I've been sort of keeping an eye out for a decent winter project and found a mid 60's Robin Hood, several late 60's Hercules, one Raleigh Sports, and an early 70's Robin Hood that looks like it was taken off the show room floor yesterday.
The Raleigh is rough, mismatched fenders, wrong color fork, older rims, and the chrome bits look like they were cleaned of rust leaving lots of pitting and rough spots. It has been completely gone through with new tires and a new sprung saddle that looks the part.
The guy wants $200 firm
There's a mid 60's Robin Hood, same size frame, in black, with good rims, older but likely serviceable tires, the owner says he just repacked all the bearings a couple of years ago but its been sitting in the garage since. It rides and shifts like new but the paint is dull from age, the Wright saddle has a few cracks, and the decals are almost completely gone. There isn't many scratches, just dull paint. He's asking $500 and won't budge.
The first Hercules is a late 60's model, also marked AMF on the chain guard and seat tube. The paint is rough, lots of scratches but no rust, the fenders are straight but the paint is rubbed thin all over. The rims have some pitting from previous rust, the tires are new but look narrow, they say Kenda on the sides. The bike rides and shifts but the ride is hard, the narrower tires need to be inflated to 65psi to not let the rims hit the pavement on bumps. The guy is asking $250 but there may be room for negotiating. My first impression was that its nothing special, just an old neglected bike that he brought back from the dead.
The next Hercules is fairly clean, its got decent paint, but not perfect, the paint still shines a bit and will likely polish back up, the fenders are clean and shiny, and the rims are spotless. The tires say Raleigh Record and have a block tread but no reflector strip, my guess is they're likely original. They show no signs of dryrot through. The rear hub says 10 - 73. The seller wants $175 firm (He dropped down from $200).
The next Hercules is an AMF model, with AMF only on the seat tube, plus the fork blades and seat stays have reflector tape bands on them. The bike is 99% perfect appearance wise, the tires also say Raleigh Record on then as well as tiny CST logos. The tires are likely serviceable but show some cracking. The bike has likely never been apart for any sort of recent service. The stem and cranks have Raleigh logos on them but the headbadge is Hercules. The rear hub says 2-71. The seller is firm at $250.
The last Hercules is also an AMF model, the paint is near perfect, the saddle is missing some stitching on the sides, the tires are original, Dunlop branded and showing some age cracks, the rims are Sturmey Archer and near mint, the rear hub reads 11 - 70. Its got the same reflector tape as the last one on the frame. The seller said its just how he found it, but it looks great. He's asking $400.
I looked at probably a dozen others, some were a lot cheaper but most needed major repairs. Lots with missing fenders, dents in the frame, badly rusted rims, tires that were rotted beyond use or missing, and rust everywhere, and they still wanted over $100.
The way I see it, any bike I buy will need new tires and tubes, and from what I'm seeing that's going to run between $70 and $100.
Most if not all will need new brake pads, the originals seem to all be petrified and useless, so figure another $30 for a good set of Kool stop pads. Most I've seen need a saddle upgrade, from what I've seen a decent padded saddle that looks correct is around $50, or a new Brooks saddle for about $120 or so.
These expenses are static and I'll likely need to spend this no matter what I buy.
Going through the bearings won't cost me anything but time, and like a few others mentioned before, I'd also do that on any bike I buy, regardless of what the seller tells me was done.
The big question I suppose is how much is better paint and chrome worth?
I can find a cheap ride under $200 but it'll have major cosmetic issues, or I can spend a few hundred more and have perfect paint and end up with what is basically a new bike when I'm done.
I also considered stripping and repainting a rough one but where do I find original decals? All I see are self stick type decals or vinyl decals on fleabay. I'm guessing that the originals were all water slide type or paint?
How much of a taboo is it to strip and repaint one of these old bikes? I know with a lot of road bikes most don't want the factory paint so much as touched, let alone a complete redo. I know if I can find the right decals, I can certainly do a factory looking paint job, my concern would be ending up with something that's too perfect paint wise. Most of these I've seen don't have a lot of paint sheen, they appear dipped not sprayed from the factory.
I'm leaning toward the first Raleigh Sports, since its already a mismatch of parts, a repaint can't hurt its value none. The hard part may be finding perfect chrome bits, if not I'm looking at hundreds to clean and re-chrome all the original parts properly. My concern would be adding thickness to things like the stem or seat post in a re-chrome. Getting the right type of chrome and the right shine may also be tough. I've seen a few re-chrome jobs on some 50's era Schwinn bikes and it just never looks factory to me.