Evapo-rust Warning!

[SprocketRocket]

After reading the countless good reviews and having this stuff recommended to me, I decided to buy some because the rear rack on my Cosmic Flyer had a few tiny specs of rust in the paint. The paint was near perfect but I decided not to hand polish it out because I didn't want to wear away any of the original water decals.
This was my favorite bike and the design on the rear rack was my favorite feature of the bike. Well, I soaked it and checked it every 30 minutes to be sure it wasn't hurting the paint.
After a couple hours I didn't see the rust spots anymore so I proceeded to rinse it in cold water.
To my horror, all the color in the decals and all the original paint just started washing off the rack to bare metal.
To me, this ruined the bike. I could repaint and duplicate this pattern to some extent, but the appeal of this bike was how original and well kept it was. I'm absolutely sickened that I trusted this stuff to be "paint safe".
Just a warning, I'm sure it's okay on chrome, but don't gamble your delicate painted parts with this stuff!!!

 

[Danimal]

I'm honestly not shocked to read this. The problem is that the metal is rusting and developing little pinholes in the paint. The evapo-rust (or other type of rust remover) IS doing its job. But the rust has formed between the paint and the metal. When the rust gets disolved, the paint isn't holding on to anything and will fall off. I've had it happen on cheaper chrome pieces where the entire surface was peppered with rust. The chrome just fell off the metal. It's not really the solvents fault, it's just the part was too far gone to save by that method.

 

[SprocketRocket]

I'm honestly not shocked to read this. The problem is that the metal is rusting and developing little pinholes in the paint. The evapo-rust (or other type of rust remover) IS doing its job. But the rust has formed between the paint and the metal. When the rust gets disolved, the paint isn't holding on to anything and will fall off. I've had it happen on cheaper chrome pieces where the entire surface was peppered with rust. The chrome just fell off the metal. It's not really the solvents fault, it's just the part was too far gone to save by that method.

After further review I think what you are saying could be possible. I find it strange that the base of the decals stayed with the original paint underneath while the rest of the paint desintegrated around it.I suppose if the paint had become absorbent at some point moisture could have made its way to the metal underneath without any visible signs on the surface. And maybe the slide decals acted as a barrier and stopped the moisture from leeching through only in those areas.Back then I assume they used a laquer or enamel based paint, in which both can become absorbent to moisture after oxidation.
Seems strange though, that once the moisture made it to the metal it wouldnt spread under the decals. I do know that there is no primer underneath the factory paint. They must have just skipped that important process or used a "direct to metal" paint.
My thoughts remain the same however. Be very careful using this on painted parts! Despite what caused it, it is a possibilty that this can happen on an older seemingly clean painted part.

 

[Danimal]

I suppose there is no real way of knowing for sure. You could have been right with your initial post...the stuff might just eat the paint.

I've not used any of the soaking rust removers on painted items yet, just for this reason. I think I may experiment though with some parts from my trash pile. I'll be curious to see how they respond.

 

[Jpromo]

Yeah, I agree that it did its job and that it ate the rust out from under the paint, causing dissatisfactory results. Also non-Schwinn paints that were used during this time are fairly low quality. Schwinn still used enamel, but a lot of Columbia and Murray products lack the resiliency and are very thin.

 

[user 15387]

What color were the decals and the paint? I wonder if the paint and decal dye had some component of iron oxide to color it. The Evaporust then pulled the paint and dye from the decals because it bonded to the oxide component. I think given how completely the paint and dye were removed, that this is the more likely scenario. With rust infiltration you usually get paint or chrome loss in pitted regions, but at least some areas of retained paint or plating.

 

[SprocketRocket]

What color were the decals and the paint? I wonder if the paint and decal dye had some component of iron oxide to color it. The Evaporust then pulled the paint and dye from the decals because it bonded to the oxide component. I think given how completely the paint and dye were removed, that this is the more likely scenario. With rust infiltration you usually get paint or chrome loss in pitted regions, but at least some areas of retained paint or plating.

The paint looks like a dark brown metallic and I think the color in the decals was gold but I cant remember for sure.