chrome fork on my Peugeot. It has always had mixed results according to who tries it. I've never had a problem with a commercial chrome polish product.

veloz

Bar Keepers Friend works well. Make a paste and let it sit. It contains oxalic acid so keep away from alloy. Any time you polish, avoid scratching and use the most minimal abrasion necessary. Simichrome polish is another one I like on restorations.

washed up

Did a great job on a chrome fork on an old Torpado I was working on.

fietsbob

A Repaint is Best. go to bare metal with wet sanding , then tough up.

JanMM

For what it's worth, chromoly isn't chrome. Unless it's chrome-plated chromoly.

Nermal

I don't know the product, but if it's like Naval Jelly, I would give it a pass. That stuff uses oxalic acid. It removes the oxygen from the rust really well, but you are left with bright metal with lumps and contours just like the original rust.

BlazingPedals

According to this, the Traveler was hi-ten steel not chromoly.

jefnvk

I use the liquid BKF and 0000 steel wool. Worked on everything that I have encountered thus far.

WizardOfBoz

Assuming you have a chrome-moly (moly is a contraction of molybdenum) frame with high tensile lugs, I'd suggest Evaporust. You need to submerge the part in this liquid product, but you can wrap a piece of a microfiber cloth around the rust and have the cloth dip into a dish with the stuff. Baste with the liquid occasionally. If you are just doing the BB or head tube, you may be able to suspend the frame in a small bowl of the stuff. It works.

But you will be left with a bit of exposed metal, so you may wish to sand down to metal and reprime and repaint, feathering the paint edge each coat. A lot of work.

I've used chrome polish (forget which brand) to remove rust from a steel stem and crank (for my son's old Red Line that I sold). That worked great. If you do end up with scratched chrome, you may wish to try Simichrome, a good metal polish.

indyfabz

Good golly, Chromolly! (Sorry. I couldn't resist.)

jorglueke

How's that? The rust may have caused flaking of your chrome but that wouldn't be due to the aluminum but the existing corrosion.

jorglueke

What do you mean keep it away from alloy? Stainless steel is one of it's main applications

HTupolev

"Alloy" as in "aluminum." It can seriously mess with the finish of aluminum parts.

jorglueke

Ok well alloy means any metal made up of two or more metals. Steel is an alloy. Alloy does not imply Aluminum.

HTupolev

It does in the variant of English used by many cycling communities, unfortunately. At least when left unqualified.

jamesdak 

It actually scratched up the one side of the fork that I tried it on. Maybe the Peugeot had cheap chrome?? If you search around you'll find others have had it happen too. I get a lot of great tips here but I will never risk this one again on any bike I care about.

jamesdak 

Doh, and here days later reading comprehension kicks in.

My failure with foil was on a chrome fork not a cromolly frame. Sorry for any confusion caused by my confusion.

jorglueke

Well it's physically impossible for aluminum to scratch steel, chromed or not. Literally physically impossible due to physics. But what can happen is that harder debris is on the item or the foil and then when you rub you move that around and scratch the surface with the hard debris. Glass, sand, quartz, and many rocks can scratch steel.

Try it on some worthless steel and see if you can scratch it with aluminum.

jamesdak 

Not going to argue with you about it. I was there and saw what happened. Cleaned forks first with commercial chrome polish. Polished to a high shine with a clean cloth. Had some really small insignificant spots left so put some water in a clean plastic butter dish and the foil. Nothing else. Scrubbed the one half of the fork and the damage happened. I know it shouldn't have either but it did. Google this tip and you'll find plenty of others that have had issues too. Simple as that. I've never caused any damage with commercial creme polishes so whether it makes sense or not that's all I will recommend. Isn't it great how we all can have our own opinion?

jorglueke

I don't doubt that you had an issue but the explanation, though we can never know the true cause, can't be aluminum metal scratching chromed steel because again it's physics. Maybe some chrome has microscopic imperfections , I don't know. But lots of people use aluminum not just lovers of vintage bikes.

zandoval 

No matter what method you settle on it must be accompanied by a healthy dose of....

"ELBOW GREASE"

Wish I could buy some at the store...

SkyDog75

Not necessarily so. An oxalic acid bath will remove rust with zero elbow grease. Same goes for products like Evapo-Rust. The only real labor required is if you need to disassemble the item before dunking it into the liquid. Beyond that, the whole process is submerge for a period of time, rinse, and dry. No abrasives, no scratching, no scrubbing, no little nooks you can't get into.