Project Steel

eeeee

And with that the portal to custom bits opened...

cletus

eeeee wrote: »

And with that the portal to custom bits opened...

Just send your PM's, eeeee

CianRyan

This was no fun to buy, a cheap part that's in available in Ireland so I had to double the price with shipping.

Ah well, one step closer. I must tap the cranks this weekend if I get a minute. House renovations are taking up much of my time lately... The hardwood floor and garden are looking great but the bike is eh, still a project. :pac:

8valve

Tange. Nice.

A tool for pressing the cups in correctly is very easy to make, with some threaded bar, nuts and big washers.

cletus

8valve wrote: »

Tange. Nice.

A tool for pressing the cups in correctly is very easy to make, with some threaded bar, nuts and big washers.

I just use a lump hammer...

8valve

cletus wrote: »

I just use a lump hammer...

Picture a single tear running down my cheek...

cletus

8valve wrote: »

Picture a single tear running down my cheek...

My previous post may have been made for comedic effect

saccades

Retrobike.co.uk has a vintage road bike wanted/for sale sections.

It's where I go for old MTB bits.

Nitromors bitd had dichloromethane and methanol in it, too may people (Inc my dad refinishing his sailing dinghy) nearly died using it and had lots of health issues due to it.

I can see why it was made a lot less concentrated.

cletus

Any more progress, Cian?

CianRyan

Well, it's been a few months but I did say this would be a long term project (in-between my house, car and becoming a dad).

I finally got around to fitted the headset on Sunday night. Short of a press, I used a threaded bar, 3 nuts and two pieces of timber and it worked wonderfully... But I did have to use my rubber mallet once.

I'm going to pick up a tap set this weekend and salvage the cranks, find a nice set of bars and then tackle the wheels. I'm not saying when, but it's on the cards.

magicbastarder

there are a couple of decent enough frames for sale on adverts.ie at the moment.

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118174266#Comment_118174266

Might be a croix de fer soon too, albeit seized seatpost.

cletus

@CianRyan good to see the work continuing, and congrats on becoming a dad. I made a similar headset press, but I turned down aluminium discs where you have the timber

@Weepsie what size is the croix de fer?

magicbastarder

cletus, this might also be your size? 56cm, though he states it's quite relaxed.

https://www.adverts.ie/bike-frames/vintage-531-frame-and-forks/25332837

cletus

Cheers @magicbastarder . I wonder is the "relaxed, feels like a 54" just a way of appealling to a wider audience 🤔.

If not, a 54 is too small, but no real way of testing that on a stripped frame...

Weepsie

It's a 54 but with a well and truly seized seatpost. I was going to go at it with a heatgun, but never did in the end as it's just about correct for me.

magicbastarder

also cletus, this is a nice one though i don't know if you're looking for a cheap one to strip down?

https://www.adverts.ie/bike-frames/peugeot-bike-frame/23675651

though i'd be curious about the quality of the paint job, he seems to have painted the inside of the seat tube.

Macy0161

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118175197#Comment_118175197

Trying to recall how we compared up height wise when I brought those wheels off you a few years ago... 😀

cletus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118175265#Comment_118175265

Thanks, mb. To be very honest, I don't know what I'm looking for myself. I just keep a half eye out from time to time to see if anything catches my eye

8valve

There's a whole raleigh record on donedeal, 531 with lots of nice parts on it......

Just saying.... ;-)

@CianRyan nice progress.

cletus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118182961#Comment_118182961

Yeah, but some fella already did all the fun stuff with it

CianRyan

Hey hey, it's been a while.

It is starting to look like a bike again, new head set, new bottom bracket bearings, front wheel is decent but the rear wheel isn't coming together so will probably try and pick one up, I'd love to have this ridable this summer, even if not perfect.

Rear stays are on odd/old size. Anyone got a single speed or fixed gear wheel in good shape with a 125mm hub?

