MiloFrance

For me, its hands down the Elvish mixte I'm doing at the moment. Every square centimetre is covered in a grime that 96% alcohol, or degreaser won't touch. I don't want to use white spirit as it seems to take some of the gold fine lining off, so centimetre by centimetre, I'm cleaning it with acetone. Poor old thing, I don't think it's seen a friendly cleaning rag in its life.

Murray Missile 

For me probably this Schwinn, it was given to me and languished in my shed for a couple years until I decided to set it on the curb. It was so grime covered I wasn't sure if it was burgundy or brown. Halfway to the street I got a sudden impulse to hose it off. A half a bottle of Simple Green and a lot of water at high pressure later I determined it was burgundy and actually had decent chrome. A little more cleaning and a pair of tires resulted in this..... the paint and decals weren't the best but oh that chrome!

KonAaron Snake 

Definitely this one...but underneath the rattlecan paint, and the carving into the components...lies a special velo. It is one of the sweetest riding bikes I’ve been on, and I kept the ugly duckling and sold a much “prettier” one.

crank_addict

There once was a nasty Botty with Rat-tastic tasty handlebar wrap....

non-fixie 

My neighbor across the street was moving out earlier this year, and asked me did I want the old racing bike she had sitting in the garden or should she chuck it?

You can guess the answer, and this is what I came home with. Still haven't found the courage to start cleaning it ...

francophile 

Although the Claud Butler I got last week with a pound of potentially-Hantavirus laden filth in all the nooks and crannies is probably a contender, it would be this Motobecane:

(Thread is here with lots more pics: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...eaner-job.html)

Before/After:





And I guess "I'll add these two shots of the a chainstay 90% degrimed, and one of the downtube half done:

francophile 

@non-fixie I hope my thread up there not only offers you some tips but also some inspiration. I probably had about 4-5 hours work into mine, total, to get the majority of the funk off.

Spaghetti Legs 

The nice thing about grime (as opposed to the rust and mildew on that Giant -sorry non-fixie!) is that once the elbow grease is applied, a pretty nice bike often lies beneath. Kind of like the waxy grease new bike chains are coated with.

jamesdak 

Off the top of my head I've picked up three that looked pretty bad. The Schwinn Prologue was a mess, filthy, rotted tires, rusty hanging chain, bad tape etc. Once cleaned up it was too bad although there were still a fair amount of paint wear on it.

The Davidson looked pretty bad too. No front wheel, rear wheel a mess, filthy, wouldn't shift any gears and had what looked like scratches all over. But all the scratches were just rub marks from other stuff on the paint and cleaned off well, as did the parts which looked mint. Degreased everything, flushed shifters with WD40 repeatedly,and threw on new wheels. A gem under all the grime.

The filthiest though was the Team Fuji. I swear it was cover top to bottom in grime. Could hardly tell color. Bug nest inside the fork and just filth everywhere. Almost didn't want to touch it. Underneath all that though was a mint, beautiful bike. Really gorgeous in my book.

No pictures of it as I got it. Never even made it into the garage like that. Soon as I got it home I started cleaning it.

Here's how it looked when I got done.




New saddle, bar tape, and bottle cages. The rest is the bike I got, for cheap at that.

verktyg 

My first (actual) barn bike was this 1967 ALL ORIGINAL Peugeot PX10 that I got in December, 2007. It came with 2 sets of wheels, the original sewups and a set of 27" clinchers from ~1980. It had been stored in a barn for at least 20 years and had almost an 1/8" of dust and crud covering all of the upper surfaces.

Original photo after I'd vacuumed the dust off and did a little wipe down with alcohol. The bar tape fell off by itself. The Brooks Pro was a beautiful russet orange color that darkened up from initial handling.



The whole BB and chain stay area looked like the drive side in this photo.



There was some light surface rust on the chrome that cleaned up with some fine steel wool.



After a partial clean up.



I never bothered doing an overhaul, just cleaned and lubed the external components, changed the bars and stem, pedals, toe clips and straps, plus new Pasela 27" clinchers then rode it for awhile. The bike had been sitting idle since about 2010. I started riding it again this spring and was pleasantly surprised at how nice it rode.



About a week after I bought the PX10, Dennis Stone (RIP) of Stone's Cyclery in Alameda, CA gave me a call and said he had a 1969 Gitane "barn bike" for me. He'd originally sold the bike new in 1969 and updated the derailleurs in the early 80's?

Original photo after vacuuming and a wipe down. This bike had also sat in storage for over 20 years. I suspect that the owner had been riding off road with the bike because it had cyclocross sewups and bar ends.



I'd cleaned off a lot of the crud. The whole bike looked like the drive side seat stay.



This bike got a complete tear down and overhaul (that's why the PX10 didn't get much attention).



Note, this is a long stem that's inserted over 3". Carefully inspected...



Paint touch up. White and black are the easiest to do. It's camouflage not a respray and if it passes the 10 foot test, GREAT!



We sold Gitanes in the 1970's. There was a Peugeot/Raleigh dealer about 3 blocks away from our shop so I got to see and test ride a lot of PX10s. In our experience and opinion, the Gitane TdFs were always nicer riding bikes than the PX10s.

