2 Classic Cinelli's totally submerged
 

Hurricane Ida was not kind to my bikes. Both my 1964 Cinelli Supercorsa and 1965 Cinelli Chrome Pista were completely submerged for about 18 hours. Totally covered in mud when they were saved. How do I go about restoring them? Will the water permanently damage the frame? Is framesaver enough? I know all the bearings will need to be replaced - but will there be additional damage?

Thanks in advance
Bill

Everything and I mean everything will have to be removed from those frames. Cleaned, dried and framesaver in every tube hole.

MO but if they were mine, that’s what I would do.

I hope you are lucky with the frames. I'd be soaking them with frame saver too. Being built of a high quality steel I'd guess that they would be fine after some quick action. I would also be hopeful with the components too. Good luck.

Where they in salt or fresh water? If salt I would be soaking the frame in fresh water before frame putting any oil in the tubes.

^^ Good point!

Folk here have salvaged a lot of bikes. Parts and the frame can be cleaned and restored. It can be done. It will be a lot of work.

.
...I would take all the components off, down to the bare frame. Then pressure wash everything over at the self service car wash.
If you have access to compressed air, blow the interiors of the tubes dry, then treat with some sort of frame saver or this stuff.

Sometimes, depending on how it was chromed and painted, the brazing relief holes in the fork and seat stays get sealed up.

If you can shake them back and forth and assure yourself nothing leaked into them, you can leave them alone. But it's probably safer to just find them, and reopen them up with a very small drill bit. If you can see them already open, then concentrate on getting all the water out of them, and drying them out. The anti-corrosion oil wont bond very well with the surface of the steel tubing interior unless it's relatively dry in there.

If you don't have a compressor, it might be worthwhile to seek one out. the other thing that helps in drying is heat, so if it's hot outside, hang everything in the sun, once you have it cleaned as best you can. A heat gun from Home Depot, on a setting low enough that you won't damage paint and decals can help, but it's easy to get into trouble with an older Italian bike and the notoriously fragile paint.

Be careful with the pressure washer for this reason, and if it comes down to it, just use a hose and dish soap.

YOu don't really need to replace the bearings unless you see rust on the surfaces. They ride around bathed in grease, so usually do OK for a while underwater.

Thanks to all - Great points. I have a lot of work to do. The water was rain water mixed with lots of dirt and debris from the rivers. After getting the water out of the basement it was still filled with mud.

To help in drying things out you can flush the nooks and crannies out with ethanol or acetone. Box stores will sell gallons of either.

I was a chemist pre-retirement. It was common practice to wash glassware and do a final rinse with ethanol to dry it if it was needed quickly. Water mixes with the ethanol or acetone(ethanol preferred) and the surface will dry very fast..good way to remove water from tight corners..tube ends..hard to reach places.

All good suggestions and I'll add one. As we're still having lots of hot sunny weather here in the east, I'd do what was recommended then stash the frame n fork inside my car, windows closed sitting in the sun. Makes a fine bake oven. Maybe put cardboard under the frame. Turn the frame and fork on occasion so various openings are up. Put the components inside too to force heat them.

Its just a car! A short drive with the windows down and the car will be right as rain.

It's possible some rust has already begun to take hold. Evapo-Rust or oxalic acid will take care of that,.

Sounds like you'll have your hands full rescuing your home and furniture, etc., first. So, ditto the suggestion to thoroughly rinse the bikes in fresh water to get rid of as much salt water and mud as possible.

I'm not sure I'd worry too much immediately about the hubs and bottom bracket. I'm always surprised by how well old grease holds up through decades of neglect. But headsets are more vulnerable because they're exposed at the bottom to tires kicking water and debris up. So I'd flush the headset and head tube with fresh water, but I'd probably leave the hubs and BB alone for now, other than an external rinse off.

And if you can't get around to overhauling the bikes soon, consider flooding every nook, cranny, crevice and orifice on the bikes with WD-40 to displace the fresh water and delay rusting. That's one thing WD-40 is really good at. Later, you can clean off the WD-40 and do a proper overhaul. But at least those steps will minimize and delay the damage.

Alcohol is good at displacing water too, but it may still be in short supply in some areas due to the pandemic. It's available in my area in consumer quantities, but not as plentiful as it was before the pandemic. And it's mostly 50% isopropyl. While that can be concentrated using plain salt (not iodized salt), I'm not sure it's worth the hassle. WD-40 is cheap and easier to quickly flood every part of the bike you can't physically reach without disassembling the bike.

Best of luck. Been through a few hurricanes, tornados and floods. It's always a PITA and can seem overwhelming and dispiriting.

I'd get the frame dry on the inside first, by whatever means, then hit it with wd40 or some oil..Framesaver.. etc.. The "displacement" portion of wd40 happens after it's applied to dry steel rather than before (i.e. it keeps it dry but doesn't dry it)

Hanging them from attic rafters in hot weather should also work nicely. Attics get surprisingly hot - not as hot as a car's interior when the windows are up, but well above 120 F in many cases.

I'm glad you're safe.

Best wishes in getting everything (not just the bikes) cleaned up and safe.