J.Higgins 

Hello, Everyone. I'm starting this thread to document my rebuild of an old Dunelt 3-speed frame that I've had kicking about. This will not be a full-on restoration, rather it'll be a resurrection. I'm of the opinion that a complete restoration to this frame would cost more and take more time, and the end result will be a bike that will not get ridden. What will do is to freshen it up, clean it up, straighten it up, and sort it out.



Here's the serial number location. I bought this as a frame, and the PO said the frame was a '53. When I asked him several times how he knew it was a '53, he side-stepped my questions rather well. He should be a politician!

The frame number is: 675056. If anyone can help me verify the year, I would be in your debt.



What I have done so far is to straighten the frame and fork, and widen them out to fit a nice set of old-school Campy hubs, which I intend to lace to some VO PBP rims for a nice classic polished look.



There were a lot of factory finish issues that I encountered, but nothing that some file work would not cure.







The frame paint was severely oxidized. I started to gently clean it with some warm soapy water and a cloth, but found a log of slag and poor brazing along the way. I was going to just buff out the whole frame with some polish and cleaner wax, but instead I decided to clear-coat it with some satin 2K.



I apologize for the lack of "before" pics, but I also have another project going and it was overlooked. I did flush out all of the tubes with denatured alcohol, and blew out any debris. The frame was cleaned thoroughly inside and out, and Framesavered afterwards. Now its been preserved in time! Good for at least another 50 years!

clubman 

Do you have a rear wheel with a Sturmey hub? The frame is Raleigh-made which suggestst "59 or later. The D-thimble crown was typical of the 60's era. Should be a fine bike.

J.Higgins 

I bought it as a frame-only. Hey the guy was asking $20.

clubman 

Bonus!

obrentharris 

I'm looking forward to seeing the project progress. I'm happy to see I'm not the only one who thinks it's ok to clean up messy shorelines, blobs of brass, and the other little uglies left by the original builder.
Brent

J.Higgins 

Right!

The old saying of "Lipstick on a pig" comes to mind. My best friend used to say, "If you stick a diamond in a turd, you still got a turd." There's certainly nothing mystical or classical about these old English three-speeds. All I do is breathe some fresh air into them and get them back on their feet in a way that will appeal to someone in this century.

gugie 

What I thought interesting was the 2K clear coat instead of a repaint. That's a nice compromise, cleaning up the "faults" of the builder, keeping the patina, and protecting the frame in one swell foop.

Well done!

speedevil 

If you don't yet have the VO PBP 700C rims, I have a set of unlaced rims that I won't use. I wound up switching to 650B rims for my build. I'll be more than fair on the price since they will just sit in my shop otherwise. In fact, I'm pretty sure they're still wrapped just as I received them.

J.Higgins 

That's a kind offer, but the rims are already in transit.

Velognome 

Nice to see some attention and what appears to be a lot of effort going into an old 3spd. I did this Dunelt up for my Goddaughter to use in college. She still has it and gets regular summer use. It came to me via a trash pick. An OA bath, fresh grease, oil and new brake pads tires and tubes and it is good for another 30 or so year. Cheers to you NoControl for giving another one a second chance at life.

J.Higgins 

Nice job on that girl's Dunelt!

Whats your mix ratio on the OA?

noglider 

@Velognome, you did a fantastic job on that Dunelt.

I'd love to see you again some time.

Velognome 

NoControl - On painted surfaces, I start with a heaping table spoon per gallon of water. After 24 hours, if you do not see any bubbles forming I add to the mix. A milder solution won't leave a haze on the painted areas. On Chrome, I'll go 3x the amount of AO.. Skip buying it as wood bleach. You can buy 10 lb bags for the same price of Ebay or Amazon

Noglider - Yes, we should get together...still in the West Village during the week?

noglider 

Yes!

J.Higgins 

The old headbadge was super faded. I found a better one on eBay. I hit it with a couple coast of acrylic just to keep it nice.

exmechanic89

Those are cool old bikes, very retro and different than anything made these days. I guess that's what makes them cool.

J.Higgins 

I just finished up another bike, so time to get on top of this one.

Check out the BB. Poor manufacturing techniques and very little quality control back in the day was responsible for this. The English bike factories churned out thousands of bikes, and as long as people were buying them, they had no reason to make the process better. Look how caved-in it looks I haven't measured it, but I'll bet that is at least a .254mm-deep cavity. I'm no dentist, but what I'll do is shave off enough to make it perpendicular and give it a good seat for the sealed BB that I'll be using.



Chasing and recutting threads. They were pretty buggered anyway. They were threaded deep enough for the threaded cups, but not a thread more. I threaded into it maybe 7-8mm more to accommodate the sealed BB.





Threads cut in all the way. For this particular Park tool (BTS-1), you need to use the taps as guides to allow you a perfectly perpendicular facing.



Starting the cut with the BTS-1. You can see how far off the face was. Imagine how many miles this bike has been ridden in such a poor state of health!



I switched over to another Park tool (BFS-1), which is better imho for facing because of its adjustable pressure. Its harder to get a decent cut out of the previous model I was using simply because you have to apply your own pressure. The BFS-1 evens all that out, so that you can slowly and steadily cut the face and square it up.



Here it is, all pretty and shiny and square as a cucumber (). I'll do the same thing on the left side and sand out any chatter marks with some 400x wet-or-dry and a flat piece of precision-ground 0-1 that I keep for stuff like this. I'll rinse it out with some mineral spirits and blow it out, then wash the oil off the outside and touch it up with a little clear to keep it from corroding.

speedevil 

How wide is that shell after the amount of material you had to remove? Maybe it looked like you had to remove more than you actually did, but still.

juvela

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Be those 26TPI taps you ran through there or did you simply rethread to 24TPI?

Great thread and documentation of project BTW!


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J.Higgins 

It always looks like you remove more than you should have, but it rarely is enough to make a difference. The BB shells on these old bikes vary from 69-70-71mm, and rarely are any two alike. Mind you, these were the old three-speeds, not precision racers. As it is right now, the BB measured 70.21mm. Not a real issue, and even so, it only makes my chain-line better, especially using the Record hubs with a single-speed freewheel.

Thanks! The threads were re-cut using the standard 24 TPI.

Vcycleta

looking forward to this build. I just picked up a 1970s dunelt good frame but very rusty.

juvela

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What marques in the Raleigh pantheon received these triangular tubular crowns vs the round ones?

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J.Higgins 

I'm curious why you chose the word pantheon to describe the various re-badged Raleighs over the years... well at least I think that's what you mean, hehe.

Honestly, I have no idea. I have a British friend, Nick, who may know. He's the owner and curator of Three Speed Hub - so maybe if you shot him a line on his forum?

clubman 

Most all Raleigh Dunelts and a few Asian knock-offs AFAIK. Other Raleigh exceptions include Rudge and Humber, each with their own crowns.

SquidPuppet

Stupid question. Why not take it down to an even 68?