Rescuing a Pace RC200 F4 Frame

Hi thought I would share the restoration and build of this frame that is poorly, going to Fixie it as want a training winter steed for the gravel.
The story of the missing seat tube is as follows, the frame was purchased from a guy that used to live in Sheffield he then moved to the Isle Of Man gave or sold frame to a guy on the island that organises a race on the island, as a price the seat tube was cut out mounted on something and given as a prize to a finisher or winner.
If any of this is wrong I apologise but that's the reason the seat tube is cut out, I just have the fun of having one put back in do I go square (RC100) or Round? Always liked the all square tubes of the early Pace
Well will keep you posted on the restoration and build but any suggestion on kit colour ect ect feel free to post as should be fun.
Papillon

Hi
2 questions that would help me are as follows. Going to build it with 700cc wheels, with track dropouts (got the drop outs sorted) if I did not use Pace rigid forks what else would fit make and size? As I will use a 48t chainring what cranks and BB would be best for this build? Many thanks.
Papillon

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OK...I thought I'd take on this repair for Papillon...

Thankfully, it doesn't appear to have had the seat tube cut out for no reason...That would have been sacrilege.
The original seat tube had cracked around the BB weld:



And later been cut off at the seat tube junction:



Hardly surprising it broke... as the original tube seems to have been a 32mm plain gauge tube with only a 1.3mm wall.
General practice on an aluminium frame would be to run a double-butted tube, 2.2mm-ish at the BB end, 1.3mm-ish in the central section, back out to a short section of 1.6mm at the top, to give a sensible 28.6mm seatpost fit.

On closer inspection there's some very shallow weld penetration at the front, with a section where the weld pool has touched, but not adhered to, the downtube surface. Also, the eagle-eyed of you will have noticed that the seat tube has been welded on second, after the downtube; the reverse of normal practice with lugless brazed or TIG welded frames.:



I'll be keeping a closer eye on my RC300 after seeing this...

The plan is to clean up the BB shell, removing the anodizing where it will be welded, cut out the stub at the seat end, separate the top ring, replace the pulled helicoil thread and un-anodise:



Clean off the old weldment from the frame tube ends. Then re-weld the top ring onto a new seat tube, with an appropriate 1.3mm wall thickness to be able to keep the original (weird) 29.4mm seat clamp. The upper end of the set tube is well enough supported that I think this should be OK, without the additional strength of a 1.6mm thick butt. We'll see...

Papillon wants me to take off all the cabling and brake fittings to make it more sleek for his fixie project. Offended POP (Pace Originality Police) enforcement messages to him, please

All the best,

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Interesting project. I wonder how it rides minus the sear tube??

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Subscribing to this thread, looking forward to a frame fabrication master class from Dan.

Can't miss this one.

Signed up

WD

me too !

But now I'm getting emails telling me the thread has replies from people saying they're subscribing

As a TIG welder and long time pace owner I've never been that impressed by the welding on some of the frames. Out of the ones I've owned (100, F3, F6 and 2x 300's) the F3 had the best welding.