Hey everyone, I'm pretty much a complete n00b here, so pardon the... n00bness.
Anyway, I pulled out my dad's old road bike (It's a 1985 Corsaro Orion, looks kinda like this but w/ drop bars, no rack, and original shifters and brake handles). It wasn't used a whole lot.

I'm gonna fix it up both to earn some dough and just learn some bike maintenance. This is my first time doing anything like this. Other than obviously replacing the split tire and leaky tubes, and de/regreasing everything, what sorts of things am I going to need to check for/replace/adjust? I told the guy at the bike store about it, and he suggested replacing what he called the "deathgrip brake handles". How would I go about doing that?

Also, it's not very rusty, but how would you suggest getting rid of the rust that's there?

Thanks in advance for the advice and for not tearing me apart.

First bit of advice is to get a decent bike repair book and read it. It will answer a lot of questions right up front.

You should replace both the brake and derailleur cables and any housing, greasing well when you insert the new cable into the new housing. Open both hubs, the bottom bracket, and the headset to clean and regrease. Clean and oil the derailleurs. Either clean and oil or replace the chain and freewheel.

You could very easily spend more money fixing up the bike than you could sell it for. If your looking to make a few bucks, sell it exactly the way it is. A prospective buyer is going to want to put his choice of tires and tubes on it anyway and tune up the bike even if someone else said it had already been done. If your looking to ride and enjoy it and you don't plan on purchasing the required special tools to do your own work you should take it to a bike mechanic as this would be less expensive.

I think he means the levers, that run from the brake handle along beside the top of the bars, you can ignore them if you want, just do not use them.

The place to start though, is to remove all of the components, clean and lubricate everything, and see what you have that still functions and what doesn't. Rust on the frame, use a plastic scrubby pad and see if it comes off, if it does, it's just surface rust, use something like fine sand paper to get to bare metal, get some rust paint like rustoleum and touch up the bad spots. Go to a D-I-Y auto place and pick up some paint that is really close to the colour on the bike, you can use spray bombs if you like. Give it a couple of coats over the primer, if it doesn't match 100% then the final coat, you spray to a gap, for example if it's the seat tube spray the whole tube from BB shell to seat post. You can also get it media blasted prime and paint the whole frame. I include the forks as part of the frame.

Before you toss the tires and tubes, note the sizes for replacement. Toss cables and brake pads as well, you may want to replace cable housings, but keep the old ones to measure against. Toss the bar tape and chain as well.

Clean all of the components well, and check them for function if they work, then put them in a pile, if they don't work put them in another pile. The ones that don't work, you can rummage around in garage/yard sales, CraigsList and Eb$y for replacements. Check with the local bike shops to see if they have any older components they are willing to part with. CL and Eb$y will tend to deal only in more expensive stuff. Sometimes once you buy a 15 year old component and get it shipped it's just as expensive as buying something new and compatable at the LBS. If your in the US then some of the places like Nashbar and Performance can have some good deals as well, if your not in the US, forget those places, customs brokerage fees and shipping will wipe out any remote possibility of savings .

Once you have all your components, along with new tires, tubes, brake pads and cables, the fun starts

If you are as Nooby as you stated, all of the above advice is good but you don't know how to follow it. That's why I recommended that you start by reading a good repair manual first. Then most of this will make sense.

An older book from your library would be better. Like Bicycling Magazine's Complete Guide to Maintenance and Repair or some version of Sloan's Complete Book of Bicycling. A newer book would also do, but considering it's an older bicycle there'll be a lot of stuff in a newer book that really won't help—just get in the way. Checking out a book will cost you nothing.

Since I'm sort of a Retro-Grouch, the books at my library have taught me most of what I need to know. I'll buy a newer book when and if I decide to buy a newer bicycle.

I took apart the hubs today. The bearings and cones look fine, just a little nasty.
@AGuinness- Good idea, I'll pick something up.
@Wogsterca- Thanks, that was helpful. It hasn't been ridden much, and the components all still function, though the brakes squeak. That'll probably go away with lubrication and new pads, right?
@N4zou-We're actually planning on keeping it for my dad to ride from time to time; he's paying me to fix it up.

Cool! Never heard of this brand...

My suggestion of a repair book is Bicycling Magazine's Complete Guide to Bike Maintenance and Repair. Only $12: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/157...e=UTF8&s=books

In the meantime, Sheldon Brown's web site has an incredible depth of repair information. One of the harder repairs you will probably want to do is regreasing and possibly replacing the ball bearings in the hubs, headset, and bottom bracket. You can find info on this at Sheldon's site, or ask more specific questions on Bike Forums. It's an important part of maintenance, but messy and requires a few special tools. Another important thing to check is that the chain is worn out: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/chains.html

Surface rust can be ignored if it's only in small bits. In larger patches (say a quarter inch long or larger), use steel wool. It will remove rust cleanly without hardly touching the solid steel underneath.

Welcome to bikeforums!

UPDATE: I see you've already taken apart the hubs... sounds like you're learning fast. Have you managed to repack them and get the bearing adjusted so that it rolls smoothly but not loosely once you put everything back together? Learning to get the feel for a perfectly-adjusting cup and cone bearing was one of the harder things to learn for me.

Brake squeek is for three reasons:

1) if the bke hasn't been ridden in years, then the pads have probably petrified....
2) the toe-in isn't set properly, the front of the pad needs to touch first, slightly.
3) steel rims, they squeek more then AL rims do.

Careful with lube around brakes, you just want to lube the pivots very slightly, keep lubricants of any kind away from rims and brake pads