miyagibike

Thanks, pcampeau and xiaoman1 (and everyone!) for all of your help! I'm a bit under the weather right now (Covid test *Negative* thankfully). I'll keep everyone up to date with more photos as I get into it. Thanks again! Really a great group!

merziac

miyagibike

Yikes!

Hang in there, I work EVS at a hospital and know you are in the industry as well.

That being said, far too much of this is still far too unknown.

Encourage you to do a backup test as well.

Pcampeau

Take care miyagibike. Thanks for sharing your Paramounts with us and I hope to see you back here with more photos soon.

miyagibike

Thanks, All, I'm back and all is OK with me health-wise. Covid false alarm, whew! I have started to strip down the 1972 P15-9 and have done an initial cleaning pass with tin foil, Johnson's marine polish/wax, spray cleaner and elbow grease. The chrome seems exceptionally nice and really shines up with very little effort overall! Also i peeled off the old tubulars and there is hardly any old glue! That was a really lucky break - the wheels clean up pretty easily with steel wool and auto polish. I have added more photos on my Flickr photostream of my progress so far and I have provided a link below. The latest 1972 clean up photos start and ends with the 1972 P15-9 frameset on the stand. Thanks again to all for your encouragement and expert advice. I appreciate any comments and/or further suggestions. Miyagibike

https://www.flickr.com/photos/189736...h/50238531858/

merziac

Good to hear, please be vigilant, plenty of negatives that don't stay that way.

Pics of the bike look good, keep up the good work.

miyagibike

Hi again, I have taken more photos of the 1972 P15-9 and added them to my Flickr photostream. (the link is copied below) This time it is all of the "shiny bits" after some cleaning, and in some cases polishing with the buffing wheel and polishing compound. The new photos start with the chain rings and end with the handlebars. Thanks!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/189736756@N05/

Salamandrine 

Shiny!

merziac

Very nice, and shiney, good work.

Pcampeau

Looking nice!

cudak888 

I must to thank you for proving my earlier cynicism wrong - so many folks pop into this forum for a valuation and leave, but you're really putting your heart and soul into these P15's. The results show it too.

I know they were pretty clean to start with, but you're hitting every nook and cranny to absolute perfection. They'll look downright NOS right out of the box once you're done with them. Bravo.

-Kurt

cb400bill

Pics for those who don't like to open links.

merziac

Mad skills here.

miyagibike

Thanks, Kurt, If you are indeed the "Head badge" guy then it is in large part thanks to your site and all of the beautiful images contained within that has inspired me over the years to see if maybe I could restore a vintage bike worthy of your galleries! I only wish I had more time to spend on them than just a few hours on a weekend here and there! However, my job, family duties, home renovation chores, etc., do tend to get in the way of my countless "hobbies" as is often the case! Thanks for the encouragement - I'll post more photos as I get further along.

cudak888 

One and the same. Job, chores, and the like have kept me from The Headbadge as well. Still, making a bit of time for the hobby always ensures a bit of balance in life

-Kurt

P.S.: I sold both of my chrome Paramounts a while ago. I never did put the proper seattube decals on them, and one had vinyl downtube decals. Just didn't do the trick for me. Wish the '72 P13 had been as nice as yours - would have definitely kept it.

miyagibike

Hey, merziac, salamandrine, pcampeau, cudak888, xiaoman1, lascauxcaveman, cb400bill, and others!

Thanks to all for the kind words and encouragement as well as everyone's previous great advice on how to proceed with the clean up. It's been a blast so far to see how the 1972's been coming along and again I'm fortunate to have happened on these two really clean and well-preserved treasures! I was kind of using the 1972 as a practice run for the 1971 which may be just as nice chrome-wise, only the 1971 has nicer decals and the original red pinstriping around the lugs. That could pose an additional challenge! Thanks again

jjames1452 

Wow!!

