Beautiful Bikes, Ideas and Inspirations

I've pretty well decided how to proceed on the Proteus resto. I am going with wet paint, and because I am a maniac I will attempt doing it myself. This is slightly less deranged than powdercoating it myself and much less crazy than attempting to replate it myself which would surely turn the neighborhood into a toxic wasteland. Painting is completely reversible in this context. It can always be replated, repainted or powdercoated by a pro.

In a previous post I went looking for inspiration which I found in the form of this beautiful JP Weigle work. Those colors are delicious and I love the way the shorelines of the lugs are handled. It makes most lug lining look crude and inelegant. Scope the detail on that brake bridge. (as always click to embiggen)

The overall effect isn't so bad either. Just a beautifully conceived paint scheme superbly executed.

But that is a JP Weigle a great American framesmith, sure, but not the great American framesmith who built mine. Is that scheme appropriate for a Proteus, did they ever do anything like that. These are custom bikes so there's plenty of room for variation, but it would still be best to stay in character with the marque.

Then I came across this. The two-tone on the fork legs doesn't wow me, there's no natural line there with the Proteus sloping crown. Do the whole fork in white and a lot of things start going right.

Now, I've got ideas. I'm thinking Red. Yes, the kind of red that gets capitalized, "Red" red. Maybe like Ferarri red, maybe lipstick, maybe fire engine. Maybe the color of red a Ferrari uses for lipstick before going on a date with a fire engine. And white. White to bounce it off of. Maybe not a stark white, though it makes for good contrast and would be period correct, but perhaps a bit ivory for a more classic look. Hmmm. These things require thought and playing with paint and samples.

More awesome shorelines. And the more I look at that the more I am committing myself to a very ambitious job that I may yet chicken out on. Of course I will keep the business card of a local powdercoater and a Benjamin handy in case anything goes wrong. Powdercoat isn't beautiful but it is always pretty darned good and functional. I can live with functional, but then brilliant remains taunting and compelling. It tasks me.

In the meanwhile, I'm sanding away rust and prepping a surface. Beauty demands dog work. Damn shame, but you know what, anybody, even I can learn and do dog work. That's a beautiful thing in itself.

What To Do With My Frame

I've been calling and emailing for estimates, appraisals and crazy dartboard guesses of what it will cost to refinish my frame. As my beloved readership will remember (assuming they actually exist and that they can remember anything and don't just end up here by accident, cursing themselves for clicking that damn link again) this frame has rust.

The rust is being removed now. Slowly and rather painstakingly. I want future steps to involve as little work as possible and have the best possible outcome so my priority is to not do any more damage than has already been done. I took a small brass bristled wheel chucked into the Dremel tool to the lugs and the less accessible spots and that has worked very nicely. I was able to pull rust out of the edges and gaps without damaging any good chrome or paint. Next I'll move on to the bigger stuff. I'll be trying an oxalic acid bath which is very popular with a lot of bike restorers. Lemon juice and aluminum foil is wonderful for small touch ups, but this is a big frame.

But what to do next? The possibilities are wet paint, powder coat or re-chrome. All of these have their advantages and disadvantages.

Paint looks great, is very flexible as far as masking and obtaining whatever color and look is desired and can be done anywhere from $125 - 500 depending on quality, options and level of prep. It has the advantage that I can do a lot of the prep myself to keep the price down. It does protect against rust, but not as well as powder coating and is certainly not as resistant to abuse as the other options. Wet paint is the most versatile option. Any color can be mixed and it lends itself to special effects like fades, metal flake and pearlescent finishes. The depth and shine of a good wet paint job is hard to beat.

Powder coating is simple, basic and relatively inexpensive between $100 - 125, up to $200 to ship it off to a specialist. Powder is excellent against rust and wear and shrugs off most abuse. It isn't available in as many colors and isn't capable of the eye candy wet paint can produce. But it can provide a very rugged base coat over which decals, lug lining, pinstriping and other adornments like contrasting bands on the seat tube or head tube can be added before applying a wet paint clear coat.

Chrome will be out of my hands almost entirely, I'll hand over the frame and then magic will be performed. The existing plating will have to be removed by de-plating, the reverse of the electrolytic process that put there originally, it will be polished and then re-plated. What we're talking about here starts at $500. It will take an experienced plater with knowledge of bikes to even assure me that it will be fully possible to obtain a sound and worthy result. The de-plating process alone has risks that include leaching the braze out of the joints. (Yikes!) Beyond that these already thin tubes will be polished down further, subjected to more weird chemistry and then baked to ensure against hydrogen embrittlement.

I'm hoping to have an estimate from the shop that plated these bikes in the first place. I would also welcome hearing from any readers who've had experience getting a frame re-plated.

Either painting or powder coating will be reversible. Neither will require anything done that will make future work difficult. If I have it painted, I can always strip it and plate later.

