short question: how do *you* like to restore old weathered bikes?

I'm thinking of my approach to restoring a weathered touring bike; I've looked into repainting a bit, but I'm not sure I want to completely redo the old original paint (which is mostly good shape except for a few spots). I'm already thinking of taking off all the parts and cleaning the frame well, but I'm not sure how far I want to go after that. Minimum would be sanding off rust and applying some primer on it. Maximum...who knows ?

If it's just got surface rust, I'd leave it. Strip down to the frame, use Simple Green to clean up the bike as well as possible, then use a good car wax on the entire thing. If you really want, you could clear coat it. Spray the inside with Frame Saver or the like. THen, clean the components, put it all back together, and call it good.

If it's got flaky rust, then just about the only thing to do would be to strip, sandblast and repaint.

I've got lots of bikes with surface rust. Only one that's flaky, and that's the one getting the repaint.

do you mean leave the surface rust, or leave the paint on and sand off the surface rust? I think that's all I have, so it shouldn't be a full sandblasted job.

I'd leave the surface rust, if it were mine.

The black Schwinn Voyageur, right? Clean the frame up and respray it where needed to help prevent future rusting (I used something called X-0 Rust Anti-Rust Enamel in gloss black ... "Rust preventative coating for all indoor and outdoor metal surfaces" ... on a bike recently. It's doing it's job so far.) You can also strip all the parts off and clean and wax them. If you decide not to replace them altogether, pull out all cables from the housing & run some sandpaper or rough steel wool over them & then grease and oil them, drip some oil into the cable housing, pull the cable back and forth inside the housing & wipe a section with paper towel to see if there is rust inside the housing. Oil it good. If you run into trouble with the cables, they are inexpensive to replace (Niagara Cycle Works has them for a buck or two each, although you might want to go with stainless steel ones for a buck or two more). Clean and repack the bearing in the hubs, headset and bottom bracket with grease. I often grease the head tube and seat tube figuring it will prevent future sticking, and make it easier to adjust the height later. Clean the chain by scrubbing with a brush and some oil (one way to do it). Gunk the derailleurs, or whatever you need to do to get the grit out of them. Drop any corroded parts into a bucket of CLR or similar type stuff, and then wax them. True the wheels, adjust the brakes, adjust the gears. Change the brake pads if necessary (Niagara Cycle Works has cantilever Kool Stops for about $5 per pair right now). Retape the bars if needed (Niagara has Zefal cloth tape in black for under $2 a roll right now). Scratches in alloy parts can sometimes be taken out with varying grades of sandpaper and fine steel wool, followed by rubbing compound & car wax. Since this is a touring bike, having it clean and super squared away mechanically makes more sense than having it look like a "garage queen". Shouldn't take long to do...something you can do in stages (repacking the bearings with grease being the first stage) at night when you can't really be out riding anyway. This stuff is normal maintenance anyway, and is most likely due on that bike right now. As far as the scratched Voyageur sticker, you might be able to have one made up somewhere...or get creative with some idea of your own. Check out the Adventure Cycling Association's website. Now that you own a full-blown touring bike it will get you both excited and informed about bicycle touring.

Remove the rust, and then touch it up (respray it) where necessary... Keep It Simple Sport...

thanks for the tips, guys!

If a frame is very old and re-painting would erase it's identity it is better to deal with any critical issues and then clear coat to preserve the frame as it is... my '54 Raleigh just got this done and my '55 will also see the same type of preservation.

With more common models a re-paint or powder coat might be the best route, especially if the bike is going to see a good deal of hard use.

If it is only a few little marks these can be touched up or... you can go nuts and cover your frame with hundreds of little tiny sticker bits and seal everything with shellac...

Preserving the original paint and art is always a goal for a restoration. If your paint is reasonable, then touch up and leave it at that. Or, you could even clear coat over the entire frame and fork set, once touched up.

