Thursday, April 26, 2018

Addressing a Rusty Peugeot St. Laurent

Motivated by an upcoming transportation-cycling adventure with my son, and feeling bad about his neglected Peugeot, which had become rusted, I set out to give his frame some TLC. The main goal was to sand what I suspected was surface rust - he doesn't use a rear fender - and preserve the bike for a few more years. I concentrated on the seat tube, rear fender support, and chain stays as primary areas in need of help.

Tools of the trade: Windex to clean frame. clear, white, teal, and sparkling nail polish - just because, steel wool, and  anniebikes's patience enhancer: beer of choice.
With a quick search, I followed a simple tutorial on Girls Biking to Work which made the process sound easy, though to be fair, I believe I first heard about using clear nail polish from Ryan at Ryan's Rebuilds.  I hadn't set out to use multi-colored nail polish, but white and teal were easy to locate.

Bike Nashbar's 50.00 tool kit - a bargain!
Both my and my son's Peugeot St. Laurents don't have rear quick release and so, to ease working on his frame, I removed the rear wheel nuts with our youngest son's handy Nashbar tool set. I found a brilliant rubber-handled wrench (left collection, tool on right). I might have to get my own set!

Upper right: rust, left: sanded, lower right: 3 coats of polish.
I used steel wool (my husband says I bought a life-time supply, and who knew there were so many grades to choose from?) to lightly sand major rust spots, then apply polish. I put 3 coats on the fender bracket, while other areas required one coat with a second coat of clear polish.

To be expected: the teal is not a perfect match and, as the pictures indicate, painted areas will show. If you're picky, as the tutorial stipulates, apply polish, using a finer brush than supplied applicator. Since the teal polish was slightly lighter than frame color, I painted a light coat so the teal blended and darkened slightly on top of rust/bare steel, then went back with a second coat of clear polish for double measure.

Before and after photos.

The finished product is a cleaner looking and rust-free bike! I had originally promised my son a new set of gumwall tires, but his front wheel sported a nearly new flat-proof Continental Ride tire so I swapped tires and put a new Panaracer Pasela on the front. You can bet I'll be paying more attention to wiping and oiling his frame during the next bout of wet weather riding!

11 comments:

  1. Nice work! I am learning to be less concerned perfect color matching, and more concerned with function. Posts like this inspire me. Keep this fine ride rolling!

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    1. Thanks. I'm doing what I can to keep these 1980's bikes on the road!

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  2. That is a REALLY NICE took kit...

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  3. Also, FYI, I don't know what change you made to your blog settings, but links to anniebies work properly once again. OTOH, perhaps Blogger was twitchy for a while.

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    1. Thanks Steve. I think it was a finicky Blogger.

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  4. Nice work, Annie! At least it was just surface rust and the bike is still rideable.

    My Fuji had a fair amount of surface rust when I acquired it. But I kept it as it was, since that bike is parked on the street.

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  5. Hey Annie thanks for the plug! I think I picked up that trick on the Rivendell website. Great job and I think the most import tool in your kit is the patience enhancer lol. I was just asking my daughter if she wanted me to give her Peugeot a tune up since summer is coming. Have fun on your adventure with your son.

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  6. Nice work keeping good bikes on the road. If you haven't done it already, get a can of Boeshield and spray the inside of the tubes to protect against the rust that you can't see. You can insert the little spray tube into vent holes in the chainstays, seatstays, and fork blades. Spray into seat and down tubes through water bottle bosses. Renew periodically (annually-ish).

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  7. I think I've commented it before but I really like that bike. Nice work on the touch ups. I just finished breaking one of mine down and giving it a clear coat to hopefully preserve the patina and slow down the rusting. It was beyond touching up.

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    1. Thanks Randy. I agree, the color combination is special. I've seen the step through version in the same color scheme around Burlington but it's not the same model year as I have the companion in white.

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