The Thin Man 

For all you children of the 80s who remember the overtly sexual Caress soap commercials, "Before You Dress... Caress" I'm wondering what happens after you Evaporust to keep rust off.


To set the stage, I have acquired a number of cast lugs, dropouts and Columbus/Reynolds tubes. They all have varying levels of mild surface rust on them. Nothing detrimental to their structure nor concerning to me because I want to use them for photo shoots only. Not to build into a bike. Though, they are in excellent shape and one day could be built into a bike.

I want to remove the mild surface rust then seal/inhibit them so that they remain bare metal yet do not rust going forward. I understand I could hit them with a layer of aerosol primer but I want that raw steel look. Currently, most of them are soaking in Evaporust. The bottle suggests that one should use Evaporust's "RUST-BLOCK", Rust Inhibitor to keep rust off for up to 1-year. Because leaving them as they are from the Evaporust will certainly drive them to rust again. Especially since it is required to rinse them off in water.

My question to the group: Have you used RUST-BLOCK before? Does it work? Is there a better way to keep the rust off yet keep the raw steel look?

Robvolz 

Never seen that ad. But Nivea…

still have that song stuck in my head occasionally

from your fingers to your toes….
yiu just have one set of Permanente clothes

and with a little daily care

it will last you years of wear…

delbiker1 

I have used Evaporust, but not a lot. It worked fine for the applications I used it on. I know I used on a frame for some surface rust, I was impressed. I have used it on other bike parts and other items, but nothing that I was all that concerned about. My experience with rust block protection is really only short term.

The Thin Man 

Marketing is an insanely powerful tool to keep us buying, isn't it?

Korina

@The Thin Man, check out this thread.

bulgie 

After EvapoRust, I run my parts under hot tap water or even soak in a bucket of hot tap water if it's a heavy part, to let the heat soak in. Then towel dry quickly while it's still hot, and bow out any remaining water in crannies or nooks with compressed air. If I don't want to wait for the air compressor to charge the tank, I just go straight to the heat gun. The heat gun can replace the hot-water soak too. If you don't have one, I'd say get one immediately if not sooner. tons of uses for it..

Alcohol is also good for getting water off, since water dissolves in it, but it has to be pure isopropyl or some such, any alcohol as long as it isn't diluted with water.

Then I oil the part, sometimes with a goop made for the purpose like LPS3, Boeshield or Fluid Film. Fluid Film lasts longer than most, but it's pretty goopy. It has lanolin, the oil from sheep's wool. Boeshield goes on thin and less messy but doesn't last as long.

Classtime 

Boiled linseed oil takes a long time to dry but will work.

Brad L 

I use Evaporust, rinse in water, then in mineral spirits to replace the water. Once dry, I treat the parts with a metal prep containing phosphoric acid. It converts any remaining rust (iron oxide) to iron phosphate and deters any future rust.

merziac

.

And as we haven't seen it yet that I see, we need to emphasize the need to very thoroughly strip anything that has been treated for rust, ideally it should be "hot tanked" but I don't think its easy to find anymore and they cannot be too hot for this lest it compromises the brazing, temper, etc.

Lacquer thinner, acetone, etc and the like should be employed with some heat at least.

The same thing that makes these products work is the same thing that will prevent proper paint adhesion, it needs to be completely leached out of the metal before any paint is applied.

Complete stripping, cleaning and drying are all critical for the paint to be done right

merziac

Cosmoline

Mostly all the same, many of the fancy products are actually watered down versions to ease application and make you need to reapply more often.

It can be tough, raw metal needs to be sealed or well treated and is hard to maintain the plain raw appearance, many here have done it with mixed results.

3alarmer 

.
...I have always followed Evapo Rust with rinsing, then a treatment spray coating of this stuff.
It seems to work for me, but I'm not taking photos of the insides of my frame tubes and lugs.

The Thin Man 

Thanks to everyone who posted providing guidance as it helped me gather enough to pick a direction. And since I already had my parts in Evaporust when I started this thread, I needed a quick solution that could be easily implemented since Evaporust doesn't recommend keeping parts in their concoction for longer than 24 hours.

I ended up leaning on the post by bulgie and picking up some Fluid Film. After I rinsed the parts off, then used my heat gun to dry them fully, once cooled I gave them a light coat of Fluid Film. It is goopy though I tried to go easy on them after spraying, dabbing each a bit with a rag to remove the massive buildup and excess. This may be stronger medicine for the parts but hopefully, it will keep them protected for awhile.

My question is, does anyone have experience with Fluid Film drying time? I've heard something like 3 week. I'm OK with that just so long as this stuff actually cures. I'm also hopeful it won't be tacky afterwards.

bulgie 

I wasn't aware that it's meant to dry. I guess any liquid will have a vapor pressure and will lose volatiles over time, but it stays goopy for a very long time.
I think that's better for rust protection because a coating that fully dries, BLO for example, can be scratched and then the steel is unprotected there. Fluid Film doesn't scratch, it just smears. And collects dust, and gets all over anything else it touches... Probably best to put the goopy parts in ziploc bags.

madpogue 

The folks who make PB Blaster now have a product called Surface Shield (I think that's it), that's lanolin-based like Fluid Film. From what little I've read, it's thinner and "creeps" better than FF. There's another competitor called WoolWax, but I have no experience or review/research info about it.

The Thin Man 

Thanks, everyone.
I believe my tactic here will be to let the drenched lugs "cure" for a week or so, then gently wipe them down as even with the excess Fluid Film removed there is still enough residual material to keep rust inhibited. From there, I'll keep them in a plastic bag, in a climate controlled area in hopes that this keeps them rust free. At least for a few years.