I was reading through the now 17-year-old thread where the term Drew became a thing, and it dawned on me that two things have rolled through the shop recently that have effectively become undrewed on their way out.

One of these was not so much a Drew as a series of unfortunate events on a dropout, the other most certainly was a Drew before Drew was ever Drewing. Mind, this isn't real framebuilding or brazing - this slots unabashedly into the category of "Fun With MIG Welders" - but for the dropout, it was a good approach and I dare say you could say the same about a gas pipe frame.

So, without further working of gums - the first victim, a neo-wannabe-C&Vish Bianchi Brava from the TIG-welded era. It's not C&V in my book, but it's pretty - and it came with a completely stripped dropout hanger. I picked it up along with another frame off the FaceOfferMarkenUps from the same fellow; this one was cheap, and the other not, so it evened itself out.

To be clear, this isn't a Drew and neither was the seller - it just happens to feature damage to the one thing that Drews like to hack off frames. I felt I'd be remiss not to include it.





...and after a few hours under the mad scientist's MIG torch:



...ground and filed...



...and after drilling and tapping (which was a PITA, so I wound up never photographing that specifically):



Fin!



Sadly, a silver ring I ordered for it was a no-show after a month. All things considered, she came out nicely for a parts build.

Running out of 10-photos per post, so adding the rest in...

...post two.

More recently (the Bianchi was a December build), I came across this Kuwahara-built Soma Prestige at a yard sale. Poorly set up and holes drilled all over it - even the BB still has a 1/2" drain hole extremely crudely cut into it.



It was way overpriced with bent Sunshine handlebars, Suntour drivetrain with the V-Gt missing (swapped with a Wal-Mart level Shimano POS, of course). Typical Freddy the Freeloader Spec., but it had a proper Super Maxy crank (not the one swedged directly to the 52t ring) that made the stupid purchase worthwhile. I still regret giving anyone the satisfaction of getting what I paid for it, but I've already made it back, so who am I to complain?

I stripped the thing right then and there at the yard sale for transport, so I never got a photograph of the pile beforehand. Whatever the case, these "modifications" might have been made long before there was an Internet, so ...Early Dreolithic?



I brought out the sandcloth and went to town. This hi-ten looked to be 4mm thick, so decent enough gas pipe to survive the heat of the MIG. If this were a Bond movie, this might be called "Live Another Day...As a Boat Anchor." That's a Raleigh shop decal that's faded beyond the point of recognition, by the way.

Why on earth would anyone drill it here? I mean, it made some sort of logic on the Otero that was desecrated for Di-2, but I am pretty sure nobody ever hung electronic shifting on this long-lugged tank.



Welded up. Grinding this down didn't go that well initially as my band file decided to give up the ghost. Mike Terraferma stepped in and lent me his Milwaukee band file - the old 6101 type based on the angle grinders I use and love, and now I reeeeeealy want one.





After being properly smoothed out:



Downtube:



Seattube:



Did I mention that - at some point - someone cared enough about this bike to hacksaw a stuck seatpost out of it? Well, they did, and they slotted a fair amount of tube doing so (barely visible in the initial photo - I didn't catch it until halfway through the ordeal).

So it was wrecked here too, but in the words of Inspector Clouseau..."not anymore." This was a bear to get to, even with the bandfile.



This one isn't done yet. I've hit it with primer in the meantime, but I think it's going to leave here as a frameset. Don't have enough spares, it really requires 27" wheels because of its long reach, and I'm not that keen on building it.

Regardless, I owe you all photos of the finished product soon. As with 99.9% of the frames I come across, the rear triangle isn't anywhere near straight, so there's still some cold setting (probably on the fork too) still to come.

-Kurt

Great work!! I've unbent a few dropouts and watched even more get unbent but fortunately we never had to so much as usea dropout saver.

I get the holes in the DT were likely for a bottle cage but what is with the huge hole in the ST?

What is that chain ring? Is the trouser guard part of it? I've decided I'm going to put bigger rings on Project 3 and one with a trouser guard would be great.

BTW, I kept reading the title as "Underwing" and it took me a bit to figure out just what you were talking about.

Kurt, don't just stop at the "pot-hole" patching on the Soma--- how about thinning the lugs?

Rather than repeat the thread, I "fixed" holes drilled into the TT of a '71 Bianchi in this thread..
Filling top tube holes - Bike Forums

I'm not sure the holes in the DT were even spaced correctly for a bottle cage. No idea why they went to town on the ST either; the FD had been clamped around the hole. Don't forget the hole in the BB (which I still need to photograph).

The Bianchi's chainring has the guard built into it; they pop up under whatever name anyone wants laser etched on them, but I most commonly see them as Litepro as these are popular on folding bikes. These specific cranks came with the ring and were marked Mejiun.

This is the last place I found a full array of them for sale, but I wouldn't buy them from the pistro store on Amazon. The prices are ridiculous and the 45t silver ring I ordered for the build never arrived: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._title?ie=UTF8

They're on AliExpress for a much more reasonable price: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/32568...Cquery_from%3A

Welcome to the Project 3 family...this one is a rusty mess.






While I'm not a fan of plain lugs, these long points clearly belong on something nicer.

Absolutely beautiful work, and definitely the right call to preserve the surrounding paint. Makes me remember that I have that '60s Competizone that has been pulled out from a front ender and has a JBW-smoothed downtube. Need to get back to that sometime...

-Kurt

I recently worked on an abused 85 Schwinn Traveler for a nephew. It was ridden hard and crashed several times. Mismatched wheels and a modern rd on a bent hanger amongst other crash damage. The hanger was drilled out for some reason and there was a flange type nut securing the derailleur. It went halfway or a bit more into the dropout from the wheel side and had a hex nut protrusion of perhaps 2-3mm extending towards the freewheel. I aligned the dropout and secured this setup with loctite. It seems good to go and a handy little problem solver. I should have taken pics, but it was a bit ugly for this crowd.

Sounds similar to some of the Huret setups, just flanged.

Too bad such a thing isn't readily available.

-Kurt

The flanged nut is is a dropout saver made by Wheels Manufacturing, and still currently available. Sorry I don't know how to post a link.
John