Steel retrobike question – help please

I’m getting nostalgic and have just seen an old steel bike for sale that I really want.

It’s from the early 90’s and is a Cr-Mo steel frame.

The bike has obviously lived a hard life and the photo shows ‘some’ rust. Worst is pictured.

I know nothing about steel, would welcome any advice based on the rather grainy picture below.

Is it FUBAR’d?

Could it be salvaged?

Current price is a song so tempted to take a punt. But any advice before buying a lump of scrap most welcome

That looks fairly superficial. Paint looks damaged. I’ve had worse that look good as new with a powder coat. Depends if you want the original paint job. Wet respray and decals would be expensive.

Generally if the steel doesn’t look pitted you’d be fine. It looks like something has chipped the paint rather than an underlying crack.

Thanks – would really love to keep the original paint and decals as far as possible!

Looks fine to me. Depending on the brand you might still be able to get decals for it, or very close replicas, so could potentially respray and new decal to make it look original.

Love a steel bike, I have a 93 Cinder Cone which I love to pieces.

I’d ask if the seat post moves before buying it…

It’s not retro, it’s just old!

Probably just fairly superficial rust from that photo.

I’d ask if the seat post moves before buying it…

Somewhere between Bob Hope and no hope at a guess….

My ’90’s steel HT – currently got a few bits in bike-discount.de basket to retro it back a bit – flat bar and bar ends for one

2022-04-21_12-33-04 by davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

I’m a retro biker and have had plenty worse than that. Some de-greaser, scouring pads and polish will bring it up fine.

Defo worth checking if the seat post moves. Not the end of the world if it doesn’t but can be a massive pain. Just had to cut one out of a 90 Pine Mountain.

If it’s stuck look up the seatpostman.

He’s helped many on here including me.