khatfull

Figured I'd start a new thread. I forgot to take a real before pic but the seller still had his and was kind enough to send it along. So, I give to you:



Here's also the closeup of the brake levers:



As you can see the rubber part of the hood only extends partially around the lever body...and this is the way it's supposed to be, the plastic body of the lever is recessed for the rubber hood.

I have an auto shop matching the paint for me. Assuming the match is good and close I will retain the current paint/color. I'm thinking white tape, housings, levers, and saddle. I like white on bikes

OOOH, forgot, haven't even begun to tackle the wheels yet

Anyway, I have pics at home of some of the components and such now that they're clean. Nothing remarkable here, Tange Infinity frame, Sakae crank, Dia-Compe calipers, Shimano Light Action, blah, blah.

I'll update as I go along and once I get the paint...which will be the interesting part.

khatfull

So, mockups....white hoods or black hoods?





I like the white...whatcha think?

(And it is a tad more purple than that, I grabbed a bad color off the before pic.)

beech333

Assuming white tape, I would go with white hoods. If you were keeping the yellow bar tape, I would use black. Welcome to the Fuji club.

khatfull

Yeah, the frame color is unusual enough....combining with yellow is really out there

I don't know though...I'm waiting on any decision until I see what my paint match looks like...if it;s not close I may bail the color altogether redo it in something more "traditional".

Time will tell, tomorrow hopefully.

khatfull

Been working on components while waiting for my paint to be (hopefully) matched, here's a few pics...

Crank as received:



Crank removed and cleaned:



Brake calipers before and after (pics don't do it justice):



And it is, in fact, Tange Infinity:



Had to buy a 1 3/8" wrench at Northern Tool today, one of the BB cups wouldn't come with an adjustable wrench. The 18" long real wrench took care of it though. Got all the headset and BB pieces cleaned, chrome polished. Gonna do the other caliper next. Hope to hear about the paint tomorrow...called the place and they said the paint guy had gone for the day but he did play with the mix...so I'm hopeful for tomorrow.

If I'm boring anyone, please say so...first project like this and it's just a ton 'o fun!

Business810

Very nice! Are you doing the polishing by hand, or are you using a wheel? Your results tell me that I need to step my game up a bit when it comes to polishing on my Fuji project!

khatfull

By hand:

1) Remove all traces of grease and crap with Simple Green 1:1 with hot water.
2) Remove surface scratches with 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper under running water.
3) Sand all over with 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper under running water (removes oxidation).
4) Sand all over with 1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper under running water (removes 1000 grit marks and makes it nearly polished).
5) Mother's.

DS arm/spider took about 35 minutes, NDS arm about 20. Didn't have to do anything with the chainrings. They were nice after degreasing.

Mother's is amazing...

Business810

Thanks. I've been getting close with just cleaning and Mother's but often I've been skipping out on a lot of the wet sanding.

khatfull

The wet sanding is far quicker at the removal of oxidation. If you do that and end with 1500 grit you'll find that you spend very little time with Mother's by comparison. When I replaced my laundry tub I raised it some so that I can do stuff like this without hunching over. I can stand there for hours just sanding away. That and I simply like to polish metal. When I was a kid my parents had an antique store...and my contribution was polishing all the brass and silver. Much of my childhood was spent with the essence of Nevr-Dull and Brasso in the air. I had never used Mother's until last night. Dang, I wish I had had it long ago

khatfull

No luck with the paint match so I had to drag the fork into Target, Wal-mart and Walgreens and try nail polish. Found one acceptably close but it does look sort of icky on the fork where most of the scratching was. Have the BB, headset and fork reinstalled (all bearing repacked with shiny new grease ), cranks RD, FD attached, chain replaced. Wheels all cleaned, freewheel was removed and COMPLETELY cleaned, that was a chore.

Have to pick up some white bar tape, cables/housing, tires/tubes, etc. I'll try to eBay most stuff cheap. When there's still the search for brake levers...I have one last idea for resurrecting the old ones I want to try. More on that. Pics forthcoming.

khatfull

Well, I guess never count an old part out:



Figured I didn't have anything to lose so I just started trying cleaning products in the cabinet. 5th or 6th try was Lestoil. Stuff melted away immediately.

