I love the patina, love that the stem and some other original parts were kept... SWEET BUILD!

Here are some shots of my Sekai 4000 in it's "before" condition. I'd hoped to restore it, then post both before and after shots together, but alas I must put it up for sale.

Thank you everyone for all the help I gotten from your posts...especially from the Sekai aficionados! This is my first post, but I'm happy to have access to such a wealth of info.

nothing will ever beat a boldly colored frame and white handlebar tape....ever...

Great way to repurpose that bike, at first glance I did not realize they were the same. Nice work!

Where did you find those turkey lever covers? So cool!

Those are the originals, cleaned and polished. You can find them on ebay. "Hunt wilde" lever covers.

Holy... You are my new god, and I will worship you forever. Also, I want the skills that would make it possible for me to do that.

before


after


not quite finished in above pic. has chain and front der now fitted . 7.6kg total weight which is pretty respectable

what did you do to the blue lugs? it looks like they were anodized?

hiya not anodized luckily . Someone had painted?lacquered? the whole frame with that see through blue .
Actually came off with not a huge amount of effort.

This is a Fuji Tiara I scored for $20. I had a problem uploading photos so here's a link to a photoset. I really been wanting to show it to someone.

Stuff Can Be Done ? FUJI TIARA REBUILD This was a craigslist find. Got...

Welcome Instabread! Great work on that Fuji. I half expected to see Miss America with her crown on. Nice Bridgestone 300 you got there too.

Not sure you can post tumblr photos to a forum. If you have them in Google photos or something similar, it's easy.

[MENTION=439775]instabread[/MENTION]

How's this:


And this:

I just did an '88 Centurion Ironman, starting with a frame:

Before:


After:



Striped the bike down completely. Washed and waxed the frame. Remove all rust off the chromed forks and headset. Cleaned all bearings and re-greased.
Replaced listed parts below all in CDN dollars.

Saddle-$40.00
Tires-$90.00
Tubes-$10.00
Chain-$15.00
Cables and cable covers-$20.00
Brake lever hoods-$12.00
Bar tape-$15.00
brake pads-$10.00

So spent about $250 including tax. Bought lots of tools but won't count that as I will use those again. Local bike shop said the quality of my 1983 bianchi accelerated to 2016 would cost at least $1500 CDN to buy new. So a good deal in the end.

Took apart Shimano 600 6 speed freewheel, cleaned and re-greased 90 or so bearings. Seams to be working well but may upgrade that to a 7 speed. May also change the brake levers to Shimano R400 so I get the hidden cable under the tape. A winter project.

Overall bike rides very well. Out today about 12k ride. Very comfortable. Much faster than my current Trek FX 7.3.

I would like to thank all those who offered advise. It encouraged me to "refurbish" my old road bike instead of sending it to the dump. I'm glad i did as it still rides great

Hey thanks for putting the photos on here! I'll just use Google next time. Super clean job on your Centurion that you just did. Older bikes just have so much character.

[quote=Maddogatc]

hopefully you can find some pedal dust caps that are much more useful than crank arm caps.

and nice work, too.

I hope to. Lost them long ago. I think they were just plastic caps and just broke over time. Are they a universal fit for most pedals?

Amazing what a thorough cleaning can do, isn't it? Well done!

No prob, and thanks for the complement. In reality, the frame is a good "five footer," maybe a bit more. Not rusty, but chips in the usual places. She cleaned up nicely - wax on, wax off!

Here is a 1987 Georgina Terry Despatch that I picked up for $40 with a full Suntour Cyclone 7000 grouppo including the front hub of the 24" rim!! I emailed her and she responded loving that one had been found and confirming it was a 1987. I sent her the after photos and she was very happy to see them!

Before:





and after:





And here are before/after and during pics of the brakes:

ehhhh, its not going to be perfect, but its pretty good considering. Needs a lot more tidying up around the lugs. Tubes seem solid enough now, I cant get it to flex or creak. But il leave it unfinished until I have some miles on it.
Then - gloss black, blacked out everything, high flange flip flop hub set
if not - well I only paid for the fork

1986 DX-3000 Panasonic
Before:


After:






I gave the bike a complete overhaul and clean, added a 44cm Trek handlebar with new tiagra SLR brake levers (2 left levers for $AUS12 each rather than about 40 for a pair), new cork bartape (thought I bought yellow/black, but don't mind this happy accident), and replaced a 6speed rear downtube shifter which had broken tabs.

As purchased 1 year and 5 days ago.........



Finally dug it out about 3 weeks ago, here it is as of an hour ago....... Pay no attention to the rat's nest of cable in front, I left them long so the next owner can trim them after setting the bars where they want them.

Amazing job.