Cyclelogical
Look Ma, No Hands!
This is good to know. I looked at the yellow bike you restored and it looks very well done-certainly promising to me since the condition of the paint isn’t so good. I already know I need to OA bath the other bicycle so I can strip this down and try it as well. I was planning on giving the rims and other parts the OA bath and I guess I’ll try it with the frame and fenders since steel wool might be a process I’ll only escalate to if this doesn’t work. After wiping part of the rear fender I’m not really sure what to think of the paint, here. I know that the oxidized paint came off on the wipe-which I fully expected- but the a little of the pinstripe came up as well. There aren’t really any decals left, maybe the faded Spitifire one but it’s barely there. The whole thing is just a chipped up chalky mess so I’m wondering if, based on these pics I should give it the bath and move from there or just wire wheel and repaint.Cool bike and great you have it as a family heirloom!
I am of the thought that steel wool and oil have their place and have used it on bikes whose paint was truly pathetic but only after other methods have been tried or considered. It is a very abrasive method and removes a fait amount of paint in the process. Just because you can make something look better does not mean you chose the best way forward. You can easily test areas to see the optimal method. Sometimes just a good cleaning and deoxidizing with a fine rubbing compound is all that is needed for dead paint. As mentioned, be careful of pinstripes, decals, and silk screened decals are very fragile and wet sensitive. I have never had an OA bath adversely affect decals or paint but you should never make assumptions.
I only use OA baths when there is a lot of rust in with the paint. Here is an Imgur album of photos a Schwinn childhood bike I deep cleaned for a lady and it shows the results that can be achieved with an OA bath. There are some other cleaning tips in the album that you may find useful as well.
#0000 steel wool is quite handy and I use it a lot when cleaning metal parts but you still need to use discretion. I find that using brass hand brushes and citric acid is a good way to not haze the chrome on your bike and brass is a better choice as well for cleaning aluminum parts if you have to go deep.
Thanks for all of your suggestions, btw