'73 Ross Apollo

[ParkRNDL]

Picked this up in April:

Finally getting around to doing something with it now. I knew this was never going to be a show quality bike without a repaint and lots of rechroming, but it would be a perfect cruiser/beater/rat with a good old straight elbow grease scrubdown.

I saw a really informative and interesting thread on the bmxmuseum forums about using oxalic acid to remove rust. Then I noticed that our own @Indyjps was in on that thread and was having great success using the method described, so I decided to give it a shot myself.

Given that the chrome was pitted and damaged from the get-go, I have to say that I am impressed.

Still to do: rear wheel has loose spokes, brakes/shifter need to be sorted, need to hunt down a front fender and shifter "console." Hey, anybody here have one of them?

reference pics side by side if you're interested:

 

[Jaxon]

Nice Clean Up on aisle 4

 

[Indyjps]

Wow that came out great, nice complete bike to start with. Even saved the seat.

I got the oxalic acid info from bmx museum and love it. Citric acid is supposed to work the same. I do have citric on hand from learning how to make cheese last winter. Need to test it.

Another trick ive been using on areas where the chrome is too far gone after acid clean up.
Spray some silver or chrome spray paint out, use a small brush to apply to areas where chrome is gone, overlap into the chrome, let it dry overnight.
Ball up aluminum foil and work lightly over the chrome, silver painted area. The foil will rub the paint off the chromed area and leave it in the missing chrome area. May take a few applications until you get the hang of it.
Not a replacement by any means, but it lightens up the look of missing chrome and camoflauges it a little, also gives some protection to the area.

I should post a how to.

 

[ParkRNDL]

Wow that came out great, nice complete bike to start with. Even saved the seat.

(snip)

Another trick ive been using on areas where the chrome is too far gone after acid clean up.
Spray some silver or chrome spray paint out, use a small brush to apply to areas where chrome is gone, overlap into the chrome, let it dry overnight.
Ball up aluminum foil and work lightly over the chrome, silver painted area. The foil will rub the paint off the chromed area and leave it in the missing chrome area. May take a few applications until you get the hang of it.
Not a replacement by any means, but it lightens up the look of missing chrome and camoflauges it a little, also gives some protection to the area.

I should post a how to.

Yeah, I can't believe how nice the seat is with the rest of the bike being so crispy. That's a big part of fixing up Apollos, since the seat is unique to the bike and not really close to anything else out there. I have another Apollo with all mismatched parts that looks okay with a random banana seat on it, but I'm pretty thrilled at how original and (mostly) complete this one is.

This is a perfect candidate for that chrome trick, starting with the sissy bar. I actually have a spray bomb of chrome-in-a-can around here somewhere. I will give it a shot soon.

 

[wheelbender6]

Awesome. How long did you soak the parts in acid? I don't want to do more harm than good.

 

[ParkRNDL]

Awesome. How long did you soak the parts in acid? I don't want to do more harm than good.

Sorry I just noticed this...

Long story short, you leave the rusty parts in the soup for 24 to 36 hours, brushing them off every few hours as the rust turns yellowish. There's much better details at the links above.