Thorn Audax Mk1 refurb

Hi all.

This is an ongoing project at the moment - I was hankering after some kind of audax/fast touring frame for a while and bought this Thorn Audax Mk1 from the classifieds a few months back, pre lockdown. I had it blasted and was almost ready to paint when lockdown struck, so it's been in limbo for a while.
With the prospect of getting back to work relatively soon and access to my spray setup again I thought I'd make a thread so any interested parties can follow along. Hope you enjoy!



The frame has obviously spent a good amount of time trucking through the English countryside, and the paint was very tired in places with some notable areas of rust. Thorn's original paint is also practical rather than beautiful and I thought I could make something more of the lugwork with a repaint.











More soon.

Looking forward to seeing how this develops, brilliant, and underated frames (although mine was exactly the same, inc colour, so I may be bias)

Here are a couple of the frame as it is now...









A bit of surface rust from it sitting around bare metal for months but nothing that can't be brushed off.

I really like the stainless headbadge which will get a good polish up before paint.

That tubing sticker is awesome, hope you can find another!

Yep, already in the pile! H Lloyd came good. It's quite unique.

I might move it a bit lower on the seat tube just so it's not quite so in your face?

I like the look of this - subscribed!

Tuning in...

I have a similar shaped gap in my stable so will watch with interest.

Always made me laugh, that Reynolds sticker - so many different tubesets.

Interesting that the top tube is 653, whilst the downtube is 531, finally putting to bed, one of the oldest internet myths/lies - that 653 was just 531 front triangle, and 753 rear triangle.

The myth is usually further 'bullsh*tted' with the story that Merckx requested 653 because 753 was too stiff! One - 753 is less stiff, because it is thinner; Two - 653 came out 12 years after Merckx retired.

That is a Reynolds sticker and a half!

I think Thorn missed a trick there. They could have had a different Reynolds sticker on each tube