Originally Posted by
Jeff Neese
If your goal is to do a full-on restoration, and this bike is definitely worth it, I'd forgot about painting it yourself. You're just not going to do it justice, unless you happen to have a sandblaster and professional paint booth at home.
Take it to a LBS, have them strip the frame and put all the parts in a box. Take it somewhere that will sandblast it down to bare metal, and then either paint or powder coat it. I like powder coating myself, but you do lose a slight bit of detail around the lugs.
Then you reassemble it, using whatever combination of old parts and new upgrades you want. That's the fun part. You end up with a brand new bike that you can keep forever.
Definitely decided on the powder coating. So much more durable than paint.
Got the pedals done. The gravely one actually spins now! Used waterproof marine bearing grease, says its good for trailer and marine bearings, so I figured it fine for a pedal. It's blue-ish, but seems to be about the consistency I expected. Worked great. Was easier than I thought. Had to do a lot of work on the first one, but the second one was still in pretty good shape, so I just cleaned everything and put in new grease and balls.
Next I think I'm going to go for the wheels. Have to figure out how the hubs work and how to get the freewheel off (first special tool purchase I guess).