The 442

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I’ve decided the cleanest look for the rear brake housing/cable will take some welding of some tiny cable guides and stops. So I purchased them today and will need to find a welder.

I’m going to run the housing along the downtube with a couple guides, put a stop before the bottom bracket, run a Campagnolo-style cable guide under the bottom bracket, back to a stop under the rear chain stay, and housing into the caliper barrel.

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I don’t know about you, but I really like the look of a rear disc brake. It just adds to the “muscle” of the bike for me. A giant pain in the rear to make work, but I’m really glad it’s coming together!

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Looks slick! 😉
 
I’m making progress on the front fender. I wasn’t able to find a correct one (because they are really hard to come by). I bought a 16” Wald, but that’s way too big. I have a 20” front from something that I could cut and shape and it would work, but wouldn’t be correct. So I’m throwing a lot of effort into restoring the original I have. Since it will be painted I can throw whatever tricks I can at it.

I started with the edges. I soldered metal into the holes then shaped them. I think they came out good. Now I’m building up Bondo. I am going to use the solder trick on one of the lower side edges because there is some metal loss and the bondo gets sanded out unevenly. So… a few more hours of work on just the fender coming.

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This front fender is getting a ton of time, but I’m inching closer. I have to put on a layer of bondo or fix an area with JB Weld, then wait at least 24 hours for it to cure well enough for sanding, then sand and see where I am, then repeat. As you can see a shot of coat of etch primer so I could better see imperfections, then continue. I’m about to do my 10th round. Hopefully the last? Then I’ll build up filler primer to really get it smoothed out.

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I wasn’t thrilled going in the direction of a plastic bridge. But I didn’t want to have housing protruding so far below the bottom bracket. I had thought to route it all internally, but if I goofed that up I’d ruin the frame. So, since I went external, I wanted to minimize the issue under the BB, so I opted for a plastic guide bridge, vice devising something metal that might rust from wear. So, here is what I bought:

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I modified it, drilled and tapped the mounting hole:

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And here it is installed.

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So that’s it for modifications to the bike. The rest is prepping it for paint.
 
It’s hard to believe that this, rusty, holey, piece of junk which probably should have been tossed…

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Is finally done, and nice enough to be put on this build. Here it is ready for paint! And it only took a couple months or work!

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By the way, if you have a fender in similar condition and have been thinking of restoring it, I would be happy to throw it in the trash for you.
 
By the way, if you have a fender in similar condition and have been thinking of restoring it, I would be happy to throw it in the trash for you.
Big respect for the work and skill you put into this build!!!
(But I can totally relate to the trash quote...🤣)
 

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