Landing Gear metal blemishes

[duncan]

I've been cleaning up my forks with wet & dry today, but I notice there is some dark patching on the metal (visible on the forkleg in the picture below).
I don't think it's rust, more like a staining of the metal. It's starting to come off, but who knows how deep it goes -  it's just meant to be a polish, I'd rather not start any major sanding.
Is this type of marking normal on metal tubing?

This may mean that a baremetal finish is out if I can't remove the blemishes. Also, any moisture that hits bare metal will cause rust - I assume you have to lacquer it afterwards, no question?
This frame (Quadangle) had a Reynolds sticker when new, but I think the LG forks were just plain Cr-Mo on these bikes? Thanks.



Edit>> I now know the 'blemishing' is pitting due to rust that was removed. The pits are so small it looks like a patch of differently coloured metal unless examined very closely.

[Rombloke]

no....stop.
do not try to clean chrome with wet and dry.
only use wet and dry on alloy.
those forks are chrome-moly...just hit those with a bit of 0000 wire wool and peek chrome polish.
if they arent too bad just use the chrome polish

Dave

[Waxintaxin]

They look like bare metal , not chrome so the original finnish would have been painted.
 to polish the metal you will need to go at it big time with a polishing wheel. You will have to laquer them if leaving them bare metal as it will rust quick time. you are always going to struggle polishing bare metal .

Rich

[Rombloke]

yep sorry, didnt even see the picture, they do look like bare metal....rub away fella

lmao

Dave

[duncan]

Thanks for the warning Rombloke but don't worry, they're just bare metal. They were originally painted.
I've seen how rust can attack, I cleaned them up (but not to a real shine) previously, and left them in a spare room for a few months - when I retrieved them today they were covered in light surface rust.
Just the moisture in the air must have caused it! There was a tumbledrier in the room - probably the culprit.

I'm now thinking that a powdercoat will be the better option. This would need a rough keying surface?
Is shotblasting recommended prior to coating? If so then I may as well stop where I am until I get that done.

Otherwise I'm happy to prepare it myself using the wet & dry, but are you saying this is not a good thing? I may risk taking off too much surfacemetal?
So far it's just been a polish with very fine wet & dry, but I'm happy to go with advice on this one.

[Bob_Acid]

any decent paint shop will blast it before they paint it anyway. You've just made the job a little easier

[duncan]

Thanks,
I may keep going just to make sure the awkward areas at least are free from all old paint, then I'll hand it over for blasting.
I'll have to find out where in my area does this type of work.

Is there anything specific I should ask for when it comes to powdercoating? Seal the headtube/BB first? Number of coats?
I assume the 'white' any powdercoater has is as close to the old SE white as I'm going to get. It was just plain white anyway I think.

[duncan]

Just one more question for now if it's OK.
Do I need to worry about the inside of the forklegs/frametubes?

I'd planned to give them a good scoosh out with wd40, but maybe best to just leave it, or at least give them a good time to dry out before thinking of a powdercoat.
Is there anything else I should be doing, like pouring in rust-dissolver or something? I hate to think of the state inside those tubes.
I just wouldn't want any rust or dirt dislodging during the coating and messing up the finish. The forks have small gas-escape holes near the dropouts, the frame I can't remember - maybe holes on the inside of the BB?

[ORB]

leave it be, the WD40 will make the paint not stick to the metal

where abouts in the world are you man?

I bet someone here knows of a painter 'just up the road from you'

ORB

[ORB]

I dont like Powder, the bike was painted to start with, so keep it real and paint it.

I would PM Craig (search for the member missfitsat101 on this forum) you wont get a better job done than he can do, and his prices are fair too.

[duncan]

I hadn't considered painting - but no reason why I can't do that. As you say it'd be more in keeping with the original.
I'll collect the frame, hopefully this weekend or the one after, and take it from there. Will certainly send Craig a PM if you recommend.
Thanks for the advice.

[ORB]

deffo, i recon you need to see his painting to believe it

Dordymush's Skyway is unreal.

[duncan]

Well, I'm still some way off painting the frame, I have to get the fork dropouts welded first, but I've been cleaning up a few old components, and started stripping the frame.
The frame's looking promising, no damage found yet under the paint:



Apologies for the low reolution pic, but my SR seatclamp and Redline Forklifter stem polished up nicely, as did the Kashimax Aero.
I used Autoglym resin polish on the stem, and it didn't damage the painted logo.

Something I noticed about the Quad frame - there are gas release holes inside the headtube for all the front triangle tubes, but there are none for the rear triangle.
It's possible the seatstays open into the toptube, but the chainstays have no holes at all. Maybe because they are smaller tubes it wasn't a problem? I'm not a welder.

Got something in one of the rear tubes, sounds like a bit of sand moving around when I tip the frame - I presume it's rust particles. Nothing I can do about this.
I'm looking forward to getting the rest of the paint off, then the real renovation work can start.

[Bob_Acid]

Was it your forks that were cracked? saw some pics a while back.

if you don't plan to ride it i wouldn't bother but then if you're anything like me you'll have to at least have a go round the block

[DR VINOAH]

nice work

i bet that front quad tubing was a bitch to strip and rub down

what colour or chrome for the frame?

[duncan]

There's a hairline crack in both fork dropout welds - one is more serious, running into the dropout itself.
I was just going to get a NOS pair (if I could find any), but decided it's better to fix the originals if I can.

I wouldn't spend money on a paintjob knowing there's damage underneath (especially as this bike will be a keeper) so I'll want it to be structurally sound.
Oh, I'll definitely go for a spin on it, but there's a lot of parts to get first 

I used Nitromors then a soft wire brush for the paint-stripping.

The front tubing is tricky to get around, there's still a little paint in there which will need wire-wooling to remove.
I'd like to get it painted white, that was the original colour. I think I wanted a red one when I bought it, but they only had white left.
Almost got it chromed around 1986, but those plans went by the wayside as everyone left their bikes for other pursuits, me included.
I'm enjoying the renovation, keeps me away from the computer for a while (my work).

Edit>> Got some new LGs in case I never get round to fixing these original ones.

[Bob_Acid]

Almost got it chromed around 1986

i keep hearing that but you just don't see them in chrome. 

[duncan]

At the time, the only chrome one I saw was in a magazine - it might have been Mike Buff's.
I've since read that there were a few made for him, and some have turned up in private hands recently.

I'm sure I saw a chrome one in the museum on this site, it looks good, but I'll be leaving this one white 
I must put up some scans of the Quadangle test in a 1983 BMX-BiWeekly, someone was kind enough to send me them a few years ago.
It was this test that prompted me to buy one (plus a pal had just bought a dark blue Quad). The Quad in the test is black with gold components, looks great.

[oberonspacefruit]

it would be a nightmare trying to polish a quad for chroming, but it would look so cool, i dont think ive ever seen one.

[Waxintaxin]

there was a chrome quad made but not many  something to do with strengh and the heating process and paint being a stronger option as the chroming process weakens metal , but it didnt stop anyone else so maybe a load of tosh

Rich