oneclick 

Well it all depends.

On how good the powdercoat is, and how much and where it gets out and in what kind of weather, and how pretty your quickly is.
This has been a regular rider for about 10 years now, there's a little rust on the bottom bracket shell, but that's it.
Maritime climate, when it's misty you can smell the salt in the air.

djimb

It turns out my understanding of translated Italian isn't great. I thought it would be another week, but the frame arrived today! I put some phone camera photos in my albums.

I also got in touch with a local framebuilder regarding reaming the seat tube. She quoted me a price of $50, and she referred me to a local paint shop that specializes in bikes.

Looking at the frame in person, it seems like the rust is primarily surface. There's some corrosion on the brass joints around the braze-ons, and some other general dust/dirt buildup, but on the whole, I think it looks pretty good. I have to stop myself from breaking out the vinegar until I figure out a way to protect the bare steel until I can get it in for paint. Maybe another question for the framebuilder.

I have to say that it's really impressive just how light it is. I haven't had the Centurion apart for a few months, but I feel like this is notably lighter. I'm so excited to get started. Just have to write a couple of emails and wait til payday.

I haven't been able to find any real information about Olmo serial numbers, and from what I've seen, they don't seem to have an indication of manufacture date. I'm going to try to dig into it some more.

icemilkcoffee 

Actually you get a lot less cross chaining rub with the narrow 7 speed cassette, than the wider 8-10 speed cassette. On my bikes with the narrow 7 speed freehubs I basically never needed to trim. Granted I also seldom ride in the extreme cross chained positions.

djimb

that makes sense. Thanks for the input. I always think about it when I get back on the bike after a long break. 2x7 is really fine once I get my rhythm back, and after a few shakedown rides on the Super Le Tour, I'm glad to have indexing.

Last night, I just had to know how it would clean up, so I gave the non-drive side a quick scrub with tinfoil, and it cleaned up pretty well. I'll be two posts away from being able to post photos after this. For now, I'll put the photos in the album.

djimb

Minor progress:
I got the majority of the rust off, but i haven't completely removed it all. I reached out to a paint shop recommended by the frame builder I've been talking with, and they quoted a general price range of $500 - $800. That seems a bit steep, but based on their photos, it looks like the quality of their work is impeccable. Still, it gives me a reason to look more into doing it myself. From what I've read, and what I already understand about painting anything, it's going to be all about multiple light coats with a lot of sanding in between. I've also considered just slapping a clear coat on it while I save up. From what I've read, that quick and dirty solution can last a good year before more rust sets in, and that would allow me to ride it while I save for a pro paint job.

either way, I've got an appointment for the 10th to get the finishing work done. The frame builder said she'd charge $100 to ream the seat and head tubes, chase/clean up the bb threads, and face the head tube and bb sides. Less if any of that had already been done.

Now I'm starting to think about components. I figure it would only make sense to put a full campy groupset on, but i'm far less familiar with campy than i am with shimano, so I'd appreciate some input on tier/generation. From my understanding, they only ever made a couple of indexed downtube shifters, and the indexing wasn't great, so I'm considering brifters for the first time. Of course I'm not opposed to friction shifting either, but I've grown accustomed to the indexing of the shimano 6400 drive train on my Ironman.

Another question I have is about rims: I feel like I see mavic rims on most italian bikes, but years ago i built up a wheel set with nuovo record hubs laced to campy moskva rims and loved them, but I don't feel like I ever see wheelsets with campy rims. Maybe they only made them for a short time and didn't see the return they hoped for? Maybe their offerings were lower quality than similarly priced mavics or whatever? I don't know. Just something else to research.

I'm going to start putting concerted effort into familiarizing myself with campy groups and European rims, but direct experience is invaluable. If you were building up this frame, what would you put on it?

Finally, considering the fact that i need a fork and generally only ever use the front brake, the possibility of a disc setup presents itself. I'll also read up on rim vs disc, as well as steerer tube compatibility of disc forks and classic frames built for 1" steerers, but any input would be welcome. I'm not sure how I feel about managing a hydraulic system, tbh. I imagine maintenance and bleeding is a lot easier than on a car, but the idea of making the switch is still a bit intimidating.

