Fixing a Victorian

[torqueless]

If it's gritty or tight spots, I live with it. If I wanted super smooth I could buy new shit. I think restoration / saving century old bikes is not about that; it's about other things and über frictionless just needs to take second place in the bigger picture.

Imo if you are re-assembling with old balls it is worthwhile passing them through a micrometer and getting as close as possible to equal-size balls in any given race. The tight spot in my pedal disappeared when I did that.

 

[Mickeyspinn]

I started sanding it down so you won’t be too happy. I’m a little surprised how two skim coats have eliminated much of the pits and other imperfections. It’s far from perfect but good enough. The color is a cranberry and is a 38 to 41 Schwinn New World color. Most New Worlds had forward facing drops to compete with Raleigh, which was starting to sell pretty well here. I’ll finish sanding it down and then start the final paint.View attachment 641754View attachment 641755

Yum I'm feeling satisfied now so neatly done!
And yes that's covering really well ...careful now ...it might end up too perfect!
I do like that colour...very fruity looking

 

[Woz]

Imo if you are re-assembling with old balls it is worthwhile passing them through a micrometer and getting as close as possible to equal-size balls in any given race. The tight spot in my pedal disappeared when I did that.

Now that is one tool I don't have and could do with one.

I've set-up a vernier caliper before now and used the "drop through" method for sorting but it's a right ball ache. Pun intended.

 

[Nabeaquam]

It’s still not good weather to paint. High winds and cold. Yesterday evening I sat outside to watch the sunset and had on two jackets and a wool toque. Eight degrees Celsius with winds is not good for paint, even with my paint tent. Same today. I’m hoping to finish sanding before fall weather sets in. It’s going to be an early fall, might have skipped summer and went from spring to fall. This happens about every 25 years it seems. We call it the summer that wasn’t. So far I have put the skim coats on by just laying the frame on an old rotting table, flipping it every 15 minutes for more paint. It gets bugs, pollen and rotted table stuck to it, but I’m sanding these out. In the past I’ve had my paint booth tent blow over and heavy rain cause the roof to sag and turn into a bath tub. I need about 2 - 3 days of calm and sun. The sun helps speed up paint drying as it can get hot in the poly tent. If it turns cold after all the paint has been applied, I put frames in my truck cab and park it in the sun. It gets hot in there, even when it’s cold outside. I can’t paint for 8 months here so I try and start projects in the winter so paint season comes up when everything else is done. If I’m lucky in the winter I can work in my unseated shop for 15 minutes before I can’t feel my hands. Most winter days you can’t work on bicycles outside at all. Some things, like spoking wheels can be done sitting inside by the wood stove. I made my fake wood rims inside.

Early May, three years ago. Gravel roads that were plowed melt off when there is still a lot of snow. The ground is still frozen so riding on hard frozen dirt and gravel is the most fun. Fast and no traffic.

 

[Nabeaquam]

I should mention my method to sand down a frame to bare metal or to sand skim coats. For years I have been using drywall sanding screen and cutting it up into thin strips. Last year I found finer (320) woodworking sanding screen that comes in rolls. I keep my frame tightly clamped in a work station and pull hard on the sanding strips wrapped around the tubing. This is fast and can get into tight spaces as the screen conforms and folds into tight spaces and hard pulling doesn’t tear it. If you cut the strips thinner you can easily and quickly get in the tightest spots. I finish this up with 400 wet sanding, but this is fast as most of the work has already been done by the mesh strips. On a frame with modern paint, that I’m stripping to bare metal, I use the more gritty drywall or a hardwood floor sanding disc screen cut into strips. If a small amount of paint remains in tight spots I burn it off with my torch. I have a small homemade sand blaster that can clean up the char, but this usually isn’t necessary. My homemade sand blaster isn’t powerful enough to quickly remove stubborn paint so the torch comes out.

Hardwood floor coarse sanding screen disc. I cut strips off with shop scissors.
Gritty drywall sanding screen.

The wood working 320 grit screen rolls.

Unopened rolls of 320.
Here is a frame where I used a torch to burn off paint in the hard to reach areas. It was a cheap frame so I didn’t care about heat damage to the tubing, but as far as I can tell there is no damage. I raced this bike in gravel racers and it didn’t break.
Paint turns out nice using this sanding screen and torch method.

 

[grantoury]

Nice Breezer replica

 

[Woz]

Just what is that post above?

It is verbatim from a sincere post earlier in this thread. As a noob it's a navigation error or as a spammer your future here is doomed.

EDIT: Just reported it.

 

[Mickeyspinn]

Just what is that post above?

It is verbatim from a sincere post earlier in this thread. As a noob it's a navigation error or as a spammer your future here is doomed.

EDIT: Just reported it.

I have no idea! Strange and bizarre

 

[Nabeaquam]

My pedal ball bearings came. Don’t fit. I ordered another size smaller. Their tiny. I’ll eventually get it. They are so worn down they are hard to pick up, pitted, rusty and have worn a deep grove in the races.

 

[Nabeaquam]

The rear track fork ends are good enough. I bent them with the threaded rod and old hub axle until they were parallel. More brute force methodology.