70's Europa but not the one most of you are thinking of

Re: Re:

Big Block":2gpby9ub said:

did you have a read of this thread
http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?t=32833

let me know if there is any specific question you have, I can ask a few locals for you
and I assume you found Greg's decals
http://cyclomondo.net/page31.htm
his are world class

Philip
Who went to uni 800 metres from that shop.

Click to expand...

Thanks Philip

Yes I'd seen that thread and Greg's decals thanks, there are a couple of other useful threads about the Abeni bikes on the bicycles.net.au forums and Greg does the exact decals for my bike so I will be contacting him as soon as I'm getting toward needing them.

And thanks, I'm sure I'll have a few questions once I get farther on with it so I will need to take you up on the offer of info I'm sure.

I managed to get a bit of time on this one yesterday so some photo's of some very scruffy and grimy bits.

The cranks and chain rings are past it, well the chain rings certainly are and I don't think I've ever seen rings quite so caked in crap but I suppose I could re paint the cranks if I could get replacement rings but I'm probably looking at replacing the whole lot really. the rear mech is just as bad but I've got a spare so am not worried about that. The brakes, levers, bars and stem will all come up fine.

The seat post still won't come out but that's going to get the freeze/hot or caustic soda treatment when I can get round to it.

I got a bit of polish on the forks and they came up quite presentable, not perfect but usable and maybe a bit better with a bit more polishing.

A little update on this one.

Work and fitting a new kitchen have rather got in the way for a little while but I thought I'd have a go at getting the seat pin out the other day.

I had a couple of goes with the freeze spray but no movement whatsoever. I put a bung in the bottom, gave it a good spray until the outside of the seat tube had frost appearing on it and then heated the seat tube with a head gun and gave the seat pin a few proper whacks with my favourite lumping stick but nothing, I even tried to twist it as well but its stuck fast so it looks like the caustic soda has got to be the next try.

I'll let you know how I get on.

I did manage to get the bottom bracket out though so that will make the caustic treatment a lot easier.

Don't forget your PPE! :facepalm:

PeachyPM":36fkt6ul said:

Don't forget your PPE! :facepalm:

Click to expand...

I blame that elf and saaftee I do, don't worry I had my wife standing by with a big bucket of water, the first aid kit and 999 already primed into the phone

Re:

Bubble bubble toil and trouble.

The seat post is out, well for out read dissolved. And it was such an interesting and fun process I thought I'd put a few pictures and notes below so that others who haven't tried it can learn from what I did wrong, what I did right and what I learnt.

OK, getting out a very stubbornly stuck aluminium seat post in a steel frame?

This one was the stuckest seat post I've ever had the misfortune to have to deal with, it was so stuck it was even less likely to move than a Frenchman living next to a brothel.

So what to do? I'd tried brute force, fail. I tried the freeze method (twice), fail. So all that was left was the caustic soda method, a bubbly, smoky noisy success, I felt like the mad professor doing it but it worked.

Right how to do it, safety first and foremost, caustic soda can and will burn so take the right precautions:

Do this in a well ventilated area where you are happy to get rid of the waste, so outside for me on a bit of scrap ground.
PPE as a minimum, rubber gloves, face mask, goggles, sensible footwear, as much skin as possible covered and keep away when it's working.

Don't stop there.... I'm on the edge of my seat...

1st) The bottom bracket and forks need to be out

2nd) You need to cap the seat post with something plastic, I used an old handlebar end plug tapped in with a mallet and then a couple of rubber glove fingers over the top to seal it.

3rd) You need to do this with the frame upside down and I used a bendy funnel from the pound shop (make sure you take the alloy grill out of it if you use the same one) so that you can get the tube into the base of the seat tube. And make sure the frame isn't going to move when you start in anger because it does bubble and spit (a lot) and the seat tube gets pretty hot.

4th) The mixture, 250ml of water to 100g of caustic soda crystals which you mix well.

5th) Poor in slowly (did I say it spits and bubbles?), I found pouring in about half the liquid, waiting a bit and then pouring in the other half worked well.

6th) Wait, let it work, wait for the seat tube to cool down before you start with the next batch. I didn't at first so probably used more of this than I needed.