Big update:

*Firstly, excuse my pictures. I troubleshooted for about 20 minutes and could not figure out how to get anything else aside from thumbnails. If anyone knows what on earth I need to do, or which website has a forum share link for photos let me know*



This might be a little picture heavy, only because I think for the first time I can actually provide something to this website if anyone references this later. I am happy to announce that I have the bike completely stripped to the frame. Going to sandblast this bad boy this Saturday, which leaves me plenty of time to polish and order parts. First and foremost, new cranks....But here's a picture of the frame as it sits.



After watching what had to be hours of videos last night, I woke up today with a vengeance. It also helped that I figured out how I could get the crank out easily. I think my difficulty all along was that I wasn't supporting the bottom of the crank arm while I was messing with it (shout out to noobinsf, for that suggestion and the replacements online). So, because I don't have a proper bike workshop and had to deal with the pie plate getting in the way, I took a 2x4, drilled out a hole where the crank would invitably come out, and another one near the curvature of the pedal, so all the weight was able to rest on the flat part of the pedal, and zip tied it to the crank arm. Then, I simply set the frame on the wooden block, and clamped the bike itself to the support beam I had near by. From there I was able to use a long piece of steel and a hand-sledge, as well as a tie-rod separator (who said car and bike tools aren't interchangeable?) to finesse the crank out. Naturally the other side was incredibly easy, go figure.





Following that, I reassembled the derailleur after its nighttime Kerosene bath, and this baby looks prime. Got all the muck cleaned out, and honestly its like night and day. The rubber internal wheels would barely spin, now they're great. Hopefully this will alleviate the need to buy a new one. Also, since a few people have been mentioning the adapter claw, I believe I already have one. I simply left it out of the picture because I realize it was still attached to the frame of the bike. But if not, someone suggested a cheap one on Amazon I'd be happy to use in its place, but I want to try to use this first.



And finally, I removed the fork and all of those components simply once I realize how they were attached. One question though, this piece pictured came out when I disassembled everything and I did not have the opportunity to see where it went. Does anyone happen to know? I'm assuming that the pressure I needed to put on the quill stem may have dislodged this? I see the ridges in the side of the top of the fork, but I couldn't find any conical expander nut or anything that made sense. Anyone have any insight?




Thanks for all the help, I absolutely would not have gotten this far without it. I have a very small surprise I'm thinking I'll do after painting, so stay tuned.