The subject of bicycle restoration is, like most other things, extensive. I built, or published if you will, MY "TEN SPEEDS" to offer guidance to people, new to the hobby/sport/interest. I invite you to wander around the website, for a while, and see if you can pick up a tip or two.

Hope this is a help.

wow, it is indeed. thanks! I think I've got my basic plan down for now, appreciate all the feedback. I think I'm going to remove the surface rust, clean everything (perhaps put some primer on the rusted spots), give it a good rust-proofing, then waxing, and finally try to clear-coat or shellac it. just trying to get this baby into touring shape; I'll worry about the cosmetics later

Randys site is great. It got me motivated to try hand painting bikes.

My latest effort is a Schwinn Super Letour. Touched up the lettering and repainted the frame, and added pinstriping. Not really difficult to do. Take your time and have fun.

Touched up the lettering? Did you just sort of paint the scratched up letters back on?

Hey - Gotta new one - Purchased some old oxidized Diacompe brakes - Took them over to our local gun shop and he threw them into their brass cleaner bucket - After their next run (corn husks) I got some clean polished brakes out of the bucket (had to fish around for a loose nut that came off but no big deal) - Also - Allot of gun shops have machining for small parts and fully understand the close tolerances needed with some bikes...

I may have to try Randy's method myself. I have a 1977 Centurion Elite, pretty nice frame in deplorable shape. I have been using it as a donor up to now. Decalling is basically gone, but has a nice head badge (old metal style).

Yeah. The letters were sort of scratched up. Took a small brush and some red paint and went over the original lettering.

Believe it or not... a few people said I should repaint this frame and get rid of those cottered cranks.

This is really a pre-restoration picture of the bike as aside from re-wrapping the bars, doing a little polishing, and re-lacing the rear wheel there is a lot more to do here... there are some little dents in the fenders, a few spots need touching up, the front wheel needs re-lacing, need a headlight lens, and there is a lot of fine polishing to do to really make the old girl shine.

Was lucky to find a bike that was mechanically perfect with no real mileage and had probably been in storage for the last 50 years... spent an hour working on the fenders today and the reflection is almost good enough to shave in now.

This is dingy by comparison...

PS - It never seems to end as when you really get into it you can always do a little more and the cosmetic work is probably the most time consuming aspect of any project.

I agree. I don’t have a fingernail’s grease-worth of experience compared to many of you. But, I do enjoy most of the process a great deal. To me, the 2 best moments are the beginning and the end. You search and find that bike that really grabs you. I’m one of those people who don’t care to work on a bike that I couldn’t imagine riding. Finding the bike, taking it home, and taking it apart, is a very enjoyable experience. What it takes to clean every tiny bit is the real necessary pain. Kind of like child labor, I’m sure. Putting the bike back together is a bit nerve racking and requires several days, micro brewed beers, and BBQ is usually involved. Standing back to admire your work, and taking that first test ride; priceless. Taking it home and looking at it again and seeing all the little details that you could have done better keeps me looking for the next one.

Sometimes it's nice to have a few nice beaters in the stable... nice bikes (cause I won;t ride crap) but not so nice that you have to worry about them too much.

Problem with some of these beaters is that they get a little attention... and then a little more... and then you find yourself looking for another "beater".

haha. that's exactly my thought process after getting my Paramount. After I figured out how rare and nice it was, I immediately thought "I need to ride a less nice bike while commuting". Somewhere between then and now I ended up with 4 bikes and a build in progress. I still don't know how that really happened.

My latest beater... is starting to turn into a pretty nice bike.

Fenders and a rack are in the works...

With all due respect, sir, that bike ceased to be a beater the minute you put a Brooks on it .

It is getting an Ideale saddle very soon... only seems right to put a French saddle on a French bike.

If it's a black bike, no problem. I went from this



to this:



with this:



I sanded the rusty areas and painted the rust converter over the top. It formed a primer coat once it cured, then I put a topcoat on with the paint pen. Looks great.

Black is the easiest colour to work with... no surprise that o many old utilitarian bikes were painted like this as touch up work was easy to do.