AdventureManCO 

Actually, I think that's me, only I don't have a lathe haha.

Farce is actually a great word for the project. Actually, so good that I might add it to that list of words at the very beginning of this thread on the first post.

As far as the seatpost, that's the general idea, at least for a the 'Campy' effect. Because it relies on a specific size (around 25mm), in a specific condition (junk), for a specific reason (cheap as dirt, hopefully), I might be waiting a while, so plan 'A' it is for now. I'll cover that in a bit. The reason for the 25mm size is that it is the closest size to the outer diameter of the seat tube, so it is more for the visual effect. If I had the top of a 27mm seatpost sitting on top of a 25.4mm frame tubing, it would seem out of whack, and remember this project is all about surface level vanity and looking good...as good as we can for a Huffy.

I'm home now, and I still have the packages to go, so Mad Honk you should be getting a package soon, along with another member here.

In the meantime, this weekend is going to be carving up some shims, and I'm going to try to align the dropouts. Oh, and try to get the Campy Super record crown race to see how it interacts with the Huffy steerer tube.

AdventureManCO 

Wow, looking good. I am going to have the O.M.A.S. BB adapter cups coming your way, so let's see if the threads can be cleaned up. I'd still love to use that BB adapter that thumpism donated to the project, to honor his contribution and also since I put an inordinate amount of time cleaning them up and doing the engine turning on them. If we can get those rocking, we are in business!

As far as the actual Campy bb, let me know if I can take any measurements and I'm happy to do so.

AdventureManCO 

Ha, well...I did think about it. But, one has to be a little careful in this regard. Given that I'm 0 for 1 in bringing up my ridiculous project. The furthest I got was asking, purely out of curiosity, since Mad Honk is helping me out here, if they had a threading tap tool for an English bottom bracket, for an 'interesting project' I had that was using a Campy Super Record bb. I did have the thought 'Hmmm...do I tell him? Do I give out all the details?' and decided against it. Primarily because I have to gauge someone's 'crazy person' empathy before I go too far. He seemed like such cool and chill guy that I didn't want to ruin his whole day by giving him visions of fright, especially because he has to then look at a bike with Campy Super Record above his head all the time and then he'd probably just see my deranged project every time he'd look at it.

Then again...that sounds kinda awesome...but no! I've built up the immunity to the 'thought of the Huffy' but it would be too much for a normal, rational person.

Hondo6

Well . . . you could tell him you have a somewhat odd vintage frame that takes and odd seatpost size and you have a hard & fast deadline to have it rideable, so you have to fabricate a seatpost and need the upper part of a trashed post to do it. Then tell him you really hate the idea of butchering a really nice vintage post in order to do that.

If he inquires what kind of frame, just tell him it has stickers that appear to read "Le Grande" frame (but pronounce it "lee grahn-day"), but the best you can tell it doesn't seem to be French. Unless he's really familiar with older Huffys, that might be sufficient misdirection.

Unless of course, he reads this thread on the C&V forum here at Bike Forums. Then you're busted.

stoneageyosh

You could have invited him to the group therapy session for all involved after completion of this traumatic period in our lives.

AdventureManCO 

PSA - if you need to take off some mild corrosion or aging on small metal/chrome bike parts, maybe try 2 days in Evapo-Rust, not 2 weeks. So I stuck these small shifter parts in, just to kinda clean them up and make sure we didn't have any tiny surface rust. Well, I sort of forgot about them, then I was gone on a work trip. Brought them up to work on some shifter stuff today, and lo and behold, they were discolored. To be honest, the color is kinda cool, but not what I was going for, and has taken quite a bit of work to get this discoloration off the parts. So, of course, way more work...just like everything else on the entire build, so it figures.


Discolored vs cleaned up. Whoops.

AdventureManCO 

It would be a 6hr round trip for the therapy sessions from Trinidad, so that would have been tough for him. Course, he could always remote in. But then he'd miss out on the group hugs

OldForerunner

LOL! I JUST went through this very thing! If a couple of days is good then a couple weeks outta be better, yeah? Live and learn.

AdventureManCO 

Okay Mad Honk and Macguyver909 !

Packages are in the mail!




I took the ol' PXN-10 mainly to impress people (sorry Le Grande! Reference post #645)

Impressed no one She's a fabulous old girl - from the same year as the Le Grande. But Peugeot, Shmeugeot! You ain't gonna have nothin' on the Le Grande in it's final form!


In other news, I thought I'd quickly try to grab the Campy SR crown race to measure and see how it fit on the Le Grande fork steerer tube base, just in case I might need to throw it in one of the aforementioned packages.

However, turns out its a bit loose -





Gosh man that thing is heavy!!! Maybe the Le Grande crown race weighs less

In any case, I'm thinking through how to best deal with this, and any thoughts from the village are appreciated. I could potentially do something like epoxy, only coat the ID and base of the crown race so it is not fully bonded to the steerer tube in case we gotta get it off one day (only to replace with a lighter component of course), or I've thought about wrapping with a soda can shim, or a combo of both. Let me know if you all have any thoughts on this. I want it still centered, so the soda can idea, in my mind, has more merit, than gluing things up without having a centering reference.


Also, starting to work on these shims...





