Classic & Vintage - (Twisted?) Question for those who restore...

Everyone likes to talk about their successes, is anyone willing to share their biggest goof-up when restoring or just fixing-up an old bike? Just curious,

I was off by about six months when I told the guy that owns the Butchers bike when it would be ready.

On a recent restoration/upgrade, I brazed one of my water bottle mounts right where the new derailleur clamp is intalled. Doh, useless.

Probably the biggest reason I have a few boxes of extra parts, wheelsets, etc is buying the part for a restoration and then finding out it's wrong size, spacing, threading or something like that.

When I add up the price of one of my vintage restorations I tend to delete these "accidental" expenditures but I've got more than a few $ of unusable parts in my garage.

I'm getting ready to make my first serious error. If this stupid stem doesn't come out pretty soon, it's gonna get ugly.:mad:

If it's rusted in there may be no salvation for it. I've had to cut stems and seatposts out with a hacksaw a time or two. Once you've disconnected the fork from head tube, you can often use a long punch to drive it out from the bottom.

Have you tried Kroil it's about as good a penetrating oil as I've found.
Joe

Thanks y'all. I soaked it down with some penetrating oil today. I'll let it set overnight (and most of tomorrow) and see what happens.

Haven't tried Kroil yet, but I'll check into it.

well I just stripped the threads on my cottered cranks, does that count? Set me back a week for parts to come in.