The intense bubbling is beyond what people define as surface rust.
CRA_55 on
Try sanding it down and treating it with some rust converter
ReallySmallWeenus on
My experience with rusty cars is that you rarely know how bad it is until you strip the paint and find where it ends. It’s probably fine, but I’d want to remove the rust and seal the steel soon.
Nervous-Rush-4465 on
Given that the frame is nearly 40 years old, it is likely to be rusting from the inside out.
jmec123 on
Clean it. Treat it. The ride it till it breaks. If it’s going to break it’s going break just don’t take it off too many sweet jumps.
Antpitta on
As an aside – I’ve never owned nor seen up close a bike where the front shift cable (I presume that is what that is in this photo) terminates to the BB shell, or is this something else? I’ve never understood how they work and just googling a bit now I found a couple photos that seem to confirm it’s the cable that first passes through the shift lever arm of the front mech but then is terminated there… is this correct? If so anyone have a handy name of this style of derailleur or link to sheldon brown or elsewhere that shows how they worked? Now I’m curious. Thanks in advance!
Diligent-Advance9371 on
It has been suggested the rust is coming from inside. Definite maybe. Rust in that part of the frame is usually where grit flying off the wheels abrade the frame. Clearly that is not from road grit abrasion in that location. Also that type of abrasion removes the paint as well while this is coming through the paint.
griecs on
In my opinion, if this frame fits you well, these lugged USA made 970s are worth fully stripping of paint and rust, when they show this kind of wear. Then powder coating with a rust inhibiting primer. A good powder guy would do the whole process for 125-175.
sirwangjohnson on
Try sanding the rust to see how far it goes through the metal. What I’ve also done in the past on suspect rust is to try to poke it with a sharp object, like a metal pick. If the rust is bad, it will easily make a hole in the frame, meaning there isn’t much metal left and discarding the frame would be a good idea.
Sadly, that’s how I discovered that my LOOK frame was bad…
If it’s still solid, remove the rust, paint it and inspect once in a while!
theflamingheads on
Look, you can never really with these things. I think it would be best if I took it off your hands, just so you don’t need to worry about it.
A-STax32 on
My daily commuter has a hole in the chainstay and sounds like a rain stick because of all the rust inside. It’s been like that for a year.
vinZ31ent on
It’s most probably dead, this is not surface rust only. Poke it with a pick / sharp screwdriver and you’ll know
pauip on
I have a 990 same paint job that rusted like this. The previous owner had a frame pump strapped to the seat tube and when I pulled it off, there was rust where the rubber straps were. I think the primer on these frames was no good and it let water get in between the paint and frame. I used a brass wire brush and WD40 (it didn’t seem to do anything to the paint), clean it up with alcohol, and used the steel bluing stuff. Hard to see with the black paint.
14 Comments
if you don’t do anything about it.
Sand it, clean it, prime it, paint it
technologic
technologic
technologic
technologic
The intense bubbling is beyond what people define as surface rust.
Try sanding it down and treating it with some rust converter
My experience with rusty cars is that you rarely know how bad it is until you strip the paint and find where it ends. It’s probably fine, but I’d want to remove the rust and seal the steel soon.
Given that the frame is nearly 40 years old, it is likely to be rusting from the inside out.
Clean it. Treat it. The ride it till it breaks. If it’s going to break it’s going break just don’t take it off too many sweet jumps.
As an aside – I’ve never owned nor seen up close a bike where the front shift cable (I presume that is what that is in this photo) terminates to the BB shell, or is this something else? I’ve never understood how they work and just googling a bit now I found a couple photos that seem to confirm it’s the cable that first passes through the shift lever arm of the front mech but then is terminated there… is this correct? If so anyone have a handy name of this style of derailleur or link to sheldon brown or elsewhere that shows how they worked? Now I’m curious. Thanks in advance!
It has been suggested the rust is coming from inside. Definite maybe. Rust in that part of the frame is usually where grit flying off the wheels abrade the frame. Clearly that is not from road grit abrasion in that location. Also that type of abrasion removes the paint as well while this is coming through the paint.
In my opinion, if this frame fits you well, these lugged USA made 970s are worth fully stripping of paint and rust, when they show this kind of wear. Then powder coating with a rust inhibiting primer. A good powder guy would do the whole process for 125-175.
Try sanding the rust to see how far it goes through the metal. What I’ve also done in the past on suspect rust is to try to poke it with a sharp object, like a metal pick. If the rust is bad, it will easily make a hole in the frame, meaning there isn’t much metal left and discarding the frame would be a good idea.
Sadly, that’s how I discovered that my LOOK frame was bad…
https://preview.redd.it/t8mqsqkfs4ud1.jpeg?width=2992&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e64f4efcdd3c9f0a08e161685e9238c1b2a3d656
If it’s still solid, remove the rust, paint it and inspect once in a while!
Look, you can never really with these things. I think it would be best if I took it off your hands, just so you don’t need to worry about it.
My daily commuter has a hole in the chainstay and sounds like a rain stick because of all the rust inside. It’s been like that for a year.
It’s most probably dead, this is not surface rust only. Poke it with a pick / sharp screwdriver and you’ll know
I have a 990 same paint job that rusted like this. The previous owner had a frame pump strapped to the seat tube and when I pulled it off, there was rust where the rubber straps were. I think the primer on these frames was no good and it let water get in between the paint and frame. I used a brass wire brush and WD40 (it didn’t seem to do anything to the paint), clean it up with alcohol, and used the steel bluing stuff. Hard to see with the black paint.