Hope everyone's having a great weekend!

bboy314

Finding a 1” disc fork will be challenging. Though, since it’s a bare frame, you could (*C&V trigger warning!) have a disc mount added to the rear as well, by an experienced builder of course, while you’re at it. It’d be an interesting restomod kind of thing. But personally I’d just stick with a high quality caliper rim brake.

squirtdad 

high quality dual pivot with good quality pads will give you super braking (true not as good as disc)..... and look better on that frame.

also there is a reason disc is now all thru axle, there were problems with with wheel retention with standard front dropouts

gugie 

Regarding the rust - my experience is that whoever does the paint or powder coat will media blast it, which removes rust. Unless you're doing a rattle can job yourself, leave it to the pros to take care of.

djimb

These are really good points. regarding the transition to thru axle, it's something I've only been aware of recently. I believe my '89 ironman is the most modern bike I've owned. Heck, I've only used brifters one time, when I rented a bike on a visit to Portland to see friends and family (and ride the spring water trail again) in 2018.

High end dual pivot calipers it is!

On that note, I got a good deal on a donor bike: $80 for a 2005 Specialized Sequoia Elite with a 105 drive train. Unfortunately, I won't be able to use the bottom bracket or the fork, but it's still cheaper than piecing together a groupset.

A lot has happened since the last update. I got the frame to a framebuilder for finishing. It seems the head tube had already been reamed, but they did the seat tube and checked the alignment of the rear triangle. They didn't have an Italian threaded chaser, so the bb threads didn't get cleaned up, but they said that the threads look fine enough. I brought the kids, 'cause they said they wanted to help, but I guess they thought we'd be building a frame from scratch. I had no idea they were so interested in welding. In the end, they were given the opportunity to dig through a box full of vendor stickers, so my van now has a few Velo Orange stickers to accompany all the road trip stickers from here to Costa Rica.

since then, I pieced away at cleaning the rust off the frame, and finished with a final push the night before my son came to stay for a week. I realize that having it blasted would have been more effective, and potentially not much more expensive than all the sandpaper I bought, but it is what it is. I'll likely go that route next time. Honestly, the benefit of the sandpaper is that it took less planning, and I was able to prime when I had time, instead of being locked into priming within a day or two of blasting to avoid new rust developing. Also, I'll have done all the work myself, and if there are any issues with the frame and the finish, It'll be on me, not a careless metalshop worker.

Living in an apartment, I don't have a space to build a paint booth, so I took the frame to an empty part of the parking lot, hung it from a tree branch, and primed it with Rustoleum self-etching primer. Not the most professional setup, but I'm pretty happy with the results. I did my best to make sure I got complete coverage, but in the light of day, it's clear that I missed a couple of spots. I'll have to touch it up in a few days when I'm able.

Next steps are finding a good source for color and clear coats that aren't rustoleum (no shade, I just have a pretty specific color scheme in mind, and they aren't exactly pantone). I'll be making some calls to find a local source for custom rattlecans of automotive paint. I've got PPG and Sherwin Williams stores close by, so that's where I'll start.

Here's the photo dump!

djimb

Quick update, as it's been a while:
I sanded and did a second coat of primer, as I missed a couple of spots the first time. I paid special attention to the corners of the lugs and the pantographing, doing my best to maintain the definition.

Since then, I've been buying up good deals on parts bikes. I picked up an 80s Trek 400 that had been clumsily converted to single speed for $60, that came with a spare campy mirage crankset. The paint was chipped and cracked and entirely missing in a few places, so I decided to use it for painting practice. This will also help me to decide on my color scheme for the Olmo.

I'm stuck trying to decide between three options:
1. Dark teal with warm yellow lugs and sky blue lug lining, kind of evocative of the ocean at sunset.
2. Sage green. I haven't decided on a lug color for this. Maybe just all one color with gold lug lining?
3. Lavender with chartreuse or yellow lugs.

