Cycling UK Forum

In default of cavity wax and JPW's Frame Saver, any ideas on the best and easiest way to proof the inside of an LHT frame that's already been painted? I can get Rustol easily enough but I don't know if it will damage the paint or not.

you can make your own using wax and white spirit.... won't hurt the paint... if you want a 'creeping/healing' mixture then add a little oil to the mix.

You need to heat the oil/wax mixture whilst making it or the wax won't dissolve properly. Add the white spirit as it cools, but before the wax has transformed. You should have a mixture that is liquid at room temperature but dries out to a gel. Slosh it around inside the frame and pour out the excess....

That sounds interesting. Candle wax, I suppose - usually melted in a double pan, as I recall, because putting it directly on the heat risks having hot wax spurting all over.

Thanks, Bruce.

Do you reckon the mix would be fluid enough to draw into a hypodermic and squirt into the 2-mm breather-holes in the stays?

just don't get water in the mix....

more white spirit + heat = runnier for syringing

cheers

I wonder whether it's worth the hasle of mixing your own - I used Waxoyl before I built up my frame.

well that is what I'd use too in fact, but you would still want to thin it out, plus is it available in France? Dinitrol , Waxoyl and others make aerosols for cavity waxing of cars but the added weight may be significant if it doesn't just leave the thinnest coat...

For doing bike frames without making them weigh too much with added wax, it needs to done hot on a hot frame (so that excess drains out where it isn't needed) or applied in a 'mostly solvent' state again so that excess runs out.

cheers

As it happens I have a block of paraffin wax in the workshop and maybe a gallon of white spirit, so I might have a go. Once the temperature out there gets up a bit, that is. It's -2°C in the shop. "Hot frame" not an easily attainable condition.

if your wax or wax/oil mix goes hard in cold weather, add some more oil to the mix. A few experiments will be necessary to get the right consistency; do this first before adding the white spirit to thin it out.

My experiments have shown me that ~25% wax /75% oil gives a gel, 75% wax /25% oil gives a soft wax. Obviously this will vary with the wax and the oil used.

Do let us know how you get on!

cheers

It'll be a few days before I get to it in this weather. We're due very low temperatures for at least another week. It was -20°C in Mulhouse last night. Not so cold here, a mere -12°C.

FWIW, I chickened out of the DIY mix method. It remained so cold in my workshop that anything involving sustained warmth was out of the question. I found a can of ACF-50 and used that.

has anyone else used ACF50 for inside/(outside?) frame tubing?

i usually give the winter steed a coat of something rust proofing at around this time of year but have run out of waxoyl and never tried dinitrol nor ACF50.

I use ACF50 on my motorcycle, it is amazingly viscous and travels everywhere, I would think that it would work quite well if blown into the frame through the breather holes.

Stewart H wrote:I use ACF50 on my motorcycle, it is amazingly viscous and travels everywhere, I would think that it would work quite well if blown into the frame through the breather holes.

Totally agree. Used it on my guzzi which had open ends on the engine cradle! Seemed to do the job. I also sprayed my derailleur mech and cassette once. Shifted and looked lovely and shiny for a while but collected dirt for a hobby[emoji19] .

Surly are recommending "JP Weigle Frame Saver or motor fogging oil or boiled linseed oil"

http://surlybikes.com/info_hole/spew/sp ... teel_frame

I've only done it once and used boiled linseed oil. Was a bit of a hassle, especially blocking off the holes into the BB shell, as it would have really gummed the threads up, but it gave me peace of mind. For a year I got nice linseed oil dribbles whenever the weather got hot!