1983(?) Raleigh Sirocco

[bassisace]

This was my first bike project and I've had to figure most things out from the internet as I've gone along.

The bike as I bought it:

Came with shimano 105 cranks, biopace 42/52 chainrings, campagnolo mirage headset and some no name chrome forks. Decided I'd clean up and keep all of this with a view to saving money.

The forks cleaned up ok with some aluminium foil (half done here):

Steep learning curve on the respray:

Showing serial number:

Colour:

Starting to rebuild (seriously messed up the sizing when I ordered the stem :facepalm: ) fitted a new shimano UN26 BB:

Cleaned up the cranks and chainrings, fitted some shimano m324 pedals.

More reassembling. Fitted shimano 105 brakes and levers, mavic bars (which are at the wrong angle completely here :facepalm: ), shimano 105 front and rear derailleurs and shifters, shimano rs21 wheels (removed red stickers and had to stretch the rear dropouts slightly to fit a 130mm hub in a 126mm space), continental ultrasport white tyres, panaracer inner tubes. Also replaced the stem with something of a more appropriate length.

Current state:
Installed cabling and set up gears and brakes, readjusted and taped handlebars with cinelli gel cork tape (first attempt ever at wrapping bars, pretty pleased with the result)

Now I just need to decide between a white or black saddle and then it's finished!

 

[Nob]

No decals then?

 

[bassisace]

No decals then?

Not this time... The original red/white colour paint job seemed a bit intimidating for my first spray attempt and it sort of made me lose interest in trying to restore it to its original state. Maybe further down the line (when I've scuffed this up a bit) I'll give it a go. I quite like the clean look at the moment anyway.

I do have the raleigh badge which I'm trying to figure out how to refit. I broke the tiny locating pins off when I stripped the bike down :facepalm: There are rivet kits but I think that would mean drilling the frame.

 

[bassisace]

Frame: 1983(?) Raleigh Sirocco

Fork: Unknown chrome effort

Headset: Campagnolo mirage
Stem: Cheap zenith quill stem
Handlebar: Mavic
Bar Tape: Cinelli gel cork

Brake Levers/Brifters: Shimano 105
Brake Calipers: Shimano 105
Brake Pads: ??
Brake Cables: Gore Low Friction

Shifters: Shimano 105
Front Derailleur: Shimano 105
Rear Derailleur: Shimano 105
Derailleur Cables: Clarks Zero-G
Cassette: SRAM PG730
Chain: Shimano HG50
Cranks: Shimano 105
Chainrings: Shimano biopace 52/42
Bottom Bracket: Shimano UN26
Pedals: Shimano M324

Rims: Shimano RS21 factory wheel unsure of individual components
Hubs:Shimano RS21 factory wheel unsure of individual components
Hub Skewers: Shimano RS21 factory wheel unsure of individual components
Nipples: Shimano RS21 factory wheel unsure of individual components
Spokes: Shimano RS21 factory wheel unsure of individual components
Tyres: Continental ultrasport
Tubes: Panaracer

Saddle: N/A
Seatpost: N/A
Seatpost Binder: N/A

Bottle Cage: N/A
Extras: N/A

Weight: To be determined

 

[TGR]

Nice build. Any chance of more info on the spray job you did, it looks mint but you hint it was problematic.

Richard

 

[bassisace]

Nice build. Any chance of more info on the spray job you did, it looks mint but you hint it was problematic.

Richard

Hi Richard,
Thanks for the comments.

Well, it wasn't so much that it was especially problematic; I imagine it would be a similar process if I did it again. I just had no idea what to expect when doing a respray. I'd read a lot online but in reality you can only really learn by giving it a go! I guess the issues I had were:
1. The old paint was much harder to strip than I'd anticipated, it was some kind of baked on enamel and took a good few hours of sanding after trying paint stripper.
2. I ended up doing many more layers than I had anticipated to as I got a few runs which needed flatting back and respraying.
3. I had never actually sprayed something with a rattle can which needed to look tidy so I had to learn to do that. I wasted a fair bit of primer on my first coats by holding the can too far away and spraying most of it into the air around the frame!

I used car paints for all the coats. I the brand was "hycote" and the colour was "wedgewood blue". Ended up with about 4 coats of primer (including the overly light one), 3 of colour and 2 or lacquer. Overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. My other option was to have it powdercoated but I've seen a few examples where the coating is too thick and you lose the details of the frame which I wasn't keen on.

 

[TGR]

Thanks for that. I would like to try painting at some stage in the future. You have done a good job.

Richard

 

[pauln]

I like that, I would like to do a bike decals and all but then I remember the paint is just a layer of protection and enjoy the ride at the end of project. Tip..carefully applied heat from a blowtorch and a wire brush can strip a frame in about 20 minutes.

 

[MrW]

I'm wondering why it had 2 Reynolds 501 decals, and 1 of them was facing 'backwards' on the seat tube?!

Nice job by the way!

 

[bassisace]

I'm wondering why it had 2 Reynolds 501 decals, and 1 of them was facing 'backwards' on the seat tube?!

Nice job by the way!

I honestly have no idea! One of them was a "respray" decal but I'm 99% sure it hadn't been reprayed. :?