cudak888 

I tried straightening the headtube today. Instead of straightening the headtube, this monster of a frame bent the solid stainless propeller shaft I've been using in lieu of a HTS-1.



Looks like I'm back in the market for an actual Park HTS-1. Shouldn't have sold my previous one.



No change.





There's also a significant bow in the top tube; still sprung from the front-ender. It should straighten out if the headtube finally get popped into where it belongs. But that isn't happening today, apparently.



Those "Raleigh Sports" decals get me every time. Who goes through all that effort to put on the decals from the wrong model?




-Kurt

cudak888 

Oxalic time.



-Kurt

nlerner

Might be best if that thing just melts in the bath! That frame damage is concerning.

cudak888 

Believe it or not, I just took a look at it, and the frame now looks a lot more cloudy green than brown right now. That in itself is a miracle.

Neal, I literally jumped on this frame upside down (I usually pull up on the chainstays when I use the propeller shaft) and yanked as hard as I possibly could to try to get this bastard to cold-set. Diddly squat happened. The only concern anyone should have about this frame is whether it'll cause an immediate roof collapse if one crashes into a building with it.

Also, the slack headtube angle allows me to see the brass penetration in the upper headlug. It's plenty.

I'm not worried one bit about the strength of this frame. Not one bit. I am worried about how I'll be able to maintain the overall weathering if I have to repaint part of the top tube to get the wrinkle out. I know I'm not going to be able to tolerate it as-is.

-Kurt

pastorbobnlnh 

So much love and devotion. And just think, you've only known this "Sport" (sic) for less than a week. BUT YOU ARE SOAKING IT IN ACID!!!! Egads!

cudak888 

Egads! It looks better now!

Straight out of the bath:



After a bit of polish. Looks halfway decent.





The Sports transfer isn't enjoying this. I don't think it's going to survive, nor do I want it to.



-Kurt

cudak888 

A couple steps forward, some back. First off, I was able to cold set the front end:



However, the top tube remains bowed significantly:



More importantly, I discovered that the impact had not been across a single axis. The top tube is also bent to the left, significantly. I haven't checked to see if this is likewise reflected on the downtube. Not good.

Many apologies to the frame and to the forum for pinching the seatlug.





This also came with some pretty decent progress around the lower seattube and downtube areas, all things considered:



-Kurt

Reynolds 

Great to see such efforts to get this bike back on the road!
As those are thick walled tubes, maybe you could straighten them with a hydraulic press? I'd make some wooden cradles and try it.
Strange they put the BB oiler on that side - all I've seen are on the NDS.

cudak888 

I was considering pulling the top tube down with a sling to the BB shell, though I'm not sure how I'd handle the leftward bend. I have a hydraulic press, but I'm not convinced it would be able to apply pressure in the right spots.

If anything, I want to put this on a frame table to find out exactly what is tweaked where, and then formulate a game plan.

The NDS ones - were they on Sports or 28" rod brake DL-1/2/5 models?

-Kurt

Reynolds 

All of them on rod brake DLs. Maybe the Sports were different?

cudak888 

Don't let the decals throw you, this is most definitely not a Sports.

Just checked my '51 and '52 Sports; both of them have a spring bearing ball oiler on the left side. Interesting.

-Kurt

pastorbobnlnh 

Kurt, I have an answer to your mystery:

By the looks of all those bends, kinks and curves, the previous owner (or a rogue thief) had a few too many pints at the pub, before attempting the ride home (or to his den of iniquity). Multiple crashes occurred that night after pub departure, but the PO (rogue thief) just kept on going, each time righting the bike, brushing the road grime off his trousers, and pumping towards his final destination.

Once arrived, the PO (or rogue thief), still in a haze of alcohol induced stupor, held onto the shed wall for balance, and exclaimed while admiring the sturdiness of this classic British Roadster, "By golly you are a jolly old Sport!" And immediately scraped off Superbe Tourist and applied the current downtube decal.

cudak888 

And so began a life of constant knocks for the Jolly Sport, for the damage was so great that one could only balance it whilst drunk...

-Kurt

P.S.: I don't believe the 28" rod brake bikes ever wore model names. It would make identification of Raleigh's inane naming convention so much easier.

noglider 

This thread is fun. I'll keep reading it.

Maybe the owner wished he had a Sports, hence the decals. We can only guess.

cudak888 

This may sound ridiculous, but the frame is fairly aligned now, and the top tube is reasonably straight.

Aligning the frame involved fairly typical cold-setting, but getting the top tube straight involved some pretty ridiculous antics with a Park FFS-1. I may have tried hanging from the ceiling to stand on the tube at one point too...



Looks kinked, but its not. There are a few TINY flat spots on it; still an improvement:



Now to figure out what to do about the wrinkles.

-Kurt

noglider 

Bravo. If anyone could do it, it's you. How is the fork?

cudak888 

Tweaked to the left a bit, but completely workable. Not concerned about it in the least.

The only thing that I'm still antsy about is the wrinkle at the top tube. It's pretty significant now, so I'm going to talk to the same neighbor who painted the BlasphTwenty to see if he thinks he can repaint that section only, after I put frame blocks to it. Perhaps fog a bit of paint around it to blend it in after that.

Might have Mike Terraferma torch some silver into it if the wrinkles remain. So long as the paint loss can be confined to the top tube and the upper headlug area, matching everything up may be doable.

-Kurt

cudak888 

Tried to take out the top tube wrinkle today by giving the top tube a squeeze without twisting. Had a bit of success, but the threads on one side of the block popped out (!).

I realize these screws aren't supposed to be load bearing, but this is a bit ridiculous.





Anyway, without actually twisting the blocks, a bit of progress was, indeed, made.

BEFORE:

AFTER:


Still not anywhere near tolerable for me, but closing in on it.

-Kurt

cudak888 

Incidentally, I have to give props here to Paragon Machine Works - they've already arranged for a replacement and created a shipping label.

Mark did make note that these aren't really made for dent removal even though they're popular for the task:

I like the sound of that specialized dent remover block.

-Kurt

cudak888 

Dipped the brightwork in mineral spirits; most of it came out so well that only a portion of this will get the oxalic treatment.




-Kurt

cudak888 

Brightwork is out of the oxalic bath and looking good. There's nothing like British chrome from this period for durability. Love the flat chromium finish on the back end of the parts too.






-Kurt

cudak888 

I hemmed and hawed about what to do about the tube warpage. I haven't really wanted to mess with doing any refinishing on this one, but there's no way out of it.

While having the downtube of the Marinoni looked at (from this thread), I brought along this frame too. Mike went ahead and filled the wrinkles, though there was a bit of experimentation about how to fill it.





The top was done with silver, but it didn't flow well - Mike warned me as such, so this was on me asking to see the difference, just for learning purposes more than anything else.

The thick tubing made brass an option, so that's what was used on the bottom.



We were under time pressure though, and while the results did improve things, the results look a bit meh - there are still some low spots that could do with yet more filler. Doesn't help that the top of the lower headlug stamping has a lot more material on the top than the bottom.














I'm going to re-verify the angles, just to be sure. What drives me nuts though is that it still looks like the clear victim of a front-ender.

My fear is that it might be impossible to get that lower lug to look square with the tubing, even if filled a bit better. Perhaps this one should be put to bed and given up on, but it's fairly difficult to dig up mid-1950's Superbe Tourists. Granted, I know our very own SirMike1983 has one listed, but - alas - it's the 22" variety.

-Kurt