Unicornz0

Hello to all. I picked up a 1986 Schwinn Voyageur today. It's in fairly good shape. It is missing the original saddle and pedals. It has Columbus Tenax tubing and several rust spots to go along with it. I plan to sand the rust spots that are on the frame and lugs and touch up wit paint from AutoZone. The cable guides are a little rusty but I do not want to sand them. What can I use to stop the rust? Maybe I will use Rustoleum instead of the paint from AutoZone. What do you think? Please help.
I think in the future I will avoid Columbus Tubing. I have a very nice old Moser made with a type of Columbus tubing. The cable guides rusted so badly I just sanded them down almost flush with the tubing, The CroMo is much more durable. Does anyone know the purpose for Columbus tubing? Was it a less expensive alternative to the better CroMo?
Where is the serial number?
Thanks in advance to all,
Uni

cudak888 

Sanded the cable guides down to the tubing? Were they flaking to pieces in your hand or something?

-Kurt

surfrider

Without knowing what type of metal your frame is: if you're going to sand the frame, it might be better to sand the whole thing down and get all the old paint off it. Go to a commercial paint store (sherwinn Williams, Vista, Frazee, Gilden . . whatevers in your area) and you should be able to buy a product for pretreating bare metal just prior to painting; it chemically takes off the superficial oxidization and "opens" the metal surface to accept paint. Wipe it on and rinse off, quick dry, then paint. More thin coats of paint work better than one thick coat. Don't wait too long after sanding to do the wipedown & paint.

Best bet is to take it to a professional body shop and have it painted there. If you're not picky about color get them to spray it at the same time they do a car (same color, same time, same labor) to help contain costs.

Unicornz0

The Moser had serious rust. The cable guides were not intact. There were jagged and useless. I left a bit above the frame to help hold the cable in place. I used three black zip ties evenly spaced and trimmed closely. It looks neat and works well.

The Voyageur is not nearly as bad. There are a few spots on a couple of lugs and some rust on the top tube cable guides. It does not need a repaint. I intend to arrest the situation before it does.
Now back to the purpose of Columbus tubing...

Old Fat Guy

The Columbus tubing is most likely CroMo. All steel rusts if left to the elements and not taken care of.

byrdwyngs

Columbus Tenax is butted CroMo. It was a thicker, heavier, less expensive tube set compared to their high end SP and SL tube sets (which are also CroMo). On a touring bike the heavier tube set is a good thing since they were meant to be tougher and stiffer when carrying a heavy load.

byrdwyngs

By the way, the cable guides and other braze-ons aren't part of the tube set, and were generally made by other manufacturers from mild steel, not CroMo. So don't blame Columbus for your rust issues.

Also the Voyageurs were one of the better made and better riding of the '80s touring bikes. You should enjoy it once you get it back on the road. Here's a pic of mine, built up from the bare frameset.

mparker326

From what I've read the Columbus Tenax tubing that Schwinn used mid 80's on their better bikes wasn't finished well as other higher end Columbus tubing and was prone to paint flaking off.

Little Darwin

As stated, Columbus tubing is Cromo... it is just a name brand.

If you exclude Columbus from your hunt for bikes in the future, you will actually be excluding some very elite frame possibilities.

As far as rust, your frame must have been really exposed to the elements because the 1986 Voyageur is not only made of fine heavy gauge butted cromo tubing from Columbus, but it is also completely chrome plated under the paint for additional corrosion protection.

You can find the catalog specs for your bike here if you haven't perused them yet: https://www.trfindley.com/flschwinn_1...986Ltwt31.html

My 1986 Voyageur that I bought a couple of years ago was in virtually new condition...

If you do find a good match for the British Pine color, please let me know. I haven't really needed touchup paint yet, but my couple of attempts when I went to buy some weren't a very good match at all.

SoreFeet

Look at the political climate of today...The environment and planet...The human race will likely be gone before your beloved steel bike rusts to garbage.

The Tenax Schwinns are a great bike. Everybody who wants an entry level road bike of great quality and a reasonable price should seek these Tenax bikes out. I do think with a frensh powder coat is a sound investment if you plan on riding the frame a lot.

