Bicycle Restorations

I think I am trying too hard to be a perfectionist. After wet sanding the gloss coat ready for the decals, I sanded a little to heavy, or in some places the gloss coat was too thin. The up shot was that I sanded back slightly too much and in two places you could see the metal shining through. The consequence was, more sanding, more painting, hey ho. However, by the end of today I had flattened out the paint ready for the lacquer, but before I do that next week end, I was able to put the decals on. These are a replica of the ones on the original frame and I think they set the colour of really well... In between odd jobs I also wrapped the handle bars with some nice leather look bar tape...

So the primer coats have all applied well and in between coats I wet-sanded to flatten the surface.  On Bank Holiday Monday I went for the first gloss coat on the front forks. It seemed to adhere well, but I was not too worried as the instructions for the lacquer coat tells me that I need to wet sand with 1200 grit the colour coat before applying.  So if I do get any funny patches, I can sort that out with some fine sanding.  The forks after two coats of white gloss came out OK... This was the frame after two coats of white gloss as well... After closer inspection (and after I ran out of paint) I think it needs another coat or two, especially as I have to wet sand before the lacquer coat.

They say all the work is in the preparation, and they're not wrong, while last week I managed to sand the paint off the tubes with an electrical sander, this weekend I was left with the task of hand sanding all the joints. Being a vintage frame, all the joints are not butt welded like a modern frame, they have intricate lugs that hold the tubes which are then brazed into place. Anyhow, 4 hours or sanding got me to the point where I could spray the first coat of primer... On Sunday I wet sanded the primer very lightly to ensure it was smooth and applied a second coat.  While that was drying, I got to work on the brake callipers.  The ones that came with the bike will work with more standard 700c road rims, so these just needed some cleaning up.  You can see how a bit of elbow grease and Autosol did the trick with a before and after shot... I have a load of odds and ends on delivery, handle bar tape, brake cable inner and outers and brake cabl...

So the weekend started with a trip to Halfords to collect my order of 'Rattle Cans.'  A white primer, white gloss and lacquer, plus some panel wipes for cleaning the surfaces before painting. Items collected (social distancing observed), I returned home and started to sand off the paint from the forks.  I was going to use some 'Nitromors' paint stripper,  but what I had in the garage had rusted in the tin and a test patch did't do the job.  After an hour of sanding they were ready for priming.  Given this was the first time I had done spray painting, I was pleased with the outcome... I also took apart the bottom bracket as this was ceased up, I noticed this when the frame arrived earlier in the week, so I had ordered up a claw spanner and the HCW-11 Park Tool for its removal.  The axle will need replacing as well as the bearings, so am sourcing those from Firecloud Cycles I hope... On Sunday I started to play around with the handle...

During this period of lock-down, I felt I wanted a hands on project to keep me busy.  So following my cycling hobby, I decided to have a go at building a single speed bike from an old frame and second hand parts from the internet. The initial purchase came from ebay of a 1975 Carlton Circuit bike frame and forks, £45 (inc delivery), but it comes with brakes and handle bars, the crank didn't survive being taken apart.. They were the photos from the ebay listing