This weeks auction bargain

Mooching around the local auctions yesterday I saw a rusty, sad looking, old path racer.

26x1 1/4" tyres
531 tubing
Lovely pin striping on the tubing (that I could see under the surface rust)
Double fixed
path racer bars, reversed stem
No seat post or saddle.

I took a punt on it, left a proxy bid of £20 max and went home for the afternoon. I also left a bid of the same amount on a Trek 8000 with a really nasty ding in the top tube.

Got a phone call at 17:45 to say that I had won the old bike, the Trek obviously went for a lot more (it's odd, MTBs go for silly money, road bikes go for peanuts, I bought a Dave Yates 531 from there for £60 a couple of yea\rs ago, which I made a killing off after breaking it down).

So I go and pick it up today, after a little research I find it is a Fentons of York. Needs a really good clean, and possibly a repsray (the surface rust on the forks had removed nearly all the paint).

Cost? Including commission and VAT, a mear £16.80!!!

Pics to follow.

So the photos, I didn't get any of the wheels, they are in too bad a state (I think I will strip them of their rims and use the hubs to build new wheels)

That looks really old. Here are some catalog scans: http://www.flickr.com/search/groups/?w= ... l&q=fenton
and some more: http://www.oldbike.eu/museum/1930s/1931 ... e-sidecar/

Fab project!

lewisfoto":dfcrcrsx said:

Fab project!

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+1. I love the look of these vintage Path Racers, I'm eagerly awaiting the outcome of this.

What a bargain, looks like a quality mid/late thirties frame, check out the williams crank for a code, you may be able to date it that way. Good luck. Terry

Digging around a bit more, the Reynolds sticker is one used in the 1930's, so mid-late '30's will be about right (531 didn't come in until 1935).

Can't see anything stamped ont he cranks, but then again they are a mess of razor sharp chrome flakes, so that is no surprise.

I have rescued the hubs, which are now soaking in white spirit to get all the muck off before stripping them down to clean and re-grease.

The rims are a write-off, though as they are steel tubs rims and in the same state as the cranks, i.e. rusty and flaky. They are 26 * 1 1/4 (597) so, ideally, for safety's sake I will be able to replace them with 650A (590) rims in alloy (if I can find any 40 hole ones).

The headset, and other bearings, move freely so that makes the whole strip down a lot easier (or it did until I managed to bend one of the cotter pins whilst trying to knock it out! )

Hopefully I will have the whole thing in pieces by the weekend (man-flu permitting) and then the rubbing down and cleaning ready for paint can begin (and hopefully I can get decent photos of the paintwork so I can get it replicated). The rusty bits that I had time to rub down yesterday came up nicely, going back to solid metal very easily, so deffo just surface rust, phew!

The saddest thing is that the lovely, white, Blumels that would have been fitted as new were ripped to pieces so they were the first thing that went in the bin.

My next thought (you can tell I'm really busy at work, today, can't you?)

Once stripped of paint and rust, should I go for PC or two pack/stove enamel?

Like those lugs! I may be wrong but I thought that powder coat has a high build and might hide some of the detail on this frame?

SIMONFREESE":2o27hgt4 said:

Like those lugs! I may be wrong but I thought that powder coat has a high build and might hide some of the detail on this frame?

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See the thread on the other sub-board "When not to powdercoat". I have decided the only way forward with the paintjob is to get a pro spray job done.

To this end I went up to see our tame body shop owner this afternoon, only to find he had shut up shop!

I needed to book my car in, elsewhere, for a service, so whilst there I asked the owner if he knew what had happened "He just packed up" was the reply.

He did, however give me a couple of leads including one guy who operates out of an old barn and is not adverse to doing CIH jobs!

I shall visit him next week.