1980s Limongi That's Seen Better Days
#26
Newbie
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You should stop now take it out of the bath tub ASAP and rinse the tub several times with dish soap. Heavier concentrates of acid will damage your tub and plumping if not already. I guess we weren't clear sorry but when doing a acid soak on stuff it needs to be done in a plastic container that is semi expendable thus the kiddi pool suggestions acid can even mild can wreck the the finish on a tub. I would suggest taking some mild steel wool to the rough rusted places to see were your at at this point.
#27
mycocyclist
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Chemistry For Beginners?
You should stop now take it out of the bath tub ASAP and rinse the tub several times with dish soap. Heavier concentrates of acid will damage your tub and plumping if not already. I guess we weren't clear sorry but when doing a acid soak on stuff it needs to be done in a plastic container that is semi expendable thus the kiddi pool suggestions acid can even if mild wreck the the finish on a tub. I would suggest taking some mild steel wool to the rough rusted places with some WD-40 to see were your at this point.
Tubs are regularly scrubbed with "Barkeeper's Friend," which is of course Oxalic Acid based.
Seriously.
It might even benefit the drain plumbing by removing rust.
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#28
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A Clean Tub Is A Happy Tub
I've had the frame soaking for about 17 hours, and I'm not seeing much change so far. Is there anything that I missed in my process?
Before I placed the frame in, I gave it a good scrub with dish soap and water. There's about 30 gallons of water in the tub, which started off warm. I mixed in 200g of oxalic acid crystals to start, but have been gradually increasing the concentration and I'm at about 600g added (I measured that each tablespoon was 17g, so I should have enough for 30 gallons in there at this point).
I bought the crystals off of Amazon, so maybe they aren't the real deal? I'm planning to grab some Evapo-Rust from a hardware store to add to the tub to finish the job, but I would love some recommendations on anything I've done wrong.

Before I placed the frame in, I gave it a good scrub with dish soap and water. There's about 30 gallons of water in the tub, which started off warm. I mixed in 200g of oxalic acid crystals to start, but have been gradually increasing the concentration and I'm at about 600g added (I measured that each tablespoon was 17g, so I should have enough for 30 gallons in there at this point).
I bought the crystals off of Amazon, so maybe they aren't the real deal? I'm planning to grab some Evapo-Rust from a hardware store to add to the tub to finish the job, but I would love some recommendations on anything I've done wrong.

Evaporust would be redundant.
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#29
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Bikes: Road: 1972 Raleigh Competition,1989 Marinoni, 1990 Limongi. MTN: 1990 GT Team Avalanche, 1991 Rocky Mountain Blizzard, GT Team RTS , Rocky Mountain MSL 50 Element, CCM fat bike
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I hope that your frame and your tub made it through the soaking in good shape. Below is my Limongi. For the decals, you can also buy them on Ebay, or go old-school and have Limongi hand-painted on, as you will be able to find in some online images.

Painted fade stripes on a Limongi from about 1990. some of his frames have valid stickers with the UCI stripes.

Painted fade stripes on a Limongi from about 1990. some of his frames have valid stickers with the UCI stripes.
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#30
Newbie
Thread Starter
I'm back. I got it out of the tub after reading some of your replies. The OA did it's job very well, and the frame doesn't look bad at all with regard to rust. However, I'm at another impasse. I feel that the paint damage is significant enough that a full repaint would be necessary. My plan now is to get some paint stripper, take it down to a bare frame, and paint it back up myself. I just haven't been able to find the will recently. I'll be back with more updates once I've finished with the repainting.
Thanks for all of the help and advice so far!
Thanks for all of the help and advice so far!
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#31
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I think it will turn out great I have seen a couple dozen bikes like this hand repainted with brush or rattle can that look great. It just takes a bunch of time and patience without a clean heat room paint can take 4-5 days to cure and you may need to do two coats so by hand it is two week job. Really glade that your going to take the time to do it right by hand this bike is worth the extra effort.
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#32
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I have a Limongi and love it. I've repainted it twice but would like to repaint it again with proper decals. I really like your reproductions! Can you share it in PNG format? Have you also made a replica of the head tube decal? Thanks!
#33
Newbie
Thread Starter
I can definitely get you a clean PNG and vector image of the logo. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to make a copy of the headtube logo. I'd love to see your bike if you have pictures handy!
#34
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Thanks! A clean PNG would be great. I tried to post some pics but it wouldn't let me because I haven't made 10 posts yet. I've been on this forum for a couple years but I've always been a lurker. Once I've made a few more posts, I'll send the pics.