Start at the beginning - Muddy Fox Courier Comp Greeeeeen

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A wee bit more progress today.

The headset bearings were shot and the cups and lockrings looking a bit rusty, so out with the old...

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The bars are pretty goosed so it was alright to clamp them in the vice to give the stem a good rub.

How it looked to begin with:

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And then a bit more polishing later, it was time in with the new headset

A VP YST 242 NOS no less

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Not totally sure about the silver, the original was black but out of the two 1 inch headsets this one has better seals.

Then I have hit upon a quandary.
Ive got 2 sets of straight black alloy bars. the first set are in ok shape but have a fair few scuffs - and no branding.
The second set are period correct and almost mint...but have Saracen stamped on them thus

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The original bars are definitely goosed. I also have a set of silver alloy Trek System 3 bars, but I think they are a bit later - what to do?

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These would go better with the headset and seatpost. Anyone any thoughts?
 
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I've gone with silver bars for the time being, most of the parts will be silver, and maybe the wheels if I can source another M261 rim from somewhere.
I also have the option of some Scott AT3s which I'm considering, or maybe even AT4s which would just be the nuts, as I did have those on the bike at some point.

The week has mostly been spent apolishing ma bits. I started off with the rear mech. I have an XT rear short cage, which is what I originally planned on using, but the scarring on the black section and the back end looks a bit rough.

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So I thought I'd fish out as much as I could fine from the box, and it looks a bit like this

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I had seen a couple of posts suggesting that sticking your bits in the work dishwasher might help to get rid of some of the really stubborn grime from the awkward corners :)

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but it was a bit of a non event, pretty much as you were sir.

anyway heres a couple of random work in progress pics of the brakes and the better of the two mechs, long cage but that's alright

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and a kind of ready to go front mech

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I'd read a few posts about the trouble of shimming down a 31.8 mech to fit a 28.6 seat tube, so was well pleased to source a FD-6600 shim today, which does the job beautifully. Coke cans remain intact.

A whole heap more polishing to be done, and still a lot of jobs on the list.

The most important is sourcing some better rings to fit on the XT cranks. I have a few options:
I have some acceptable 28,38,48 non matching but useable silver round rings, the bottom and middle are ok, but the outer is a bit worn in places.
I have the original 400LX Biopace rings, they are black, but rusty as hell. I could polish them up to Silver, but I suspect they would just rust again pretty quick
I have some good matching Silver biopace rings off a 300LX chainset.
Or widen the Search a bit...

Source the M261 rim, if possible. I have a DX hubset on a set of Specialized rims, which are ok, but the braking surface is a bit suspect, and it was always Mavic for me BITD

Then find a Turbo saddle, fix the top of the seatpost, recondition the XT pedals, find some green toeclip straps, find some Aztec pads, polish out the lever blades to Silver....and so on. Having lots of fun with this one!
 
Looking great, I love the pics and detail you are going into, feels like we are restoring this with you :)

I reckon you could get that short cage XT much nicer with some really good polishing on the silver metal parts. To tidy up the scaring on the black section, use a good black sharpie permanent
marker, use a steady hand not to go over any logo. You'll be amazed how good it'll come out.

I have some lovely silver bars if you fancy them, shiny like your Seatpost. They are Marin Lite branded ones from 1992, removed from my Team Issue as the logos are worn. I can remove the rest of the logo and they'd be perfect for your build?
 
Minifreak":1iyy5art said:
I have some lovely silver bars if you fancy them, shiny like your Seatpost. They are Marin Lite branded ones from 1992, removed from my Team Issue as the logos are worn. I can remove the rest of the logo and they'd be perfect for your build?

Cheers for the offer dude. Ill keep it in mind, although the rim and rings are more of a priority. But much appreciated :D

Progress has been slow this week, people don't seem to appreciate the importance of polishing 25 year old bike parts and keep on asking me to perform other tasks.

I've been having difficulty getting a good shine on the M734 cantis, the outer surfaces come up nice but the recesses around the pad bolt holes have been tricky.

To solve this I have patented the following glovefingerdriver, reaches the parts other polishing glove fingers cant reach

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works a treat, you are welcome to use that idea...

and heres a after and before the glovefingerdriver treatment pic...

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tomorrow may see the cantis bolted back on to the bike! but no promises mind
 
This is cool. There used to be one of these in my school bike sheds belonging to one of the 'bigger boys'.
You can transplant the short cage from one mech to the other btw.
 
A weeks worth of brakes polishing at lunchtimes. Theres a lot of crap can get lodged in brakes

I did a fair amount of rubbing down of the mounting washers for the blocks, they were a bit rusty. I know you only see one side of them, but in for a penny and that

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Wasn't sure if they were tarnished or worn, should they have been silver, or black? Anyway, they're silver now. with some very stubborn black bits.

And finally a couple of bits in place! tapped out the boss threads, and they are springing really nicely. Only concern is the Right hand boss on the fork is sitting at a squinty angle, the Canti is on ok, but Im a bit concerned how it will act under load. I really hope it's not going to be a problem for the forks, as the only other option is RC35s, which might be a bit of overkill for this bike. Still...

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and seeing as I was getting around to hanging some bits, the front mech is kind of in place too

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Next up is finishing off the rear mech. I have changed the cage on newer mechs and replaced the spring (is it called the P spring?) It would definitely be better to use the upper part of the long cage mech from an aesthetic point of view, and it would also be much better to run the short cage, so that could be tomorrows job
 
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and it was tomorrows job

Started off with mech carnage

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and some pure filth

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which actually cleaned up reasonably well, Full strip down and some fresh grease in the spring, and fitted the short cage

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Despite looking a wee bit scratched, its definitely in better nick than the other one, so it was a job worth doing.

The short cages jockey wheels were a bit pointy, so the ones from the long cage have been robbed, and given a wee bath

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looking better

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Got it all screwed back together and hung on the bike

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and I was just about to screw in the barrel adjuster when I saw this!

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I was sure it was half of an adjuster screw stuck in the mech, noooooo
But a quick poke with the dart and it was just a tube of dirt with a cable sized hole through the middle, at ease

So tapped out the hole and just the adjuster to fit, and then a wee touch up on the scratched black panel and we're good to go.

Here is progress so far

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Anybody bored yet?

I thought I'd scored some NOS Xt Blocks last night, paid for them and everything and went to sleep thinking wee job done, but woke this morning to find my PP payment returned, so back to brake block square one.
 
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