Here’s the latest on progress as I proceed on the this winter project
With everything possible dismantled, I gave the frame some attention. I am not happy with the paint touch-up (
I never am but going back to bare steel and then new paint or powder coating is very expensive) but with wet sanding down to 1000-grit sandpaper, and then buffing the entire frame with polishing compound, at least it is all-over white and from 10 feet away, one might not notice the color mis-match. The decals from Australia arrived and went on easily enough, I was worried about the full-wrap red foil one on the (vertical) seat tube but it turned out nice. Over all this — a coating of automotive style ceramic “wax” to protect the finish.
A lot of the little bits have been treated to cleaning in my ultrasonic cleaner; a brake caliper or a derailleur breaks down into many small parts. Then, I’ve been polishing by hand until as shiny as possible (I hope you like shiny!) after a protective coating, I can lubricate and reassemble. The Suntour rear derailleur really gleams, probably better than when it left the factory. Bigger stuff, like handlebars, cranks, whatever, will follow.
The wheels I had laying around to contribute has, as I may have mentioned, a broken rear axle; and the replacement from another brand (the original is unobtainable) does not fit. A forum member has machine tools and volunteered to help, so I’ve shipped off the axle to him. This gives time to clean up the wheels — getting 144 spokes on four wheels to shine again is not fun, but I’ve had good results in the past.
Wow — THREE layers of traditional, adhesive-backed cloth handlebar tape, and 50 year old adhesive. I presume an attempt to give some cushioning. I’ll improve on that, but I had to get it apart to free up the stem; we’ll save that but the steel handlebars were badly rusted under that… I’ll change to an aluminum set. One Weinmann brake lever had bad “road rash”, too deep to polish out but I found in one of my parts boxes a pair of similar levers, grungy but nice condition, one difference is they are the version with a quick-release on the cable to easy wheel removal (cool, one less thing to buy). And the “safety levers” will swap right over, no problem.
Still sourcing a few things, not only new small stuff like handlebar tape (waiting for a Sale) and used Forum members. Of the latter, I’ve found a nice set of French aluminum handlebars, and straps for the toeclips in red, and the ugly steel brake yokes will be replaced w/aluminum.