not sure if I should have but I did

[madscot13]

I am fixing up an old Nishiki for a friend. Hopefully this just requires new tires, cables, cleaning, and regreasing/ lubricating. But I took some steel wool to the tires and made them look nice and shiny, they were super corroded. Okay but now I may have opened up the front tire to a lot of rust and corrosion. Is there something I can do to stop that?

[mimitabby]

help me here. Tires? how can they rust?

[Eden]

I'm thinking she means the rims. I'm guessing the old Nishiki has steel rims. They should not have been coated with anything in the first place so shining them up with steel wool should not have hurt them I would think. If they are steel rims the only thing you can do is make sure to dry them thoroghly if they get wet? You wouldn't want any kind of coating on the braking surface.

[madscot13]

yeah yeah. i meant the rims. So there isn't anything I can coat them with to maintain their shiny good looks? The friend I am fixing the bike up for probably won't keep it too dry.

[mimitabby]

Well, if they are made of stainless steel, as long as you don't abuse them they should be fine.
The worksman bike i have here at work was left outside for about 4 years
under a roof but exposed to the air. The stainless steel fenders and wheels were orange and speckled with rust. I cleaned them all off with scour pads and
all sorts of industrial stuff and then left the bike indoors. It's not gotten rusty again.
my guess is it will be fine.

[Popoki_Nui]

yeah yeah. i meant the rims. So there isn't anything I can coat them with to maintain their shiny good looks? The friend I am fixing the bike up for probably won't keep it too dry.

The rims are likely chromed steel. If you've removed as much rust as possible with steel wool, there are two things you can try:

- wash the rims with soapy water and dry them WELL. Remove the tires and tubes. Spray the rims with clear lacquer. Wipe the braking surfaces with acetone to remove the laquer, leaving a protective coating on the rest of the rim.
Or....
-polish the rims with a high quality car wax. Make sure you wipe any wax from the braking surfaces!

These are temporary solutions. The only real fix is to have the rims rechromed (or have new rims installed)

[madscot13]

oh yeah like I would have these rims rechromed. I think the wax/ laquer ideas sounds good though.