Treating Rust

[Rob D]

Vaseline is excellent for stopping rust when you discover it, a trick told to me by a car mechanic.
I took my bike to a local car paint specialist. Was able to match a deep metallic green very well. I cleaned the damaged area well, applied maybe 3 layers of paint, then a couple of layers of lacquer. So far so good.

[pete75]

Thanks
Can you buy lead based primers now?

Treating the bare rust with something like Granville rust repair and then using a decent red oxide primer should be quite sufficient. Red lead primer is still available but only in commercial quatities and only for licensed users.

[The Path Racer]

Lead was used as a siccative in oil based paints, oil based varnishes too.

[mig]

It'll take a BB shell about 200 years to rust through.

i think this is about it really for everyday bikes. my commuter frame had little paint in that area when i bought it (at least 2nd but may be more hand.) i have put some oil, ACF-50 etc on it over the years and it has barely altered. then i wrote the frame off last week. grrr!

[elmo1]

Another supporter of Owatrol Oil here.
This oil will absorb into the rust thus not allowing oxygen or water to penetrate creating further rust. The oiled metal can be left bare or painted over.
I have used this on a touring bike after many years and uses on steam engines. This is the oil that goes into oil paints so no issues with painting over. I happen to use paragon enamel paints but I have also found that the bog standard humbrol enamel paint works well with this oil.

Elmo

[fastpedaller]

I favour the kurrust approach. This stuff is also good.

When the guy handed it over the counter he held onto it and said "if I let go the customer's drop it". It certainly is deceptively heavy for a small can of paint! I stirred it for about 10 minutes to get all the zinc off the bottom!

[rogerzilla]

"Rust Anode" is similar. It seems to work, too, based on stuff I did two years ago.