I have been working on this 1973 Raleigh Competition, which involved scrubbing away decades worth of dirt, treating frame and fork with Evapo-Rust and bronze-brushing the rust and loose chrome from the fork. When that was done, I had about 25% chrome remaining, so I broke out the gloss black Rustoleum and covered the ruined areas while transitioning to the original dipped-looking black. Some J.P. Weigle's framesaver, some careful spot sanding of rust, some Meguiar's polish and the last of a bottle of Armor All paint protectant spray and I got the finish looking about as well as it's gonna look. I had to spread the seat lug back out to its proper shape, then buy and use a brake cylinder hone to clean out the corrosion inside the seat tube before the 27.2 mm post fit correctly. I lost some of the original tiny loose balls in the headset, but discovered the caged bearings left over from the top half of a cheap Tange fit the upper race of the T.D. Cross headset like they were made for it, so I used that up top with the original small bearings in the lower race. The T.A. bottom bracket cleaned up beautifully, too, and after comparing its spindle to a Nervar unit, I think I can use this as-is with a set of Nervar Star cranks and get the chainline I seek.
