Oldie Rollfast, 95% all there, UPDATE :)

[Walker]

I'm trying out a bottle of Meguir's polising compound on my original paint 1936 Rollfast. So far I'm very pleased with the results. The frame was easy since I could run the terrycloth "shoe shine" style. The fenders on the other hand are more work compounded by the fact that they are hard to handle

Polished on the left side..

I'm kind of wishing I had a buffing wheel type drill attachment for the fenders...

next up is de-rustifying some of the hardware and seeing what if any shine is under there..

 

[HotRodRob]

Re: Polishing out original paint

I always use Meguiars. #2 in the cream colored bottles. Then a couple coats of their Tech 2 wax. The stuffs amazing! Nice job!

 

[Walker]

Re: Polishing out original paint

Do you use a power buffer or manual labor? I'm wondering if i bungee the fenders to a wheel if it might help stabilizing them.

I cant seem to find any wax among my chemicals so i'll have to pick some up, but I've got more than a few nights of polishing to go.....

 

[SCHWINNRAY69]

Re: Polishing out original paint

Maas works THE BEST :wink:

 

[HotRodRob]

Re: Polishing out original paint

Manual labor, I find the power buffer can get away from ya to easy and burn thru the paint. Much more control with the hands. Heres a few pics of my results on my original paint 51' CCM fenders. The rear fender had "Diana" spray painted on it so I "oooo" steel wooled it very lightly and then used the #2 and then the wax. Came out pretty sweet. You'd never know what was on there.

 

[Walker]

Re: Polishing out original paint

Wow Rob those look great. The potion I am using is the Meguire's #2.

Last night I worked on some of the chrome (formerly chrome) parts and the Delta Mouse tail light. I've got a neat wheel on my buffer that acts kind of like a scotchbrite pad. It has thin and mildly abrasive fingers that remove rust really well without scratching up the finish on chrome. I have even used it to sand out scratches in alumimum before buffing.

Here are the Cranks

and the mouse

New re-pop lense is on the way!

Not that is has anything to do with a how to, but here is the front fender light i picked up over the winter.

 

[Walker]

Re: Cleaning up an Oldie Rollfast

Changed the title because I'm kind of overflowing into other parts of the bike besides the paint.

What to do with the damaged Delta Mouse tail light lense. junk it.

I ordered a re-pop from Classicrides over on the Cabe forum. C.R. shipped it fast, his communication was excellent and the lense arrived well packaged. Here is the lense next to the polished out Mouse. Man I love my buffing wheel!

A little backlighting..

I'll need to do some trimming to get it to fit. I'm going to try and leave as much of the inner lip as possible to try to slip it under the retaining ring. I dont want to drill out the original rivets.

This is the abrasive wheel on my buffer. Not sure what is is called exactly, but it works great.

Here is the rusty stem before using the abrasive wheel:

During:

More during.....

I used a good old fashioned scotchbrite pad to get into the grooves

I used the buffer only on the bolt heads

Here are all the stem bits after polishing:

Some other bits: truss rod bracket, headset parts:

The handlebars are totally gone, so they are going on a shelf and in the interum I'm using this other pair from a pre war Peerless. Not exactly the same bars but at least they are still coming from Rollfast.
Just a quick before and after to see what kind of potential for shine exists:

I think it will be a go with these bars, maybe I can source a nice pair of correct ones at Monson.

 

[Walker]

Re: Cleaning up an Oldie Rollfast

The stem has hairline cracks at it's base, likely due to fatigue from the wedge nut. So that's on the shelf. Can someone please tell me why I just sold my only other stems like this?
For now a knuckle type stem is going in.

Finished polishing over the weekend and applied a coat of Meguire's Carnuba wax.

I've also been soaking the seat with mink oil leather conditioner to try and soften it up.

Rebuilding the rear hub tonight on the donor wheel set.

I'm thinking I might actually finish this thing for Monson.

 

[Walker]

Re: Cleaning up an Oldie Rollfast

My camera flash died, I seem to be going through camera's lately...so in the shop cave it didn't see worth it to take non descript craigslist type photos.

But I had a nice night of it. Drank an ice cold Woodstock Station Pale Ale and did a thorough rebuild on the rear hub. Found the axle was a bit bent, one of the cones was chewed up and the discs were a bit worn and that cone shape thing with the tiny grooves in it was worn as well.. Fortunately I had a spare hub so I robbed it of its parts. I gave all the discs a little attention on the abraisive wheel to remove the petrafied grease, cleaned all the bearings, new Park grease and off we go. The donor shell was in rough shape but the internals were great, you never know.

