alloy frame - can it rust?

[pano amo]

I've been putting my lush Lapierre Zesty to good use for over a year now and its accquired some battle scars, some quite deep that have scratched through the paint and down to bare alloy. Should I treat these scratches? Could rust develop? A friend reckons dabbing on a bit of clear nail varnish will seal up the exposed alloy nicely. Is this a good idea?

[Simond S]

it will look like it has rusted, but with silver rust.

It's actually oxidised.

A dab of lacquer wouldnt be a bad move

[pano amo]

thanks, I will

[paranoid airbag]

assuming it's aluminium alloy you mean, then no - you will get a small amount of white flakes as mentioned above, but not anything worth worrying about, and probably not noticeable - I've scraped my alloy frame and it looks like bare metal.

[shalmaneser]

No, it won't rust. This is GCSE level science, you should know that really.

[louiebaby]

Aluminium does oxidise, like iron does in steel. The difference is that rust flakes off, the aluminium oxide stuff doesn't, so it actually forms a protective layer.

It isn't all that pretty though...