Hello Folks, I got myself a Giant Boulder 510 MTB for a rebuild. Right after the buy I noticed that the Bike is soaked rusty wet on the inside and leaking brown water. I did a complete teardown and now I curious how to maintain the frame properly. Any advice?
by Fit_Storm6085
7 Comments
Yeah: Don’t leave it out in the rain like the last owner did.
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I agree, using something like the vinegar or some sort of degreaser / cleaner can be used to get the existing junk out of the tubes. Spraying any kind of lubricant inside the tubes is beneficial to protect raw steel. From the bottom bracket you can access the down tube and chain stays to spray lubricant in them. From the top of the seat tube you can access the seat stays and top tube, then hit the top and down tubes from the head tube to get as much covered as possible. Keeping it in a somewhat climate controlled area will help prevent this from happening again.
You gotta dry it out. Remove the seat, bb. Check the chain stays, and seat tube around the bb for paint bubbles where the rust is coming through.
When it’s dry, shoot some frame saver or fluid film inside the frame. Try to get it into every nook.
I used a 1:1 ratio of baking soda and water. Mix it and let it sit. It’ll turn into a paste. I used a tooth brush to scrub the bottom bracket area. Let it sit, then rinse and dry. Mine came out looking nearly new. And like other said, definitely keep it out of the rain.
Nothing major to do. Frame is Al right? It won’t get eaten away by oxidation, the red rust is just from the rotted bb. Clean the frame and internal part of bb shell thoroughly with water and degreasant wipe dry and install the new bb (after inspecting threads) with a quality grease. Take care to grease inside the non drive side retaining cup, which is the main point of ingress, if you don’t this it will collect and hold water against non drive side bearing case and speed up rotting.
I thought the frame looked Alum too, in which case there is nothing to do really. But if its steel, as others have suggested, I would clean it up the best I could, inspect to make sure there aren’t any majorly pitted or rusted-through spots, squirt some Boeshield or Framesaver up in there, and reinstall everything with lots and lots of grease. A little surface rust is not a big deal.