I bought a tank to replace the long gone peice on one of my Schwinns, so I bought a green repop off ebay and decided to see if I could make it match the rest of the bike. I am happy with the results and it looks as close to naturally aged rust as I've been able to accomplish.
I started by stripping the tank with aircraft stripper, and applying a thin even coat of Almond colored spray paint. After it dried, I sanded most of the white off in the areas it was going to be black and I came back and masked it off and painted the black. This left basically 1 thin layer of paint on it. I then sanded the whole tank with 2000# grit sandpaper until I had numerous very, very thin spots of paint, though not many places were down to the metal. This allowed the rusr to creep through what was left of the paint much like it did to weathered factory paint. I then bought a repro "Schwinn" decal, banged it up a little, and used some green and red food coloring in the water to tint it. Even after doing this, the decal didn't darken as much as I hoped, so I lightly sanded it with the 2000# grit and applied Old English furniture polish and it looked as better than I could imagined. After getting the decal right, I mixed up a vinegar and salt mixture in a spray bottle and kept spraying it and letting air dry for weeks. When the look I wanted, I wiped the decal too hard trying to get some of the Old English residue and I tore some of it off, but it actually looks just like a decal on my Columbia that is torn off, so it was a mistake that worked OK. \
Here's pics as the it went along:
This was after I sanded it with 2000# grit. You can see some very thin spots in white.
This was after I sprayed it a few times with the vinegar and salt mixture and before I put the Old English on the decal.
And here is the final result. It maych the rest of the bike very well, and doesn't appear to a new repro tank. I did a little work on the chaingaurd as well. I need to get a pair of truss rods and a correct seat, and I'll call this one done!
I started by stripping the tank with aircraft stripper, and applying a thin even coat of Almond colored spray paint. After it dried, I sanded most of the white off in the areas it was going to be black and I came back and masked it off and painted the black. This left basically 1 thin layer of paint on it. I then sanded the whole tank with 2000# grit sandpaper until I had numerous very, very thin spots of paint, though not many places were down to the metal. This allowed the rusr to creep through what was left of the paint much like it did to weathered factory paint. I then bought a repro "Schwinn" decal, banged it up a little, and used some green and red food coloring in the water to tint it. Even after doing this, the decal didn't darken as much as I hoped, so I lightly sanded it with the 2000# grit and applied Old English furniture polish and it looked as better than I could imagined. After getting the decal right, I mixed up a vinegar and salt mixture in a spray bottle and kept spraying it and letting air dry for weeks. When the look I wanted, I wiped the decal too hard trying to get some of the Old English residue and I tore some of it off, but it actually looks just like a decal on my Columbia that is torn off, so it was a mistake that worked OK. \
Here's pics as the it went along:
This was after I sanded it with 2000# grit. You can see some very thin spots in white.
This was after I sprayed it a few times with the vinegar and salt mixture and before I put the Old English on the decal.
And here is the final result. It maych the rest of the bike very well, and doesn't appear to a new repro tank. I did a little work on the chaingaurd as well. I need to get a pair of truss rods and a correct seat, and I'll call this one done!
