TRADITIONAL In the “Nick of Time Procrastination Maggot”

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

I hand painted a small cycling figurine with Testors paint two days ago in my non-air-conditioned man cave/hobby area. Still waiting for it to not be tacky.

 

[kingfish254]

Hate to hear about your paint issues. It's strange because humidity down here in Savannah is just a constant thing you sorta get used to. It somewhat affects my paint dry times, but I've never had it take days to dry. Hope it cures for you soon.

 

[us56456712]

Hate to hear about your paint issues. It's strange because humidity down here in Savannah is just a constant thing you sorta get used to. It somewhat affects my paint dry times, but I've never had it take days to dry. Hope it cures for you soon.

All the base coats were years old, partially empty cans. The last under coat was 30 year old Duplicolor. I used 4 different blue colors. The final blue is not very tacky this morning. I’ll let it sit in my truck cab one more day. It’s going to touch 80 today and in my truck it might get to 120. I’m not waiting any longer than that. It rained all night and it’s sunny so it’s humid.

 

[Da Gas Man]

Yeah, it's a hot one this summer, that's for sure. Nothing outside of a paint booth
or a drying oven is going to help in this weather. Sometimes a good spot under
a roof with full sun will do it.

 

[twojs.bike]

Super cool bike. I love the quirkiness of the old English bikes. Makes things challenging!

Is that a fence built out of old bike frames?

 

[us56456712]

Super cool bike. I love the quirkiness of the old English bikes. Makes things challenging!

Is that a fence built out of old bike frames?

Yup, bike frame fence. It’s a stash for parts. I cut off what I need and weld it up.

Yeah, it's a hot one this summer, that's for sure. Nothing outside of a paint booth
or a drying oven is going to help in this weather. Sometimes a good spot under
a roof with full sun will do it.

I pulled the frame out of my truck cab sun oven this morning and it’s still a little tacky, smells of paint but I’m going to start putting it together.

 

[us56456712]

Subassembly’s are coming together.

 

[us56456712]

Old fashioned tar tape, like it originally had.

The wrinkles flatten out with use and become less prominent. It’s impossible to wrap tar tape without wrinkles. It has no give and rips if you pull hard on wrapping.

 

[us56456712]

Ersatz BSA fork lock I installed using an old photo equipment knob I found in my junk. I was looking for other parts when I stumbled across it. From what I found on the net these were not very good. All a thief had to do was loosen the thumb nut and ride away. The owner usually forgot to loosen it and had to stop. I couldn’t find much information on them. I always though these knobs were steering dampers but now I think they were a primitive theft deturant.

 

[us56456712]

It came apart easily but the seat stays wouldn’t clip back into the chain stay notches. I had to pull the chain stays up with a ratchet tie down to get it to snap back together. Close, but I wasn’t strong enough anymore to wrestle it together by hand.

 

[kingfish254]

I really like that color for that frame! It's a great contrast to the age of the bike, but it works so well.
This is coming together nicely!

 

[us56456712]

I used the original bottom bracket. These old English bb sometimes had odd spacing. I remove the non drive side lock ring from these old bb with penetrating oil and a giant set of plumbers pliers.

I have the right tools but these pliers give way more leverage if they’re stubborn. I replaced the bearings. It’s been rebuilt before and a mess was made of the lock ring. The bb oiler was put back. I’ll never use it. It’s all new grease and the surfaces are good except a small rust area in the non drive side cup. It turns perfectly.

 

[us56456712]

Wow, that front wheel is way out there. I have to make a larger outside diameter head set lock ring. Then the rear wheel tugs need some work. The original bars were much narrower. Wide is better to keep your knees from hitting the bars, a problem with some original bars. Bars are getting wider on pro road racing bikes as the gearing is higher and they no longer climb sitting down. The mounting peg is on the wrong side. You mount these early bikes from the left side, a remnant from the days of getting on a horse.

 

[Machine Age Victim]

That looks awesome, good bike to get your 100miles in to become a Wheelmen member

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Very cool.

I hope your paint will cooperate soon. I'm guessing the old age is the problem, everything gets slower with age!

 

[us56456712]

Very cool.

I hope your paint will cooperate soon. I'm guessing the old age is the problem, everything gets slower with age!

It’s pretty good, good enough anyway. It is still drying but dry enough to work on if I’m careful.

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

 

[us56456712]

I don’t like the bars. Too wide, can’t get a good position with them. I have mustache bars that I tried. They’re off an English bike and are so old that the clamp is 7/8 and the bar ends are 3/4 inch. Dang. So they wont fit the wood grips or the quill.

I have an older set of narrow track bars that I’ll probably use.

Old look

Another option is to cut the ends off the original bars I tried.

 

[us56456712]

I cut max off the bar ends so the wood grips would fit. Better, but not great. Still too wide. I’ll live with it.

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

that's what I was going to suggest - cutting some off the ends. Looks good.