Yay!

khatfull

Well, I'm 95% of the way there, just have to find a new saddle, so please excuse the yellow thing on it now.

Here's the before:



And currently:



Few more shots:






I was going to try for all-white brake levers but I found these Shimano Super SLR levers, dang near brand new looking, at the local "fixie" shop at the U of MN campus. $30. Not bad.

You can see my less than perfect touchup on the frame in the photos. No more weird color bikes for me...if I like this well enough I might just powdercoat it in a similar color. I REALLY like the color...but matching it was just too hard. I did the best I could, this ended up being nail polish for the touchup.

Above I had cleaned the brake levers that came on the bike but, unfortunately, the Lestoil that it took to clean them also affected the rubber...it stayed constantly sticky and smelling of Lestoil. Oh well...these new levers were a good find.

I thought everything cleaned up real nice....I just need more experience in working with the frame/paint. Metal...I can do dat! All the metal bits were wet sanded with 600/1000/1500 grit and then polished with Mothers. Hell, I even polished the cap nuts for the brake pads with Mothers...shiny bits are good

The pedals won't stay, I ride SPD-SLs so gotta find a pair of silver 105 pedals...

nickkoto

Bummer about the Lestoil. I have some white 105 aero hoods that are fairly clean right now, but I know that I'll have a hard time finding replacements down the road.

I've heard that maybe Gojo hand cleaner works well for removing crud off of brake hoods. Can anyone confirm?

khatfull

Damn, GoJo, didn't think of that...might work.

While I was disappointed it turned out ok...I didn't much like the shape of the original ones anyway...the Lestoil "forced" me to get new ones

RobbieTunes

Looking good. I recommend the replica white Turbo, but some have had good luck with the white Vader or the white Soma

FreddyV

Now I know I've been looking too little at this part of the forum. Very nice Fuji man. Will the saddle be swapped afterwards?

sacroilicac

Keith, the bike looks fantastic. The aluminum really polished up nice, I didn't realize it was that oxidized. I like the new brake levers, and I like how clean the wheels look now, and the chain.

I think you made the right call about the paint. The paint wasn't really bad enough to repaint, in my opinion. The touch up, although maybe not a perfect match, hides the white primer that was underneath, I think that is what was important. I think it's cool to keep original paint whenever you can, even if it's not to your aesthetic sensibilities.

I like the bike! I almost wish I kept her, but she went to a good home.

sacroilicac

I'm still looking at those photos. Very nice.

khatfull

Thanks! Yes, I had seen that Turbo...would be the schizzle on it. The Vader is just a little too modern looking...there's the white Velo saddles too, might take a look there.

Yep, for something white. Want a yellow one? Have a white one?

Oldpeddaller

Great result! _ Puts my alloy polishing to shame - although in defence I can't seem to find any 'Mother's' polish over here in the UK for that clean final shine you guys over the pond seem to get! Solvol Autosol seems to leave a comparatively darker and duller shine than that. I'm going to try your 600/1000/1500 grit wet and dry method using running water, it might work better than fine steel wool.

The whole bike looks great - I wouldn't worry too much about the paint mis match on the paint scratches as I'm sure they will weather and age to match better. Any blue/purple finish seems to fade quickly in sunshine so if we ever see any again after all this snow, the new paint will probably fade faster than the old. Won't be perfect, but it won't show out too much either.

You should be really pleased with what you've achieved!

Business810

A San Marco Rolls, Regal or Concor would also look quite striking in white. It wouldn't be overly cheap, though - PBK has all of those ranging from $70-100 depending on your preference for rail materials.

khatfull

Hey, thanks "previous owner of bike"

I'm thinking white or aluminum (or Ti for that non-marring thing) wire bottle cages too...remeber my e-mail about other frames

khatfull

Ooooh... Since I'm used to a full carbon saddle on the Cannondale:



Just saw the "reissued" Cinelli Unicanitor:



I wonder....

sacroilicac

I will keep you in mind about the frames, but I usually want to keep them all for myself!

rat fink

Very nice! I'm inspired by your wet sand method. I will definitely have to try that sometime.