Project GRUBB (1960 F.H.Grubb, holdsworth era plain 531)

Hey there - thought I would start this as a blog of my progress - as the project is very likely to be lengthy

It starts life as an impulse buy - I'm normally a off roader - flat bars and mud guy, since the early '90s having owned various orange, saracens, marins, etc. I've not ridden a "racer" since I was at school (owned a viking, that I spectacularly ruined by riding into the back of a parked car in heavy rain about 1986)

So my neigbour and a few friends did Bakewell l'eroica this year. Just down the road... I even worked my neighbour's 1980's mixte for her, doing a full clean and service in exchange for some very welcome beers!

SO... Next year, I pledged to myself that I make it over, but with a selection of late 1980s and early 1990s MTBs need something with a bit more vintage appeal.

So here is the wreck I ended up with... as brought

The good:
Frame and forks are large enough - people musta been small in the old days, I find it hard to find older frames that fit me.
G.B. 100mm spearpoint Stem savable after a VERY long fight, two tins of penetrating oil, one tin of freeze spray and temporary damage to various tendons in my shoulders.
G.B. Brakes Superhood/Courier brakes look like they can be restored and reused.
Dawes "concorde" bars, also assumed original can be saved
Headset and BB wil be OK after a good clean, and maybe a rechrome.
Williams C45 cranks, although need re-chrome are a nice original feature. To be decided.

The bad:
Frame oversprayed badly, pitted and really very sad, stays bent. Currently at local frame expert for a restoration.
Wheels are (rear) a 1970s alloy rim on viscount hub, knackered freewheel. (front) rigida chrome on mailard hub from the 1980s. Neither really appropriate for this age of frame.
No gears, although frame has a boss for a single rear shifter (3-5sp?). Rear stay spacing is around 114mm. Would like gears...
Pedals are very corroded, missing one cap and one toeclip.
I don't think it looks good in yellow.

It may be a little sorry for itself atm but i bet it looks great when you get it sorted as for the gears , i did think 5 speed seemed the best choice as you'd probably feel that 3 limited you a little on a longish ride ..

So what you thinking of regards colour choice then ? ..

Re:

I wanted a deep green with a seat tube band in white, and the headtube also white. I've gone for british racing green as the colour - hope I've made a sensible choice this remains to be seen. I think the original color was either a white or a rosy pink with red band and headtube.

Well British racing green has been the prefered choice for around 110 years now by motorists and motor sport fanatics due to it's representation of britains determination to succeed and like me think it looks cool with white or gold decals but their are those that prefer the metallic finish to the plain base green finish and i happen to like both so 1st of all which would you choose and secondly british racing green was originally known as shamrock green when it was 1st used on Napier racing cars over in Ireland in 1903 but later on became known as British racing green .

So any way dark green with white will look good if you don't go over board with the white ..

Be nice to see this evolve.

I will now SHARE with you EXCLUSIVELY on retrobike the AMAZING secrets of my chrome restoration skills!

This technique is CHEMICAL FREE.. and FULLY ORGANIC

Before:



After


This process consists of TWO really EASY steps
[1] Buy nice new shiny chrome part of identical make, model and vintage.
[2] Optionally: either simply
(a) throw the old part in the bin or
(b) squirrel the old part into the ever growing pile of rusty old bits in the vein hope that you might find it if you ever bust an axle or loose a bearing cone

Re:

Your technique is ENVIABLE... but is it SUSTAINABLE?.. i.e. from one end of your project to the other?

Totally gutted that your chrome restoration wasn't actually a proper restoration ..

Re:

Ah.. sorry for the spoiler. But in reality the state of them is terrible - plus just one missing dust cap would have me searching high and low for a match. I stumbled on the shiny pedals, they were a VERY reasonable price which I expect wouldn't pay for even one of the old ones to be rechromed.

I expect I will still need to re-chrome some bits, and others may survive with a clean and polish...

After a few false starts, finally a ebay bid comes good - and the basis of my wheels have now arrived:




A pair of Bayliss Wiley Lo-flange 32/40 hole hubs, and suitable Dunlop rims. Chrome on the hubs is really rather good, yet to start cleaning up the rims, but they don't look too bad bar some slight pitting and superficial dirt. Just clean up and add spokes..