You love your steel frame. People bond with steel framed bicycles like no other materials. And for good reasons. If you own, or are getting ready to own, a bicycle with a steel frame, and you're dreaming and hoping that it will maintain that great feel, appearance, comfort and utility for many years ...
then carefully treating the internal frame surfaces with J.P. Weigle's Framesaver is a crucial step, and investment, in preserving your beloved steel frame.
The following pictures depict a clean, and extremely thorough, method for applying Framesaver to a frame. It goes beyond the printed instructions that come with Framesaver in that it temporarily seals each section of tubing after Framesaver is applied, to eliminate the mess commonly associated with treating frames, and to further insure that all internal tubing surfaces are very well coated.
What you'll need:
- J.P. Weigle's Frame Saver (1 can)
- Paper Towels
- 2" Wide Painter's Tape (this is low-tac and non marking)
- Soft surface to work on frame. I used padded foam flooring mats.
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| 1 - Using a small piece of painter's tape, seal the seat stay drain holes, which are generally located by the rear wheel dropouts. |
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| 2 - Pack the bottom bracket housing with paper towels. |
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| 3 - Seal the bottom bracket housing with painter's tape. |
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| 4 - Some frames, like this 2012 Salsa El Mariachi, have open ended gussets. Treat these by spraying a small amount of Framesaver into the open end. |
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| 5 - Wipe off any overspray. |
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| 6 - Carefully seal the gusset with painter's tape. |
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| 7 - Repeat with all open gussets. |
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| 8 - Insert Framesaver spray wand into the drain hole of the chainstay, spray for 3 seconds. |
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| 9 - Wipe off overspray. |
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| 10 - Seal with painter's tape. |
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| 11 - At the frame head tube, insert Framesaver spray wand into the top tube and downtube holes, spray for 5 seconds each, then stuff the head tube with paper towels. |
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| 12 - Seal the head tube with painter's tape. |
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| 13 - Move to the seat tube and spray a short 2 second burst of Framesaver in to the top tube hole. |
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| 14 - Spray for 3 seconds into both of the seat stay tubes. |
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| 15 - Close / seal the seat tube split, spray Framesaver into the seat tube for 4 seconds coating all walls, and stuff a small section of paper towel into the seat tube. Don't push paper towel more than an inch into the seat tube or you may have trouble removing it. |
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| 16 - Seal the seat tube. |
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17 - Slowly rotate the frame end over end and side over side for a few minutes. Then lie the frame on it's side overnight, or for a few hours.
18 - The next day, remove the seat tube sealing tape and paper towel stuffing, respray the top tube and seat stays, restuff and reseal the seat tube.
19 - Then remove the bottom bottom bracket sealing tape and paper towel stuffing, respray the chain stays, the down tube and seat tube, restuff and reseal the bottom bracket.
20 - Slowly rotate the frame end over end and side over side for a few minutes. Then lie the frame on it's other side overnight, or for a few hours. |
Congratulations! You're done! You have not spilled a drop of Framesaver and you've done an exceptional job of preserving your beloved steel frame.
Nice instructions. I was planning to do something like this (sealing openings, etc.), but I thought it would be overkill. Now I know that's the way to do it.
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be one part missing, though: in the picture for step 15, there is a thinner tube that joins both seat stays. It even has a whole. Would that piece connect through another whole with the seat stays, or is it completely independent/self contained? If the second, it should be sprayed and sealed too, I assume.
George - Thanks for your comment. You are correct in that this procedure is probably overkill, but it's easy, so much cleaner than the common procedure and it's a good bonding experience for rider and frame. And, yes the seatstay bridge should be sealed too.
ReplyDeleteTape over both holes, then use and awl to poke a small hole in the tape on one side, insert spray wand, give a short spray burst toward each seatstay, remove spray wand, tape over awl hole and then slowly rotate frame side over side.
Thank you for the clarification. Another quick question (as I'm getting ready to do this as a Christmas break project): is that blue tape masking tape or duct tape? I have masking tape that looks exactly the same (color, texture, width), but when I sealed the ends of a trunk rack to pour EvapoRust inside, there was some leaking through the tape (the tape got soaked and leaked).
ReplyDeleteThis time I'm planning to used tight shrink wrap film as a first layer, and then the tape to seal the ends of the film. So masking tape is easy to remove and leaves no residue, but it may get soaked (if the product is too liquid). Duct tape would seal better, but it may damage the paint as it's removed, or leave traces of glue...
George - Under the "What you'll need:" section above the tape is accurately identified as 2" Wide Painter's Tape (this is low-tac and non marking). And, while it's not manufactured/intended to create liquid-tight seals, it works great in this application and it will not damage the paint or leave any tape residue.
ReplyDelete