Will also try and salvage the crank arms this weekend. Anyone know the threat pattern for a 90's Shimano 600?

cletus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119207968#Comment_119207968

I presume you want thread size for the pedals?

Looking online, (link below) there are suggestions of "French" pedal sizes, which are M14x1.25

Standard pedals are 9/16x20

There are also suggestions that the thread pitch is close enough that you could tap the holes with an appropriate size.

The other option is drilling out and helicoils (unless you can source French pedals).

https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/57159/pedal-threads-too-big-for-crank

CianRyan

Yes, for the pedals!

The BB mechanism works perfectly, thankfully that was probably a little advanced for the last owner.

They are fairly fecking stripped but I'll pick up some taps this weekend and see how they cut. I'd like to fit SPD pedals so if needs be, I'll cut to standard I guess. If it doesn't work, helicoils it is. Although, I've had those come out on me before so I'm always sceptical.

hesker

You should be able to spread those stays to take a 130mm hub

magicbastarder

It's called cold setting. When I faced the same issue, I was able to take the probably 5mm locknuts off a wheel I had and replace them with what were probably 3mm ones. It was enough to allow the wheel to fit.

hesker

There’s not too much to cold setting but you will likely also have to change your derailleur hanger alignment. Not much to do that either.

After looking at those photos there seems to be something a little odd about the dropout brazing, almost like they skimped on the brazing. Got any more photos?

happytramp

Apologies for hijacking an existing thread but I just thought I'd ask here... Someone was throwing this old bike away and I decided to take it. It's pretty wrecked but I feel it used to be a nice bike back in the day. What are my options here? I've put some old vintage bikes together before but I've never dealt with something in such bad nick and have no experience with stripping paint, getting rid of rust or getting something repainted (but could potentially give it a bash)

cletus

My first step there would be get the frame sand blasted, and see what your dealing with

magicbastarder

what's the sticker on the head tube? my first instinct was if that's a genuine ti-raleigh, it could be interesting, but i see no sign of stickers which would tell you what tubes the frame is made from. it's not the traditional ti-raleigh colour scheme though.

hesker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119240753#Comment_119240753

Can you post close up photos of the rear dropout area

happytramp

Cheers guys, yeah I'll put up some clearer pics in the morning. I tried sanding the seat stays and the rust and paint came off but man, it's hard work 😂

magicbastarder

You'd be better off with a wire brush attachment on a drill.

happytramp

Good idea... Not sure I'm as hardcore as the OP.

cletus

You'd be better off again with a wire brush attachment on an angle grinder.

Before you're offered more advice, what is your plan? Do you want to strip and repaint? Do you want to clean the frame a little and rebuild? Keep the patina? Make it look like new?

You're next steps very much depend on the goal

happytramp

Good question. It's basically to replace a Dawes galaxy myself and my partner have been using on the school run, going into town etc. She wants a small light fast bike and I reckon this frame could fit the bill. Im sort of caught between two stools. Yes, it's a run around that's going to be left in my front garden so don't want to spend a huge about of money on it, but then I'd also like it to look good. I quite fancy repainting it in the team Raleigh colours.

Anyway here are a few closer pics. The head badge means nothing to me. But my guess was it was some local club/team that had Raleigh paint up the bike in their colours.

magicbastarder

that dropout seems to have 'campagnolo' stamped into it? you can see 'PAGNO' in the lettering that still has some paint.

you say you don't want to spend a lot of money on it, just wondering what your budget is; i restored a bike a year or two ago and probably spent €200 all in, and i had more parts to hand. i could have easily added another €100 on top had i been missing the same number of parts.

happytramp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119242325#Comment_119242325

Yeah, I'd say about 200 would be okay... Like I couldn't get much to replace my Dawes for 200 at any rate. I can salvage some stuff off my old bike. Will probably just need brake calipers and an old 10sp derailleur. (possibly a BB or headset depending on if they're salvageable)

I'm guessing my budget won't extend to getting it both sand blasted and painted.. is repainting yourself doable or will it always be a bit crappy?

magicbastarder

i did it myself, stripped it back to bare metal and rattlecanned it. probably about €25 for the paint, i just used cans bought in the local motor factors. etch primer, then paint, then some cheapo laquer from aldi which was floating around the shed.

happytramp

Oh cool. How did it look? Is it still holding up?...and what was your process for stripping the paint?

