BO15 Blue Dream

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When I owned my previous 1964 Karmann Ghia Coupe, someone gave me some of this as a gift. I just ordered some up to get the finish as good as possible on Blue Dream.

Harly.jpg
 
Page 3 Dweller

This Summer has been weird, at best. I've decided to finish last year's model before starting this year's and am almost done. Besides that, I've run myself out of a few resto supplies and had to make some extra money on sales to fund that. I'll begin to pick away at it soon...
 
Welcome back. Time to have fun!
 
Why do today, what you can put off until tomorrow? A comrade of mine in the USAF used to jab at me with that, as I've always been a notorious procrastinator. Even so, when it's time to put the pedal to the metal, getting things done isn't too difficult.

The frame is already in the stand and the chrome on the stays is shining brightly. About to cue up a list of LPs ready to play some 1972 tunes.
 
GTB!
 
Finish Resto first. The frame had some of that petrochemical film that bikes get from sitting garages for years. All of the surface scratches came out, using a claner wax. It also brought the decals back to life well enough to help me decide that new decals are not needed. The Harly Wax most definitely brought the shine completely to life.
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Listened to Scorpions: Lonesome Crow, April Wine: April Wine, WAR: The World Is A Ghetto and Captain Beyond: Captain Beyond.
 
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As suspected, I did have a complete Campagnolo Record BB, including branded crank bolts and dust caps. After dialing it in and attaching the Gipiemme crankset, it was given a spin and it kept going for a ridiculous amount of time, The best part of this was that the spindle and crankset matched-up to make a perfect chainline. Such a great find in the BB bin.

The Atax stem was still a bit of a question, to polish or not to polish? I experimented with a few ideas and since it was already media blasted, it just got a little fine steel wool treatment that was followed by a cleaner car wax.

The Pivo Bars were something that I had experimentally polished up after they were acquired a few years ago and were plug-and-play, except for wrapping. Newbaum's cloth tape is my jam and they wrapped nicely, completed with some chromie plugs from my Eurotrash DooDad bin.

The Gipiemme seatpost was just a little dirty and oxidized, so it got the same treatment as the stem. The Brooks didn't need anything, other than a little pre-use leather treatment and attachment.

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Recent Tunes?

ZZ Top - Rio Grande Mud
Allman Brothers - Eat A Peach
Slade - Slayed?
Vinegar Joe - Vinegar Joe
Grand Funk Railroad - Phoenix
Yes - Close To The Edge
 
As suspected, I did have a complete Campagnolo Record BB, including branded crank bolts and dust caps. After dialing it in and attaching the Gipiemme crankset, it was given a spin and it kept going for a ridiculous amount of time, The best part of this was that the spindle and crankset matched-up to make a perfect chainline. Such a great find in the BB bin.

The Atax stem was still a bit of a question, to polish or not to polish? I experimented with a few ideas and since it was already media blasted, it just got a little fine steel wool treatment that was followed by a cleaner car wax.

The Pivo Bars were something that I had experimentally polished up after they were acquired a few years ago and were plug-and-play, except for wrapping. Newbaum's cloth tape is my jam and they wrapped nicely, completed with some chromie plugs from my Eurotrash DooDad bin.

The Gipiemme seatpost was just a little dirty and oxidized, so it got the same treatment as the stem. The Brooks didn't need anything, other than a little pre-use leather treatment and attachment.

View attachment 135531

Recent Tunes?

ZZ Top - Rio Grande Mud
Allman Brothers - Eat A Peach
Slade - Slayed?
Vinegar Joe - Vinegar Joe
Grand Funk Railroad - Phoenix
Yes - Close To The Edge

That's a good looking steed
 
The spokes arrived yesterday evening via UPS. All I have left to do is polish the rims, lace up the wheels, add tires/tubes and plug them in. The past couple of days I took my time and cleaned/built the pedals up and cleaned/regreased the hubset. The front hub had a metric ton of that crappy cheap white axle grease and the goofball who previously re-packed the rear hub had ingeniously bent up the dustcaps when removing them and left one bearing out of each side when rebuilding it. I've heard of the "leaving one bearing out" on a headset, but a rear hub? This bike is going to roll ridiculously.

 
FOILED!

One of the rims is hard anodized and my quest for oven cleaner FAILed. I had not been in the cleaning products aisle of the supermarket lately and there was none to be found within five miles of my house. I tried Purple Power Extreme, but it's going to be a long process with that. The rear wheel turned out splendidly though. Those Weinmann concave rims are extra bright when polished, throwing beams of light wherever they go in the sunlight.

Cha Le!

PS I could have thrown an existing wheelset onto it, but I'd only be cheating the eurotrashy nature of the build.
 
The aforementioned leather-clad Christophe toeclips arrived the other day and the pedals are built-up properly now. They had some pats bin Christophe toeclips on it, but the NOS leather-clad ones are just as perfect as originally predicted. A non-anodized Weinmann concave is on the way and once it gets here, makes a trip to the polishing wheel and gets laced-up, the Blue Dream will be 100% done.
 

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