In all cases, i'll use automotive spray cans, either bought online or at a local paint shop. I've been looking at metallic/pearlescent colors, and more thought and reading will happen about how to execute this in the best way given my limitations.

With the trek, I sanded it down, feathered the paint around the bare steel, and put on a coat of primer. I've masked around the lugs with blue painter's tape, covering the tubes with cut up bits of plastic garbage bag. I'm testing the teal/yellow color scheme using cheap rustoleum spray cans.

I also sanded down a step-through Schwinn Le Tour Luxe (I think? Could be a Super Le Tour. Steerer is stamped Tange and it had a tubing sticker saying it's double butted chromoly) that i'll try lavender/yellow on.

I'll come back and post photos photos'm at my computer.

jdawginsc 

I like option 1. Dark teal w/yellow lugs sounds interesting.

Mirage stuff is good! Let me know if you have need of anything that matches it.

squirtdad 

I like the lavender with chartreuse option

wonder why?

djimb

That is a really beautiful color scheme. I hadn't even thought about a vertical band on the seat tube... more to think about, I guess. I'm leaning toward more of a sage/olive green than chartreuse now, or, potentially doing a dark metallic basecoat with a candy green or lavender on the tubes, and leaving the lugs the dark metallic grey. too many options.

I guess if nothing else, the ebay vendor I got the frame from still has 4 of them for sale. Maybe I skip my bills and just do one of each.

djimb

Thanks! I appreciate the input and the offer. My goal is to finish the painting and get it built up in time to ride it before it gets too cold this year, which gives me somewhere between 2 and 4 months. My biggest conflict about components is whether I should splurge on a threaded Columbus SL/X fork, or go with 1" threadless and then probably use a carbon fork. The head tube on this frame is really long, longer even than the head tube on my Ironman that's supposed to be the same size. I'm guessing that means the head tube is more upright, suggesting a tighter geometry? Anyway, the head tube length makes it difficult to find used threaded forks with long enough steerer tubes. assuming the same stack height as the shimano 600 headset on the Ironman, I'll need something like 212mm in steerer length, which might be easier to find if I go with an aftermarket 1" threadless fork. Another option would be to buy a donor bike, but if I found a 60-62cm bike with a columbus fork, I might just keep it intact and ride it, too. The only other part I think I'll need to buy is a bottom bracket. I have a couple spares, but nothing with italian threading.

This is what gave me the idea for the teal/yellow color scheme:

My original idea involved pinstriping with a few shades in the top part of this photo, but I dialed back the ambition, considering the amount of masking or the sheer steadiness of hand that would be required, compared to my general lack of experience.

SwimmerMike 

I have a fork with an ~213mm steerer not sure of the tubing but it has Campy drop outs. The consensus was that it came off a ~1980 bike of British origin. It's yours for the cost of shipping if you're interested. Send me a PM if you want more pictures/information.

djimb

wow, that's super generous! Thank you! I'll PM you shortly.

No updates for the Olmo today, but I found a Fuji S12-S-LTD frame in my size for $15 yesterday. My daughter has been wanting to go on a bike picnic, and planned the whole thing, down to me building up a touring bike so I can use my rack and panniers to carry the food. She's going to be thrilled. After the picnic, maybe I'll use it for a proper tour on the GAP trail as a first step toward working up to a full west coast tour in the next year or two.

djimb

Huge thanks to SwimmerMike ! I got the fork yesterday, and it looks like it's pretty close to perfect!
without a crown race or headset, there's about 22mm of steerer above the top of the head tube. the Shimano 600 headset on my Ironman has a stack height of about 20mm, so this looks like it'll be just right.





I'll get it cleaned up and prepped for paint over the next week or two, and once I'm done painting the test frames (or maybe before if I can make up my mind before they're done), I'll order some spray cans of good paint from thespraysource.com to finally finish the frame and move on to building it up.