Mefistofelino

@ happytramp

I wouldn't be taking a wire brush on an axle grinder to that just yet. The serial number "SB 2162" means that it came from Raleigh's Specialist Bicycle Development Unit in Ilkeston around 1978. The SBDU did all the custom building for Raleigh, including the full-on Ti Raleigh frames. Unfortunately, its not possible to relate the serial number to an actual model, so you'd have to do some detective work to try to determine what it actually is, but it may be quite decent.

It doesn't have the drilled drop-outs or extended fork crown lugs that some of top-line 753 frames had but it could well be a 531 frame like this one (main difference I see is that the red frame has the cable guides below the top tube, yours appears to have them above.

https://steel-vintage.com/team-t-i-raleigh-sbdu-frame-3035-detail

Your paint, particularly if the "Chase Tri Club" head badge is part of the paint job, is probably a later addition. I don't think tri clubs would have been a "thing" in '78.

Rear drops out will be 126mm so you may have to cold set the frame for newer wheels

magicbastarder

wire brushes and sandpaper. the bike is still holding up, you easily can tell the paint is not as thick as a factory finish though. it's stored in a garage though, not sure how it would hold up if stored outside.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119242618#Comment_119242618

this was it soon after finishing it (have since added mudguards and a carrier)

cletus

I tried looking up TI-Raleigh when I saw the first pictures. I couldn't tie the colour scheme to any model or year. Custom paint job makes sense.

It could indeed be a quite decent frame, but the reality is, it's in pretty poor condition. Sections of the rust on it look to be gone past surface rust, and I'd imagine that there's some putting on the frame.

My first suggestion of sandblasting is still the easiest and cleanest way to bring the frame back completely to bare metal, ready for priming and painting. I've had a frame sand blasted for 50 quid

If you don't want to go down that route, and you want to take care, hand sanding is your other option. There's a lot of work in that

Mefistofelino

If you are getting it blasted, do mention to them that the tubes are very thin. I was getting one done some years back and the guy assumed that the tubing must be 3-4mm thick and was getting out the "headstone-blasting" grit, as he called it. It would have gone clean through the tube.

The rust pattern looks a little like the one you get on a turbo bike, from long-term sweat salt exposure.

cletus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119242764#Comment_119242764

Yep, there's all sorts of blasting media, from fine sand up to lead balls. Don't get it lead blasted

hesker

Thanks for the extra photos. I wanted to see how the stay ends were finished.

That is quite a valuable frame potentially so go easy with the wire brush. In fact I would stop what you’re doing until a proper assessment is done.

Pity about the level of rust but hopefully it’s not too deep.

PM me if you want to know more.

cletus

There's more spots where the pitting looks to be as deep as the picture of the bottom bracket above. In that picture it looks like it's starting to flake too (the rust, not the paint).

Fixing that up as a runaround is simple as strip, prime and paint.

If the bike is worth money, as you suggest, then high etch primer would be needed to fill the pitting, possibly a touch of filler depending how deep it goes

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119242943#Comment_119242943

out of curiosity, what damage could be done by having the rust removed with a less aggressive blasting? i assume it's going to have to come off anyway...

Kaisr Sose

Nice find and project. Hopefully the rust is not too deep where it looks caked. Sand blasting may be best if the tubes are in good shape.

Drop outs are Brev Campagnolo so decent frame, Reynolds 531 I would say. It's a pity it has no Raleigh head badge.

Watch the rear wheel width with modern wheels (126 v 130mm). If you spread it too much the stress goes on the brake bridge and it can fail.

Good luck with it.