Black hole Buccaneer

The suns out and I'm finally stuck at home without any real work so that feels like a very good reason to drag old metal bits and tools out of the garage and have a fettle. Life for me since I last prettied up a bike have been more than a little busy with work and home additions so apart from actually using some of my bikes working on them has pretty much non existent for a few months so it was nice to dive into the garage even if it took a good few hours to find where I'd put stuff.

First up in the bikes I'm going to tackle this year is a November 1956 Claud Butler Buccaneer, I thought this one was a Jubilee when I got it but Peachy correctly pointed out identity.

This one was originally gold with half chrome forks but ti had been badly over painted in black and the frame is in a generally poor state So first step get it broken down and ready to be prepped for paint.

Once I got the frame striped down ready for prep was that the chrome on the forks is way too far gone so unfortunately these are going to need to be repainted in full apart from the fork ends.

Hurrah! I'll be checking in to see progress.... will you be going back to Gold?

Not sure yet, I've got some gold in stock but it makes a better base for a coloured lacquer than a top coat so I'll see what it goes on like before I decide.

Before that I've got a hell of a lot of pitting to deal with, I got a coat of primer onto it yesterday just to see what I was dealing with and its not pretty.

A couple of pics of it in primer, nasty looking pits and all.

I'm a bit further on with this one. so after lot of sanding, filling, puttying (is that a word?), more sanding, priming, more sanding, more priming, etc. etc. etc. It went gold @Peachy but then it didn't, as discussed elsewhere the gold I had in stock was really only for use as a basecoat so it then went blue. I know it looks green but trust me it's blue, the can even says so.

So here's some pictures of it going gold and then green (I mean blue) along with one of the offending blue/green paint cans.

This one will now dry for a very long time before I apply the decals and then the 2K clear coat which will give me some time to put together what will go on it to build it into an actual bike. Most of the remotely suitable parts I have in stock I could use are early Campag (Nuovo Record era) so that's probably the way it will go but I have got a box of cottered cranks of different types in the garage and some GB brakes so I'll have a dig through that as well.

I think I need to adjust my set.... are you sure that’s not green?

Liked the Gold....

I know it comes to something when you can't even trust a paint can.

And don't worry this one will be gold when I get round to it.

Now that’s what I’m talking about...

I forgot I've got this Velo Capital as well which is goldish and will be done as close to original as I can, so that's two then..