how to clean up old rusty bike frame.

[Paul Drawmer]

I need to clean up and paint an old bike frame. It's for use on the turbo trainer, so it doesn't have to be pristine.

What's the most effective way of doing this at home?

mains drill and mains 115mm angle grinder available.

Are flap wheels/discs any good, or is some other abrasive stuff better? Just want to get off the old paint and lots of rust.

I know it will end up pitted, but it will be a hammerite or similar finish.

[lufbramatt]

Flap discs can be pretty aggressive. You could end up going through the tubes if you're not careful. I'd use something like this:

https://www.toolstation.com/abracs-poly-abrasive-d...

Very effective and less chance of damaging sound metal.

Also check out the Deox gel from bilt hamber for areas that are too tight to get a power tool into.

[TGCOTF-dewey]

I'd price up you local powder coater TBH.

Even if you just get them to media blast it.

It's not expensive.

[BoRED S2upid]

TGCOTF-dewey said:

I'd price up you local powder coater TBH.

Even if you just get them to media blast it.

It's not expensive.

I did this with an old holdsworth frame back the same day didn’t cost much.

[tr7v8]

TGCOTF-dewey said:

I'd price up you local powder coater TBH.

Even if you just get them to media blast it.

It's not expensive.

This every time, cleaning tubes up is soul destroying, painting is hard work as well.

[Tim-D]

Yep absolutely - powder coaters the way to go - my local one has acheived some spectacular results for me in a multitude of colours......soon learned to repeatedly ask them to protect threads though - powdercaot in fine threads of the bottom bracket cup not fun - last one I had done was £65 and took 2 days - worth every penny!!

[gazza285]

Tim-D said:

Yep absolutely - powder coaters the way to go - my local one has acheived some spectacular results for me in a multitude of colours......soon learned to repeatedly ask them to protect threads though - powdercaot in fine threads of the bottom bracket cup not fun - last one I had done was £65 and took 2 days - worth every penny!!

I got lucky with one frame, I was working in Shorpe for a while, so found a powder coaters in the town. Turned out all the staff were originally from the Claud Butler factory up the road, they had all the correct frame bungs, and did a fantastic job. Nine years later and the finish is holding up really well.

[Paul Drawmer]

Thanks for the tips everyone. But.. I've ignored your advice.

I did a full road bike rebuild a few years ago, and the media blasted and powder coated alloy frame still looks fab.

However, due to the age of the frame and advanced corrosion I am unable to remove the quill stem, although of course as this is only for the turbo trainer, it doesn't have to have a working headset. So I have taken the "attack it with what I've got" option and have bought some abrasive discs for the angle grinder.

As I said in the first post, the main objective isn't appearance; it's to prevent the frame rusting so much as to lose structural integrity. It will probably outlast me with a couple of coats of hammerite.

[Barchettaman]

I might be missing something here, but can’t you just slap a heavy coat of Hammerite over the existing paint?

That’d be an hour at most, job done.



I did my old commuter in Hammerite a few years ago; it looked alright from a few paces. I think it was their ‘hammered finish’.

Best of luck.

[Paul Drawmer]

Yep, that's it. But the rust was so bad, I needed to strip it to check that it wasn't perforated!

Sweat is very corrosive, and I don't want to get dumped on the garage floor!