Originally Posted by
sthurman
It seems powdercoated or very thick paint, kinda plasticky. And also braze ons were likely added before powder including top tube cable guides, bottle bosses, BB top cable guides, and chainstay cable stop for RD.
looking closely, the paint is cracked especially around the bottom lug of the head tube and it seems distorted (flattened) at the posterior. Related, The headset cup had some play and did not set in the bottom completely (floating). So perhaps a frontal crash then?
Yeah, these old ones especially are not the best to begin with, still cool as heck and some of the best at the time, more history than many as well.
The bottom HS cup is common I think, I have a 59 that it was loose on, likely from years and miles, clear loctite and shim makes it all better for me.
You have to take what you can get with these, old ones may have issues but so far my dozen have been very well preserved and able to be rebooted with great results.
Again on the 59, the RDO is kinked and may not support very good shifting with an appropriate RD, I have a couple of them and they will work ok, not going to replace the DO or try very hard to straighten it but will probably put it in the vise at some point and see. The 40's one was in very rough shape but had original HS, BB, crank and pedals that all survived just fine despite being very rusty.
My 58 with the original HS is fine as are the 40 and late 30's ones I have.
59 and 40 something not shown.