Oh yeah, and to get an accurate trace of the clamp, I had to bend it nearly closed, and TOTALLY put those little micro-cracks in the chrome on the first bout...lol

sbarner 

I pulled the 25.0 mm Super Record post out of my Look KG86 and the I.D., measured with a vernier caliper, is around 20.5 mm, leaving about a 2 mm wall thickness. If your post is 7/8", that would be 0.875", or 22.2 mm. Turning down a 25.0 post would leave you with a wall thickness of less than a mm, and I doubt the post would be strong enough. I suppose you could consider reinforcing the inside with sleeve, and this would not be visible on the outside. A turned piece of hollow aluminum would be true to the spirit of the project, but if you wanted to be true to the spirit of the bike, you would hammer in a piece of rebar from Home Depot and call it good.

sbarner 

I have used JB Weld on multiple headsets that have been fitted to stretched head tubes or slightly undersized fork crowns. It has never failed. You can use a release agent that comes with the thread repair kits, but I don't think it is really necessary. If you remove the crown race in the future and some epoxy sticks to it, it shouldn't be difficult to knock or scrape it off. My approach has been to apply the JB Weld just before assembly, turn the fork completely around to center the parts if necessary, then leave the frame untouched for at least 12 hours.

RCMoeur 

I don't know if you're still hung up on a hanger, but a few years ago I bought three claw hangers from a person on eBay who stated they were "Campagnolo". Now there are no markings on the hangers that claim Eye-talian heritage, but who am I to second-guess the pronouncements of a semi-anonymous seller on the Internet.

And it's not all that shiny. Dark, actually, like our tortured souls.





I used one of the trio on another bike, but I still have this one plus its slightly scratchier brother. If you still need a craw claw hanger for your project and this one looks suitable, let me know.

AdventureManCO 

One adapter shim made...






View from the top...can't see the adapter


I have an idea to get it over the tube that preserved the point at the top.



Two more to go. This one's up next...

dschad

Honestly, I'm somewhat in shock after being sucked to this thread (as per your recommendation)...lots of interesting stuff here, and I've only scratched the surface....but, it does make me feel a bit better about some of my less visibly productive workshop endeavors. Feeling much better about time spent on my Mercier right now...

Regarding the race, maybe for a nice epoxy bed you could use 3 narrow tapered wedges (needles?) every 120 degrees to center it. Coat the steerer with vaseline, gob on the epoxy, put the race on and then tap the wedges to control the concentricity. The vaseline should keep the epoxy from sticking. Cut the needles if they are in the way (or coat them in vaseline and remove once cured).

AdventureManCO 

Thanks for the offer! I have plans to fashion one out of aluminum, but your offer to contribute to the insanity is duly noted! Much appreciated

AdventureManCO 

There is officially Campy Super Record attached to the bike (I know, pics or it didn't happen). Permanently. I'm attaching the cable guide now and I'll get a picture...

Piff 

Great job, never seen so nice a shim

Mad Honk 

OK AMCO,
Remember I said I had brass shim material in sheet form. I'll cut a section off for you and put it in the return package with the brake bolt extenders, the BB cups and a few other goodies. The brass is nice and thin so it can be wrapped around the race bed to build it up to the desired thickness. It is soft so it will form itself to center the race and then the excess can be cut easily with an ExActo knife or any other similar blade. It is my go-to for shimming the crown race. Smiles, MH

AdventureManCO 

Here is the progress...




Turns out guitar building tools work great for the fruitless task of wasting hours of my life making lovely little shims for a worthless bike!








This design worked simply brilliant for opening up the shims and having them retain their shape once on the bike...until you have to take one off. Which of course I had to



So the shifter shim went on just fine, but on the cable guide shim had some sharp edges still on the ID and when I put it on and slid it into place, it put some scratches in the paint...right down to the metal! Apparently, for how globby the Huffy's paint is, it is also unbelievable thin! At least we know the paint can't be contributing that much weight...though it probably figures it is 'lead paint' hahaha

So right now the frame has touch-up paint on it and is drying. Good news is that I touched up the edges of the shim so when it goes back on it won't scratch anything, but the not-so-great-but-don't-really-care news is that these shims were pretty much designed as a 'put on once' kinda thing, so when I spread it to get it off, it broke. But who cares, it will fit just fine under the cable guide and will still fulfill its intended purpose.

So here is the shifter set, and that infamous little 'cracked chrome area'. I probably made it worse by 30-50% because of course that is where it flexed when I spread it to get it on the frame, even while trying to intentionally avoid such a thing. Such is life!

AdventureManCO 

Can you believe it? Can you not? I sort of can't, but here we are!











Those shifter arms are hideous - I didn't bother cleaning them up at all, because I have BIG plans for them, so there'd be no point just for a photo shoot, although we are all about vain glory here




So, for all the 'Huffy-will-never-wear-Campy-Super-Record' deniers...

AdventureManCO 

This is EXCELLENT - thank you! Package should be there by early next week hopefully, and again thank you for your help and extravagent contributions to the insanity!

AdventureManCO 

Work is progressing into the night on the build, but on something I can't quite reveal...yet. Just know that for all the 'extra' we are putting in on pointless stuff that just seems to waste more of my life, we are going to be going 'super extra', more than you or anyone has ever seen, especially on a bike. It might be the first in history, actually. It takes something historically 'bike', and something not historically 'bike', and puts them together. Oh yeah.

All will be revealed...probably not soon.

cudak888 

"Twelve speed LeGrande! Now with 100% too much Campagnolo and 100% less discount Farrah Fawcett in hot pants."

It's bizarre seeing those shifters on it, but delightful nonetheless. In a weird way. I think (therefore it is. I think).

-Kurt

Mr. Spadoni 

What thickness brass are you using for these shims?

Mad Honk 

Mr. Spadoni,
You know I never think about that stuff! And now I am looking for my micrometer to find out. I normally just wrap it around the steerer and then do a fit of the cup/race to check the amount of build-up needed. The micrometer reads .005" so it is pretty thin. But still strong enough to cut my fingers with any nicks and burrs left on the material. It can be cut with a pair of scissors. I am sending two 11" strips so he should have plenty of material for build up. Smiles, MH