I'm so close on finishing this thing up I might just keep you in suspense till it's done and I can roll it out the door.

 

[scott brownsey]

Re: Cleaning up an Oldie Rollfast

i soak my small -parts in lemonjuice for a day it works great

 

[Skipton]

Re: Cleaning up an Oldie Rollfast

Walker,
Lots of great info here!

Keep up the great work

looking forward to seeing it done

Thanks Skip

 

[Walker]

Re: Cleaning up an Oldie Rollfast

Thanks guys, I am really happy with the way it is turning out.

I haven't tried lemon juice but I have tried vinegar. I just finished soaking a neat Huffy coaster brake arm. It had ok chrome but all the nooks and crannies had tiny specs of rust. There was no way to wire brush or polish it out so I threw it in a jar of vinegar. But then I kind of forgot about it for a week. Pulled it out last night and it's brilliant! Wow that works.

I painted the handlebar cross brace black because it was pretty scratched up. It's just a temporary piece.

I've got a handlebar mounted horn on the way thanks to Dumpster-Diver

Cleaned up the seatpost, shim and pinch bolt on the buffing wheel, it came out nice as well.

The seat leather is still pretty hard, more Lexol to the rescue.

I'll need to figure out the grip situation, maybe I'll put it up for a vote.

 

[Tailwinds]

Re: Cleaning up an Oldie Rollfast

My goodness, some nice looking restorations in this thread!

 

[Walker]

Re: Cleaning up an Oldie Rollfast

Last night I chose a Woodstock Inn, Weasel Wheat to accompany wheel truing and some other minor tasks.

Unfortunately I got so preoccupied with buffing the chrome rims that i forgot about the brew so 1/4 of the beverage was abandon.

On the upside. I got the wheels trued up nicely. I used an old, fairly worn scotchbrite pad, shoeshine style, between all the spokes to clean up some residual grime and finished with a coat of Meguire's Carnuba wax. Man I love the smell of that stuff!

Still searching for a drop stand so in the interum, i dug through my kickstand bin and found a nice sturdy, old but not to rustified unit. Some Park grease between the plate and leg took care of the hideous screaching noises.

My coat of paint on the cross bar had dried so on that went. The local hardware store provided new chrome slotted mounting screws. I also grabbed a small carriage bolt for the handlebar clamp which will support the Seiss horn.

I looked over my grips, i had 1 decent pair of coke bottles with missing jewels, 1 pair re-pop pointy grips, and some Hunt Wild's. I think the Hunt Wild type were probably more "original", and I really wanted to use the coke bottles but the reflectorless ends bothered me. So on went the pointy ones.

Dug out a pair of Torrington 10's I've been saving. The blocks are kind of worn but the chrome matches up well. I'm might have to do some block swapping.

The chain has been soaking for a few days in de-greaser, that is next on the list for wire brushing.

Hoping the chainguard arrives soon!

I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel... :idea:

Not goint to get any work done tonight, It's Los Guapos night, and I'm breaking out the Brenter Commodore!

 

[Walker]

Re: Cleaning up an Oldie Rollfast

Ahh, spring is in the air! And in the tires. Just waiting on the chainguard and a couple of other bits but couldn't resist a copule of shots in the sun.

 

[texasbigjon]

Re: Oldie Rollfast, 90% there, new pic's

thats a great looking bike! :mrgreen:

 

[SCHWINNRAY69]

Re: Oldie Rollfast, 90% there, new pic's

NICE :shock: Are you gonna be bringing this to Monson :?: I'd really like to see it

 

[Walker]

Re: Oldie Rollfast, 90% there, new pic's

Thanks guys.

Yup, this one is coming South with me. I'm hoping to get the rear rack and chainguard sorted before then...

I'm making a cardboard "tank wanted" sign tonight

 

[Walker]

Re: Oldie Rollfast, 90% there, new pic's

Oh man, the weather is not looking good for transporting bikes on a hitch rack...±200 miles of highway salt and slush....

 

[Walker]

Re: Oldie Rollfast, 90% there, new pic's

Tankalicious update!

Pretty excited to see this on my doorstep!

Just need to hit it with some paint and some matching stripes

........and find a HORN!