The past week of the project has been
almost exactly like watching paint dry for me. I've done a bit of clean up on the wheels...more rust removal, pulled the axles for degreasing. The bearings had surprisingly good grease. The bike was obviously overhauled shortly before its 10 years of sitting out in the rain.
I've had the chain soaking in EvapoRust for about two weeks. I pulled it out a couple of times this weekend for a good scrubbing with a wire brush. I think it may actually get to the point where it will look decent. As I think I mentioned earlier, it's a modern KMC Z-series chain. It was probably recently installed just before the bike was abandoned to the elements. I don't really think it'll loosen up enough to be useable. Even though it looks mostly rust-free now, there are still a lot of very stiff links. I sprayed it with PB Blaster and now it's soaking in oil. I've already got a new chain waiting to go on, but I kind of want to test the limits of what's possible since I have to give the paint time to dry anyway.
One of the things I wasn't expecting from the second year of COVID-19 is the poor state of the local bike non-profits. Usually you can stop by a pick up things like used tires, sometimes even wheels, for cheap. This weekend one of them was closed completely (they're open one night a week for "curbside service") and the other had only a single 27" tire, and it was new and knobby, but they did have a bin with some old top tube cable guides. I scored one generic Shimano guide, one Dura-Ace, and one Huret for a dollar a piece.
For some reason I was certain that the bike's original wheels took 700c tires, but as I was looking at one of them I saw that the rim tape was labeled with a size.
That seemed like nonsense (or, at least, I wanted it to be), so I grabbed a 700c tire for a test fit. It was too small. Yep, the wheels take 27" tires. I can live with that.
The budget so far is looking like this:
Initial bike investment: $0
Paint: $7.50 (half a can of primer and a can of color)
Decals: $9
Chain: $9
Tires: $32!! (had to order new ones, but I was able to get free shipping)
Dropout screws: $1
Cable guides: $3
So, $61.50 spent so far.
I'm almost certainly going to need a replacement freewheel, as the original part isn't freewheeling despite weeks of repeated assaults with oil and vinegar (the latter of which took off the gold flake when it was done with the rust) and PB Blaster. That'll add another $20 to my budget. I've got a good stock of bulk cables and housing, so I should be able to keep that under $10. I was able to salvage all of the non-consumable components (minus the saddle, which I chronicled earlier), though the arm of the front brake seems to be bent. If I dip into my store of used bar tape, I should be able to finish it off with around $10 to spare. Maybe I'll spend that on new brake pads.