noglider 

The fenders look good, even with the war wounds!

The chrome has left large parts of the rims on my Florida bike, my 1962 Rudge Sports. It enhances braking, so I'm living with it.

cudak888 

I've been cleaning and prepping the wheels and hubs in the meantime. No photos of that though - but I did snap a photo of the chain for another thread. Cleaned up quite well with a dunk in mineral spirits. Not bad for 68 years old.





I also went ahead and pulled the AW. Whatever someone poured in this thing to lubricate it with turned into a sticky, oily film that feels like sticking your fingers in tacky paint. The pawls were barely engaging, and when I tried to move the clutch retainer off, the entire clutch AND the rest of the hub (stuck to the clutch) came with it. I dribbled a bit of mineral spirits on it and everything broke apart pretty easily. I'm going to let it soak overnight.

On the plus side, this thing looks brand new.



-Kurt

pastorbobnlnh 

Dang--- I know I won't look that good in another five years when I'm 68!

Ged117 

Same story as when I rebuilt my '53 FW and '50 AG hubs. No wear on internal parts, practically new once cleaned up and fed bearings, grease, and 0W20. I'm jealous. Something about bringing back an old three-speed feels great.

cudak888 

You're a cycling man, Bob. That means you're already signed up for the fountain of youth

I've done a few AW's before, though I'm keen on mastering the FW. I tried about eight years ago and couldn't do it, but I was working with a hub minus a few crucial parts.

I'm considering redoing this one with ATF and marine grease in the bearings. Crossing my fingers the marine grease doesn't slosh into the mix and jam the clutch key. Super easy for it to happen, if the wrong grease is used.

-Kurt

cudak888 

A tube of NLGI 00 grease arrived today, so I lubed up the AW and put it back together. The 00 grease was used for the moving bits, and I used a marine grease for the bearings.

Came out quite nice. The 00 grease also holds everything together for assembly. We'll see how it acts with the clutch and key.






-Kurt

cudak888 

A few updates, now that some very-delayed rim strips have arrived along with some bottom bracket bearings. Here's the rear wheel. It's not 100% cleaned up around the spoke nipples, but 80% of the grunge removal has been taken care of.









Now, obvious point is obvious: Trying to re-use a 50+ year old tire is a bad idea. I knew it going into this, but was curious to see if I could squeeze some display life out of these Goodyears.

Found a bulge in one spot and aired it down, for I do want to use the tubes it came with (which are in excellent shape w/no rot whatsoever).





So that means new tires are in order (no surprise there). Unlike the '51, I am not open to the Schwalbe Delta Cruisers for this build. I want to maintain as period a look as possible, but I'm finding it quite difficult to find block-tread tires with wire beads that aren't undersized and/or complete junk. Panaracer has a pretty nice tire available via Japan, but it's Kevlar bead. Shipping is a killer too.

Personally I believe it is not a good idea to use folding Kevlar beads on these shallow, straight-sided rims. I don't care how tight they sit.

In other news, as I suspected, the cranks are bent - as are the pedal shafts. A shame, as these black enamel Raleigh chainrings aren't as easy to find as the later stuff - and this one cleaned up really beautifully, regardless. Oh well, another wall hanger.



Drive side:



Non-drive side:



The pedals. I can clean them up, but I'll still have to find new shafts. I'm not sure that's feasible, unless there's a later pedal out there with a compatible shaft.



-Kurt

cudak888 

And just so I don't leave out the beauty shot. I threw the crank on for looks.



-Kurt

cudak888 

I tried cold-setting the crank by installing it on a spindle in the vise. It might work. We'll see.

In the meantime, the oxalic acid worked its magic. Time to rebuild the brakes and reinstall them.




-Kurt

cudak888 

Next batch of parts (forgot about these!) going into the bath.




Brakes look good.






-Kurt

jamesj

What did you use to polish that frame! looks amazing!

cudak888 

Meguiars #7 . Good old fashioned formula for single-stage paints. Nothing else like it. It's followed by Meguiars #26 wax.

Unlike single-stage automotive paint, you can apply #7 to the black Raleigh enamel with a power drill and foam applicators like these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1. The paint is thick enough that you'll get a shine before you burn through anything.

I wouldn't recommend this method on a post-TI era bike - definitely stick with elbow grease if you can. You may need to break out a soft pad for the areas around the lugs, but it's easy to make a mistake on the thinner, later paint. Softest pad and slow RPM settings are your friend.

I try to stay as far away from compounds as possible, but I will break out some 3M Microfinishing Compound on particularly stubborn areas.

-Kurt

cudak888 

The bits cleaned up pretty nicely.



