Naval Jelly Magic on 52 Hornet / 42 Roadmaster

Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Jan 22, 2011
Messages
67
Reaction score
39
Rating - 100%
3   0   0
Back when I was my sons age (13) I can remember working on stuff in the garage with my Gramps with one of the things he often used being Naval Jelly to remove rust and clean things up.
Last fall my son and I found this 52 Schwinn Hornet and decided to try the Naval Jelly trick on it. We started by gooping it on and letting it sit for 15 mins and used 00 steel wool to get the heavy rust / stuff off. After that repeated with 000 steel wool and then 0000 followed up with 0000 and WD-40. Made sure to remove any naval jelly residue, washed it down getting any WD-40 off and sprayed it with a matte / satin clear.
We replaced the tubes, tires and repacked the bearings and off he went............getting stopped 2-3 times in the neighborhood by 60-65 year old guys asking where he got the bike. This one is all done........next are two 1942 CWC Roadmasters we just found in about the same condition as the 52 Schwinn when we found it. Slowly but surely.........Naval Jelly does Magic !!!
 
Last edited:
you applied Naval Jelly. washed it off with water. Then soaked it down with wd-40 wiped it off and sprayed satin clear on it? How did it stick to the bike? Am I missing something or are you missing a step?
 
Thanks " Late " for fixing the pics !!!

Shackleford - top pic is before pic - can't quite tell how rusty it was but it was pretty crusty.

Honest - We put the naval jelly on and let it sit and then scrubbed with the 00 steel wool to get the heavy rust off. We then reapplied the naval jelly and did the same rusing 000 steel wool and repeated then using 0000 steel wool.
The final time we just used a 0000 steel wool pad soaked with WD-40 to get the finish as smooth as we could. After that we washed the bike down really well to get any left over naval jelly and WD-40 off, let it dry and then cleared it to preserve what we'd done.
 
That bike has the same rust as Mine has. perfectly aged rust, i steel wooled the rough areas then wiped it down with used motoroil. looks like the outcome comes out looking the same. great way to get rid of motoroil slowly. lol
 
Finally got to one of the 42 CWC / Roadmaster and used the naval jelly like I did on the Schwinn. Looks pretty good but not as good as the Schwinn.
The Roadmasters paint wasn't nearly as thick and the bike was handed down in a family of 13 kids. Trying to decide what color tires to put on it - thinking regular colored bricks. Will add a photo when I have it back together if I can figure it out.
 
Great looking bike. I'm in the process of removing rust from this bike that I got a couple of weeks ago. I'm using a product called "Metal Rescue" it has no acids and it is safe to use. It's working pretty good so far.
 
Finally finished up 1 of the 2 1942 Roadmasters we picked up.
Just like with the Schwinn used naval jelly and steel wool from 00 down to 0000, then 0000 with WD-40 - washed it clean to remove anything left over and then matte clear coated it adding new tires.
My son is now riding the crap out of this one. Need to find some better pedals and maybe a headlight for the front fender and then we'll move onto the other one, which isn't going to be as easy as the first was.

Sorry for the size of the " before " pics - can't figure out how to make them smaller.

42Headbadge.jpg

42Sidebars.jpg

42Roadmaster2.jpg
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top