Sid (finished)

Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum

Help Support Rat Rod Bikes Bicycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
There were enough threads left on the broken barrel adjuster to check and M5 seemed to check out.
View attachment 247489

So I drilled the barrel just enough before reaching the threads making it thin enough to chip out with an awl. Thankfully it was aluminum so it was pretty soft and fairly easy to gouge out.
View attachment 247490


I followed up with an M5 tap to clear it out completely.
View attachment 247492


It's ready for a replacement barrel. :)
View attachment 247493
Every time I try that I mess up the threads
 
Most of the paint came off of the derailleur badge during the OA bath and scrub, so I painted it back in.

I masked it off, sprayed some satin black, and wiped the raised logo after it had dried to the touch. To prevent wiping the background, I used a stiff piece of cardboard soaked with a few drops of mineral spirits. Cardboard from a cereal box works great.

Before:
Derailleur before.JPG


Mask:
IMG_6099.JPG



Paint:
IMG_6100.JPG


After:
IMG_6101.JPG



There's just enough roughness to blend in with everything else and go unnoticed.
 
In the end, it took around 9 gallons of water.
Nice! I use an old trash can and probably 30 gallons of water for frames.
Me too. Time to start I think:
I didn't intend to make a tutorial on Oxalic-Acid Baths, but since I have already posted some info I thought it would be useful to summarize all of the process that I can think of. I've only done this a couple of times and I had to do some research again to remind myself of some things this time. So having it in one place is as much for me as anyone else in the future.

First though is a disclaimer: I'm in no way an expert on any of this so proceed at your own risk!

Here's what I've learned from others and from my own experience.



1) Disassemble your parts and clean them thoroughly before everything else.

2) Make a plan for what parts are to be done and in what order. I chose the most fragile painted parts first to give them the best shot.

3) Build a container around your parts while minimizing the amount of water needed. (See previous post above) Place it in direct sunlight if possible to help maintain the heat as much as possible.

4) Before starting the OA mix, have everything ready such as rubber gloves, safety glasses, plastic bucket, scrub pads (I used the white non-scratch pads), old toothbrush, etc.

5) Heat the water to the boiling point if possible, transfer it to a plastic bucket, and add 1 tablespoon of OA powder to one gallon of water. Pour the solution into your pool. Pouring from the bucket to the pool is sufficient for mixing.

6) Once the pool is full and the parts start soaking, help it along by taking the piece out after 30 minutes or so and scrub it lightly with a scrub pad and clean water to remove loose scale. Rinse and repeat until you're happy with it. This is more important on paint than chrome to make sure it doesn't stay too long and remove the paint. Taking parts out to clean and rinse keeps the solution cleaner and more effective.

7) After removing the part for the last time rinse and flush thoroughly. (I actually took my frame in the house and submerged it in our bathtub with cool water and baking soda to neutralize any AO left on the inside of the frame.) Dry everything and blow out the inside of frame tubes with compressed air if you can. Then spray WD-40 liberally inside of the frame tilting and rotating to cover as much of the tubes as possible to prevent flash rust. Lastly, spray and wipe WD-40 on the outside.

8) Place any other parts in the bath as soon as any space opens up. Add more hot water and AO as needed.


9) Chrome parts that are easy to scrub clean like chain rings, cranks, handlebars, etc. can be left unattended for longer without as much concern about the 'yellow film' that will collect with time.

10) Emptying the water out into the ground is not harmful from what I understand. However, if you are concerned about it, dump some baking soda into the solution first to neutralize it.




If anyone else can think of anything else, let me know and I'll add to this for future reference.
Great write up, thanks for that. This will help my future projects. :113:
 
It is in fact for the sissy bar but washing tall pants is a much better answer. :21:

I have hopes that some chrome is still hiding under all of the rust.
Not much to lose by trying!

sissy bar.JPG


By the way, does anyone have any insight about the "T" emblem? I haven't been able to find any info so far.

IMG_5603.JPG
 
I have hopes that some chrome is still hiding under all of the rust.
Not much to lose by trying!
Welcome to Murray chrome. It’s paper thin and was gone years ago. I think only AMF chrome was worse. I’m predicting bare metal, which can be polished, but will be bare.
 
It took just a little over 3 gallons of water to cover 8+ feet of sissy (around 3.5" deep).

IMG_6115.JPG


I also tossed in all of the brake components, some fasteners, and the pedals while I could.
 
In between the OA baths, I used some Navel Jelly to clean up the shift arms. I didn't want to risk dunking the whole unit in anything for fear of losing what little is left of the shift indicator decals.

IMG_6105.JPG
 
After a day and a half of repeated soaking and scrubbing, I'm very pleased with the T-bar.

I'm estimating that there was around 1/3 of the chrome still present!


Here it is after a final rinse and wipe down with WD40.

IMG_6125.JPG


I actually like the speckled chrome and bronze-colored metal together.

IMG_6124.JPG


Looks pretty good overall in the sunlight.

IMG_6117.JPG


Considering what I started with, it's nothing short of a Festivus Miracle!
 
Full disclosure:

When I think of muscle bikes, I can't imagine anything better than glistening chrome and flamboyant colors! (That's what makes your bikes so nice @CRASH !) In my mind, muscle bikes are just not a good fit for ratting and patina.

However, I'm very motivated to resurrect this bike while preserving as much of its originality as possible. You see, the bike was given to me by the original owner who received it on Christmas morning as a kid. My intention is to clean it up as much as possible and restore it to good working order by May of next year (when I will see him again) to show my appreciation. I feel like since the bike is almost completely original, keeping the connection to its past through its battle scars and rust retains the soul of its existence. I even spent several hours restoring the original chain that had over half of the links frozen!

If I had pieced it together or picked it from a swap meet without any connection to the history, I would be more inclined toward repainting and upgrading parts for better condition parts, etc.

So as the old adage goes, 'it's only original once' and it will stay that way at least for now!
 
I've bought handlebar tape three times now and I'm thinking that the third time's the charm. Apparently, Hunt Wilde gold glitter tape is right next to impossible to find so I'm going with some NOS Hunt Wilde butterscotch color instead.

Here it is next to the old seat.

IMG_6129.JPG

IMG_6130.JPG


I think the muted color is probably going to match the bike better than a bright yellow anyway. Just need to find another end cap.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top