The pulley wheel is a bit beyond salvage though - partially because of appearance, and partially because its seized solid. Screw won't come out, pulley won't turn.

Didn't have luck getting it unstuck initially, which is a good enough excuse to replace it. PM if you have a spare!





I'm also looking for a few 1950's Raleigh hex and half nuts for the left side brake lever - like the ones here.



I haven't dipped the bars, but I was able to get the grip off (in one piece!) to free the Fraim lock.



The 4-speed shifter clicks well, so I won't have to worry about the return spring on this one. It also started to clean up really nicely after a quick wipe. Much to do still.



The lock. Nope, that's not the original key - its just a blank I found that happened to fit.



-Kurt

noglider 

What rim strip did you use?

cudak888 

Velox 16mm. It replaced the original cloth strip with a metal buckle.



Ironically, the second roll doesn't want to stick right. Might need to get another.

-Kurt

noglider 

Those old cloth strips weren't that bad.

If the Velox doesn't stick, maybe there's something oily on the rim. Maybe contact cement or rubber cement will help.

cudak888 

The rim was wiped down with 90% isopropyl alcohol well in advance, so I doubt it.

Was considering contact cement, but I don't want to leave a mess on the rim either. For a flipper or in an emergency, maybe. For something I'm taking my time on...nah.

-Kurt

noglider 

You should be able to tape the rim tape together together with something like packing tape.

jackbombay

how did the crank straightening work out? I would absolutely spend some time on that, I'd be surprised if you couldn't get them close enough to straight to be acceptable.

For rim tape I have used fiber packing tape for the last 20 years or so, you can tear it to any width you need and its super cheap, and very lightweight, I run 2 layers of it and it does fine even on road wheels with 100 PSI in them, the tape is strong enough that it can span the spoke nipple wells without issue.

cudak888 

I've only cranked on the drive side...but it appears to be straight. A lot more than it was when I started, anyway.

I haven't tortured the left arm. Yet.

-Kurt

Johno59

The amazing thing is these old Raleighs were dip tank painted. It took about 5 seconds. Dip the frame into the tank of paint and hang it on the moving assembly line.
To see the whole process go on YouTube and type in How a Bicycle is Made. The painting is about half way thru.

BigChief 

That's an absolutely stellar job you're doing here. Very fortunate that this bike came into such capable hands. I'm sure I have a frame mounted guide wheel. I'll hunt for it after work and PM if I find it.

cudak888 

This is worth an embed. Shared the video at work too. Fantastic stuff.


Thanks. It's not really that spectacular - it's just that this particular bike needed a fair number of oddball bike repair skills to get it back into operational shape; I'm just lucky to have the tools and, hopefully, the right skills to repair it as well as possible.

It's always a joy to work with these '50s Raleighs as a canvas for refurbishing though. It's always satisfying and a very different experience from, say, refurbing something with Campagnolo NR on it.

Really appreciate any help you can provide with that pulley wheel. Haven't had any luck so far. If you happen to have a top tube fulcrum clamp, that'd also be quite beneficial. I have one, but it's a early-1960's piece that doesn't have the dull chrome on the inside or bottom of the clamp.

-Kurt

Johno59

The bolt has a shoulder that bottoms out before it tightens on the wheel. This is so the wheel may rotate freely. It has a whitworth thread and as such will not seize like a modern thread, - but it will be tight. Use a pair of good pliers or vice grips to give it a twist to help the screw driver. It only turns a 1/8 of a revolution whilst facilitating the gear cable travel as the rider selects btwn 1st and 3rd.
Wire brush it and clear coat or wax it and it will look great. They are very solidly made so you can give it some teddy.
The steel in these bikes have a considerable amount of chromium in the steel alloy so giving it a good brush or sanding gives a nice shiny finish that only needs waterproofing to stay great.
The same applies to the fulcrum clamp.

cudak888 

I'm experimenting with a little something on a pair of brake pads: Soaking them in 3 parts isopropyl alcohol to one part wintergreen oil. Supposedly restores the rubber without distorting it.



It's a bit nuts, but it so happens the only replacement pads for this thing that are old NOS and not soft. Trying it this way to see how it affects the old pads...before blowing money on more old pads. Hope it works. I'm experimenting with one pad from my ladies' 51 Sports, and one of the Fibrax pads off the '52.

In the meantime, the cranks have been straightened and installed, along with the chain:








Cleaned up the headlamp bezel and reflector too. Original sticker survives back there, but the glue gave out a long time ago.The front still has its rubber O-ring.





It can't hurt, but it'll probably damage the bolt head. Believe me, it's WELL jammed.

I figure I'll booger it up once I have a replacement in hand.

-Kurt