My size. And my Grail bike!!!

miyagibike

Hi, All,
I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! The 1972 P15-9 is complete!! Thanks again to everyone's very helpful suggestions and advice! I have posted new photos to my Flickr photostream (link below). The new, completed P15 photos start with the cleaned freehub photo and end with the 3rd photo of the whole, completed 1972 bike. I had a blast with the restoration and I was able to keep everything original except for the cables/housing, bar tape, brake hoods, and new tubulars (which are not glued or taped on as I chickened out and will let a potential new owner mount his/her choice of tire). However I did freak out when I broke the Campagnolo shifter cable guide mounted on the downtube near the bottom bracket!! I bent it out a bit too far trying to avoid scratching the chrome when I re-installed it and it just snapped! I was able to purchase a replacement luckily. It was interesting that the most labor-intensive bit I had to deal with was removing the ~50 year old original chain protective grease/oil coating! After the first pass with degreaser and cleaner the chain kind of looked brass in color. I then realized that was the old coating which had pretty much turned into varnish! After a soak in acetone which didn't really do much I wire brushed every link on all four sides with healthy doses of degreaser in between! 2 1/2 hours later I was pleased to see that the chain was a shiny gunmetal color and the link pins looked like they are made of copper in the middle! I was also pleased with how the Brooks saddle turned out although I didn't want to be too aggressive in trying to buff out the little chips and dings. Overall I'm very happy with the result and really enjoyed working on it. Thanks again for all of your help! I welcome your comments and further suggestions.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/189736756@N05/?

merziac

Looks fantastic, great work.

Not really sure we had anything to do with this.

The level of care, thought and elbow grease applied to this is well beyond what we ever see from anyone that comes asking for help.

Many of us could learn a thing or two from you from where I'm sitting.

I see level 11 here, I consider myself pretty diligent but I'm normally happy if I can get to what I consider 8-9.

Salamandrine 

Looks great. You did a really good job.

It looks like you polished the anodizing off the crankset. That might be considered a little extreme. However, once the anodizing is worn off and scratched off in spots, it's the only way to get them to look like new again. With everything else well polished up, it does match well with the rest of the bike. Also, you did it as well as it can be done. The crank is polished up, but the form is intact and the edges are still sharp.

TenGrainBread 

Wow, awesome job! Sell that boat anchor Campag rear derailleur and polish up a Shimano Crane RD and you're good to go.

miyagibike

LOL! Tell me about it! I actually dropped one of the "boat anchors" on my bare foot and I had a deep bruise for over a week!! Thanks to all for for your comments

miyagibike

Thanks, Salamandrine and Merziac. I really did take a lot of your (and others) advice to heart - I think I might have been too aggressive had I not been warned about what not to do with the chrome (no steel wool if possible, being patient (I'm usually not!), and relying on sweat and polish/wax, etc. I actually was not able to do much with the crankset. I was afraid to do too much to it so I only used mag wheel polish and did it by hand (no buffing wheel), so it's pretty much how I got it other than it is now clean (the crankset on the 1971 looks the same too and all I did was wipe it off!) just lucky I guess! Thanks again!

jackbombay

Excellent job cleaning and polishing!

Salamandrine 

Ah OK. My mistake then. It's pretty hard to get through anodizing with hand polish. You did good. I guess it's just really really clean! The polish maybe shined up the anodizing layer to a bit less satin than they were out of the box. Not a bad thing. Luck is more important than sense sometimes.
Glad I could help.

miyagibike

Hi, All,

I have just posted some new photos on my Flickr photostream of the 1971 P15-9 Paramount frameset which I have now cleaned and polished somewhat. (the link to my Flickr phototream is below). The 1971 photos start with a view of the right side of the top tube/headtube junction and end with a rear view of the seat bolt area.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/189736756@N05/

The 1971 P15 has the red pinstriping which made it difficult in regard to dealing with rust specks nearby. I just left them there rather than risk removing/ruining the original pinstriping. Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks again to everyone for all of your collective help!