Elsie the elswick

So today Elsie the Elswick (yes its been named) arrived at home. She's an Elswick turbo 12 in brown, think late 70s or early 80s. I've been flip flopping about with ideas of what to do but basically it's going to be used for a commuter during the better weather for a bit of fun and a change (it's significantly lighter than the ally mtb I'm currently using). Thoughts are, try to keep it as original as possible, or strip right back and start again, maybe single speeding it. The frame has some scuffs and rust and general storage and use related problems. Hopefully you guys will be able to give me some advice as to how to go about sorting the bike. I think now it's arrived I may try and go gently first, trying to sort rust and stabilise the frame etc, then have some fun riding for a while in the original state before doing anything drastic. I guess I'm after advice on how to sort rust and scratches whilst preserving as much paint as possible. Pictures to follow. Cheers all.

2018-03-15_08-20-10 by James Branston, on Flickr

2018-03-15_08-20-34 by James Branston, on Flickr

2018-03-15_08-20-41 by James Branston, on Flickr

2018-03-15_08-21-09 by James Branston, on Flickr

2018-03-15_08-21-43 by James Branston, on Flickr

So far from what I can see the front forks and wheel are chromed and quite rusty the rear wheel isn't chrome (? Steel). There appears to be scratches with some rust on a fair bit of frame, now to work out how to clean it up, any help appreciated tjanks

You can work out where it's from, it appears to have the post code and house number stamped on the BB....?

Good point OSGM, it certainly is a post code, also its about half a mile away from our house! How strange, i acquired it from some miles away. Now to work out if the same people still own the house!

Hi James,
Rear rim looks like alloy.
This appears to be a mass produced low end bike, up to you if you think it's worth spending on.
Probably thick seam welded tubing, so very unlikely to rust through. You can tell from the diameter of the seat pillar. Outside diameter of the seat tube will be 1 1/8 inches.

Keith

Cheers Keith, I agree with your summary of the bike, it's nothing special but it's cost me virtually nothing. I've now decided I think what I want to do. I'm going to try and restore it to working order to use as a summer commuter bike and use it as a practice bike to remove rust etc and tidy up with a view to making restoration mistakes on this rather than something good. So I'm going to try and remove as much rust as I can and stabilise it while keeping as much original paint as possible and polish up what I can. My main problems are the chrome front wheel as not sure how to deal with it as it is a braking surface (I know it's a crap one to start with but thought I'd try and play with it) and sealing the frame once the rusts been removed and sorted. In a drive to not spend too much cash on it, I have laying around amongst other things original tcut liquid, autosol, wd40 muckoff cleaner, degreaser, and some rustoleum crystal clear protective coat. If any of these may be of use then that's a bonus.