# Oxalic acid on pinstripes / decals



## prewarmachine (Oct 31, 2020)

I feel like this would be a good candidate for an OA bath, but I've never used it before. The pinstripes seem fairly thin, so I'm trying to preserve what, same goes for the decals. Anyone with experience be able to say if they should be okay, or is a hand cleaning in order? I'd appreciate any help or insight!


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## Freqman1 (Oct 31, 2020)

I've never had a problem with it affecting either. V/r Shawn


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## srfndoc (Oct 31, 2020)

You might want to try wd40 and 0000 steel wool first. I had good results saving the pinstriping on these fenders without taking away all of the patina/rust to bare metal.











You could always do the OA bath if you didn’t like the results. I was careful not to press too hard on the stripes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## prewarmachine (Oct 31, 2020)

I always go with WD and steel wool, and I started in a spot, but the pins are already thin, so trying to make progress on the white without hitting the box pins is extremely tedious. If I run the steel wool over the pins it's removing them :/.
Freqman1, do you cover the decals or prepare them at all, or just throw it in?


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## the tinker (Oct 31, 2020)

No steel wool. Never.   No Wd 40 if you plan on trying OX later.  The Wd 40 will seal the rust and paint and the OX will not work. I've done lots of bikes in OX. Pin stripes will jump out at you. This has been covered in the restoration thread. Read the whole thread before starting on your bike. Look for the post, "Seeing is believing" in the Restoration Thread


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## srfndoc (Oct 31, 2020)

I think it also depends on what look you're going for.  I've seen some amazing before/after OA projects and others that looked either chalky or too clean but in my case I didn't want to get rid of all the patina, just remove the haze and make the original pins visible again.  

This kind of lays out the differences I'm talking about:






						Removing Rust from Fenders: Oxalic Acid versus WD40/Steel Wool
					

A blog devoted to vintage bicycle repair and cycling in general.




					bikeshedva.blogspot.com
				




That said, ymmv so tread lightly and good luck!


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## prewarmachine (Oct 31, 2020)

I like the results that WD40 and 0000 steel wool does. Some of the oxalic acid results seem too clean or almost purified I suppose. That's why I had to try my normal method first in a small sample size spot. The oxalic acid on a white bike, I feel could hide the super cleaned look if it ends up that way and save me countless hours of careful scrubbing around faint box-pins.

The tinker, is there a particular reason you say no steel wool? It seems like a very commonly used product in this hobby. I'm open to any alternative methods. I just want to preserve these bikes as best as I can learn how.


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## GTs58 (Oct 31, 2020)

Steel wool no matter what grit cleans by scraping/scratching the object and I personally wouldn't use it on old pins, screenings and decals.


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## prewarmachine (Oct 31, 2020)

That does make sense. And for pins and decals, I've had to avoid them with the wool. I've been switching to bronze wool as a softer, less abrasive material, but beyond chemical striping/bleaching and wool scratching/scraping, what else can be done to clean these? Or are those really the only options?


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## GTs58 (Oct 31, 2020)

prewarmachine said:


> That does make sense. And for pins and decals, I've had to avoid them with the wool. I've been switching to bronze wool as a softer, less abrasive material, but beyond chemical striping/bleaching and wool scratching/scraping, what else can be done to clean these? Or are those really the only options?




What do you mean by chemical stripping? Removing the paint? 

I'll suggest making a runny paste with some Bar Keepers friend and brush it on, let it sit for a few minutes then scrub a little with a brush and wipe it off. It does have OA in it and it does remove rust. Search BKF on Youtube. 

This vid cracks me up.


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## prewarmachine (Oct 31, 2020)

I wasn't thinking stripping the paint off. I'm talking about just preserving the original paint as well as it can be.
It just seems like the only way to undo the aging on original paint and brighten it up is the WD-40 / wool abrasive method or the OA chemical way as far as I've heard. Totally open to other ideas, and not trying to say one must be better than the other. I'm kinda leaning toward this white intricate paint benefitting more from an OA bath, but others using the WD to retain paint color. Maybe it's just a bike to bike thing to determine, but if there are other methods I'd love to learn them so I can properly preserve these bikes.


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## Dogtown (Nov 10, 2020)

prewarmachine said:


> I wasn't thinking stripping the paint off. I'm talking about just preserving the original paint as well as it can be.
> It just seems like the only way to undo the aging on original paint and brighten it up is the WD-40 / wool abrasive method or the OA chemical way as far as I've heard. Totally open to other ideas, and not trying to say one must be better than the other. I'm kinda leaning toward this white intricate paint benefitting more from an OA bath, but others using the WD to retain paint color. Maybe it's just a bike to bike thing to determine, but if there are other methods I'd love to learn them so I can properly preserve these bikes.



Here is an example of an OA bath that I did last week on a 41 Huffman. Finishing putting it back together now. The paint was definitely not the quality of a Schwinn from that period. After the bath I then proceeded wash it,wipe down with WD40 let sit for a bit, washed w/ soap and baking soda and then a mild abrasive compound, then wax and finished off with boiled linseed oil. Have not had issues with decals etc. these were pretty much gone when I started on this bike. This seems to work for me but there are people with much more experience than I do on here but they volunteered their knowledge and I have tried most of theIt suggestions and this works for me. The beat advice I received was experiment and find out what works for you there is not just one way to do it so you can’t do it wrong. Side Note: Maybe stay away from wet sanding that didn’t go so well. Lol. and good luck.


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## the tinker (Nov 11, 2020)

So, . . . lets finally end this discussion on Oxalic acid. We've beat it to death. Every question on preserving original paint has already been discussed in the Restoration Thread. Post your results, but as far as questions, seeing is believing. Newcomers should read the entire restoration thread,  " before " starting their project.  The answers to all your questions are already here and it will save you from a lot of grief.


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