Little Darwin

The paint on my Voyageur is prone to scraping off of the chrome underneath. I don't doubt that the finish wasn't as high a quality on the Schwinns as some of the higher end bikes with Columbus tubing.

rhenning

A large part of the paint problem is paint doesn't stick well to chrome. Roger

Skylar

Naval Jelly eats through rust down to silver bare metal. It's funky to work with.. but has worked for me. Imagine some gnarly fluorescent pink pudding, you smear it on the rust and 15-30 minutes later it's eating that rust.

Unicornz0

Here are some pictures of the Voyageur that I just got. It's not that it is rusted badly, but the fact that there is rust.
Please provide documentation that the frame is fully chromed. I took a quick look at a place on the bottom where the paint was scratched, and it doesn't look like the frame is chromed underneath the paint. I hope it is. I would appreciate that documentation. I read a article on this forum by Dave Moulton about rust repair using naval jelly. The repair was pretty simple. I will look further in to that as it apparently does not require sanding the rust off prior to painting. I will try to post info on the paint that I decide to use.
The 1986 Schwinn Voyageur is quite a bit higher than a entry level touring bike. Compare and contrast it to others. Look at the 1986 Schwinn catalog and see where it is in the hierarchy.
It is a top quality Japanese touring bike made by Panasonic I think, with a subtle American name.
Here is the article about tubing and naval jelly. Look in the lower half for the article on naval jelly.

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=105104

Here are some pictures of my Voyageur.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27544233@N03/3047941293/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27544233@N03/3047941291/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27544233@N03/3047941289/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/27544233@N03/3047941287/

Doohickie

That's a nice looking Schwinn. The Raleigh's pretty good, too.

cudak888 

No chrome on that frame. The chromed models were the earlier Voyageur IIs.

-Kurt

Little Darwin

It didn't come in a chrome version, but there is chrome under the paint. Or at least there is on my one specific bike.

I have a couple of small scrapes on the bike in various locations, and it has exposed chrome at every opportunity.

I definitely wouldn't expect to take the paint off and have it shine like a bike that was destined to be sold as a chromed bike, but the chrome is there.

As far as providing documentation, I have none. But I would be glad to take a few pictures of my bike's scrapes and locations as partial evidence of at least one 1986 Voyageur that has chrome under the paint.

It was not a rare practice for bikes with chromed stays to have the whole frame chromed, even though the only parts of the frame that would have been polished would have been the parts destined to be left unpainted.

Actually, in the case of the 1986 Voyageur, the full stays weren't even exposed chrome, just the dropouts, and a section of the chain stayas a chain stay protector.

Unicornz0

Hello to all. Kurt please post a link your pictures so I can see what you are talking about. Maybe I am overlooking what you are seeing.
Was the 1982 Voyageur 11.8 chromed under the paint?
Thanks to everyone.

Unicornz0

Hello to all. Little Darwin please post a link your pictures so I can see what you are talking about. Maybe I am overlooking what you are seeing.
Was the 1982 Voyageur 11.8 chromed under the paint?
Thanks to everyone.

byrdwyngs

There's definitely no chrome under the paint on my Voyageur, but mine is an '88. It looks like Unicornz' bike might be an '88 also, rather than an '86. The '86 had a different equipment mix, and no lowrider mounts on the fork.

Unicornz0

Byrdwyngs, do you know where can I find the serial number on my bike? Also have you found a oilier small enough to match those very small oil ports in the hubs?
I will check the date code on the bike, but the seller told me it is 0136 before I bought it. I looked for the serial but did not locate it. I took it for a ride yesterday and today, It rides nice, very nice for a rode type bike, but not as nice as my Raleigh DL1.
Thanks again to everyone that has commented.

ebr898

FWIW the 86 Voyageur I had was not chrome underneath, but it was a sweet ride.

Sirrus Rider

I think I have Voyager Envy!

Wino Ryder

I think in the future you will be severely 'limiting' yourself away from some of the finest bikes ever made. All this because someone didnt take care of that equally fine Moser. For a span of 60 years Columbus has had a rich history in the TDF and european road racing. so dont blame Columbus. Not meaning to chastize you, just want to 'enlighten' you on some facts: Columbus, Reynolds, True Temper, Tange and others supply Cro-moly tube-sets to various manufacturers that then cut, mitre, braze or weld into bike frames. The cable guides are usually a generic steel cable guide (which are good) but not cro-moly and are made by someone else, then brazed onto the tubing by the frames builder.

cudak888 

...and those guides can rust on anything from 1020 to Reynolds 531...

-Kurt