When comparing these 2 bikes 35 years on, I still have that view. When almost identically equipped including the same wheels the TdF is smoother riding especially on the front end. Maybe Peugeot used heavier gauge fork blades?

verktyg

non-fixie 

The thing is, your Motobecane is a nice bike. The Giant isn't. Mid-level frame, "meh" parts, unicrown fork, lots of rust. I must have cleaned over 200 grimy bikes and enjoyed it, but this is not only the worst, but also the least rewarding.

Exactly. I know what lies beneath.

verktyg 

I got a call from Dennis Stone in 2010, he had another "barn bike" for me, a 1970 all Campy Gitane Super Corsa. He'd also sold this bike new and did upgrades on it in the mid 70's. The bike sat in storage since shortly after the last upgrade.

Photo after a complete wipe down - no before pictures.



Everything looked like this when I brought it home. Note, that's a 13-31T Regina Oro FW. The Campy NR derailleur handles it without a problem.





I've haven't ridden it much so it's still sits like this.

Next "Dirt Bike", another one from Stone's Cyclery that I bought in 2016. This one is an all original 1973 Raleigh RRA including reflectors and maybe original sewups.

After an initial wipe down.



The bike must have been hanging upside down because the whole bottom side looked like this.






It's still a work in progress. Every once in a while I spend about 10 minutes with 70% alcohol wipes.

verktyg

ryansu

A couple come to mind. A $5 frameset from the Co-op a 70s something tiger



Dirt and weird packing tape all over the frame



cleaned up ok built with some 27 x 1 3/8 knobbies

And the winner is the 73 Motobeane Mirage



before wipe


after wipe



turned out ok

sykerocker 

This GT Tachyon, as pictured, is after I cleaned it (believe me, it was MUCH worse and the local bike shop gave it to me for free because they found it unsellable at an asking $5.00), and put together a set of spec parts just to see if it would even run. It did, but 'cleaning' in the case of this bike turned out to be media blasting and powder coat in what was very close to the original burgundy-purple. Unfortunately, this is the one bike I've restored that I don't seem to have a set of after pictures, which really annoys me because the bike was so weird that it turned out to be one of my most noteworthy projects ever. Occasionally rue that I sold it.

ddeand 

This was my most difficult. My daughter found it and really wanted it as her main rider, so I took on the project. It really diesn’t look too bad, but it was a mess. Every inch if chrome was speckled with rust, but that came off pretty nicely - a tribute to the quality of chroming that is found on old bikes. Everything that is black, though, was covered with caked-on, dried grease - it took me a long time and a lot of degreaser to get down to the paint. Every bearing that used greased was dried up - the old stuff just crumbled away from the bearings and races. Fortunately, the rear hub was in dirty, but good, condition. In the end, though, it turned out really nice, and my daughter loves it!

Before


After

USAZorro

GordoTrek lives in my (still consider it so) home-town of Rochester, NY. A couple years back, on one of his visits to the local co-op, he came across a lilac Raleigh Competition. He had "rescued" it and made it known to the C&V members. As it was my size, the price was fair, and I was going there to an event involving my wife's family a couple weeks later, I struck a deal with him. To be clear, I absolutely do not fault him in the least for anything, but it needed a little bit of clean-up. Here's a shot after I'd given the seat tube and down-tube an initial wipe-down.

deux jambes

While it wasn’t the filthiest bike I’ve ever brought home, I did purchase an early to mid 80’s Univega for a part out.

Average grease, and grime for a poorly maintained bike, but it had the potent aroma of wet soil, which I didn’t notice until getting it home. And this was a little annoying since I live in a studio apartment with no outdoor bike storage. But life goes on...

A few days later, countless baby spiders hatched from egg sacks suspended in the steerer tube, and took to roaming about all over the place.

Andy_K 

It's got to be the Steyr Clubman I got for the 2016 Klunker 100.

It doesn't look so bad here because cameras are forgiving.



In reality, I checked to make sure my tetanus shots were up to date before I touched it.







It cleaned up pretty good.

TXsailor

R400
On the other end of the spectrum I bought this Cannondale from a coworker who had had it in a storage for over 20 years. I rinsed it off put some tires on it and it works as well as it did when he parked it. I plan to repack the bearings and change the bar tape cause that's all it needs.

mountaindave 

Worst bike I ever cleaned up was a Schwinn Suburban or Collegiate or something. My friend had left it outside for a number of years under a giant Doug fir. It had dried sap everywhere and took a good amount of Goo Gone and a long afternoon of the two of us scrubbing before it got clean. Sorry no pix, but she still has it and it looks quite nice.

CV-6 

I guess my worst was a barn find Lejeune CdM. A literal barn find. It is one of two that were found by Mike Frayssee and sold. I spent a lot of hours cleaning up the frame, starting with 2000 wet sand, rubbing compound, then clear coat safe rubbing compound. In some places the paint failed, but we all know that is just patina. Came out pretty nice.


First glamor shot by L Travers, on Flickr

Lascauxcaveman 

My 1990ish Redline dumpster darling that eventually 'won' the Clunker Challenge a few years back.

Long, shaggy moss growing off the hubs, as found:

TXsailor

All I can say is I have been lucky, my worst was a Schwinn High Sierra that I bought at a trades day and it was a cream puff compared to some of these! Its dirt isn't even worthy of adding a picture.

retyred

1960 Follis from Escondido A true barn find, it was completely buried in bat guano. The original 'Bat Bike'?

Mr. 66

No not mine but I would be proud.