Of the shops I've contacted about paint or powder coating, I am particularly impressed with one local powder coater who took the time to provide a very clear email that outlined his processes and his concerns regarding the stability of the chrome he would be coating over. I do retail repair work, I know what a knowledgeable, conscientious practitioner of a trade sounds like. I like this guy already after one email and a phone call, and am leaning in that direction. It's affordable, quick, flexible and reversible. Hard to beat that with anything other than a perfect, brand new plating job.

The Parts Gather

I've been looking for a proper seat post for the Proteus build up. I considered the classic fluted look with an appropriate accent color in the flutes, but really wanted something aero. The prices of classic Dura Ace and Campagnolo aero posts are alarming, but then I saw this on ebay. Kalloy I can afford and once it gets the full polish treatment like the rest of the bright-work it'll do until the right lottery numbers come up.

Crank Polishing

Okay, stop snickering. This time it's literal. Here is what the crankset looked like to begin. The dark spots are places where the original factory coating has flaked off leaving corroded aluminum to absorb dirt and grease and crud. The bubbly looking spot are where the finish has started to lift. I was a little skeptical about how feasible it would be to strip the finish and buff these out so I asked about it on the Classic & Vintage section at Bike Forums and the response included some truly beautiful results. Thus encouraged I went after it.

First step was to remove the old finish. I don't know just what it was or how it was applied. I'm guessing powder coat. It doesn't matter. My favorite paint and finish remover is the aerosol spray "Airplane Finish Stripper" available at all auto parts stores. I haven't found any finish that it doesn't just peel right off. It usually takes two applications. Mostly to cover spots that were missed. Spray on, wait about three minutes, wipe off old paint with a wire brush. Rinse. Repeat.

This scabby looking pair is the result. If this were an anodized finish, that would have to come off also. Since anodizing is an extremely hard aluminum oxide, it's harder than the grit in your sandpaper. Easiest way to remove it is with oven cleaner, the kind with all the warnings about wearing rubber gloves.

Now it's time to do some rough sanding to level this surface and remove the leprous patches. I used a flapper wheel in my drill press for the first pass.

The flapper wheel is about equivalent to a 150 grit I followed with 300 and 600 to get an even dull finish. Not unlike the original factory silver paint

Still not perfect, but so vastly much better that I'm good to go with it. Now some 1000 grit and some time with the buffing wheel.

There are a few spots that could be better. I'll work those down with the 1000 until the scratches are gone and then repolish. From a distance any amount of polishing helps hide the flaws and irregularities. Get up close and the shine only makes them stand out.

That's enough for today, off to go do some paying work.

Thanks for looking in. If you're involved in this sort of madness and have any questions or advice, please feel free to comment.

Proteus Parts

Original Gear List:

Hubs - Ultegra 600

Rims - Mavic Open 4CD

Shifters - Shimano 105 Downtube

Derailleurs - Shimano 105

Crankset - Shimano 105

Bottom Bracket - Shimano Dura Ace

Headset - Shimano 105

Brake Calipers - Shimano 105

Brake Levers - Shimano 105 with white hoods

Handlebars - Cinelli Giro d'Italia 40cm

Stem - Cinelli

Seatpost - Something heavy and ugly

Pedals - Original Look

As far as I can tell this is how the bike left the shop when new. The Date codes on the brakes, bottom bracket spindle and cups, cranks and derailleurs all go to 1989 and range from January through September. So we have a late 89 or early 1990 bike and group here.

I don't recall the saddle, it was damaged. The handlebars were severely grooved and gouged from a set of loose aero bars. They were bad enough that even I questioned their safety and replaced them immediately.

Present Gear:

At the beginning of this blog we are starting with all the above components, except for the bars, stem, levers and pedals. The levers were replaced with Sora Brifters in this bike's brief turn introducing me to cyclocross. Along with the brifters went an "ergo" handlebar and of course another stem because the Cinelli was the wrong size.

Here's the plan:

Clean up and reinstall all the original Shimano group. The brake levers have some damage and I don't think I will ever find the broken little plastic piece that fits between the rubber hood and the lever. The white hoods are trashed. I will probably replace them with some other aero lever. Possibly the Tektros because they're comfortable or something period correct that looks good. I'm a bit torn.

The Headset will need to be replaced. It has almost never been adjusted correctly, or stayed in adjustment and has a center detent. It will probably get a Tange Levin unless a nice Dura Ace or similar falls my way.

The brakes were my first dual pivot caliper brakes. I was immediately impressed by their bionic crab claw looks and bionic crab claw grip. I'm not sure if I'm going to like that look for the future, but they are on there now and they still work great.

The ugly and heavy seatpost will be replaced with an "Aero" seatpost that is on its way to me now. It will get the full polish treatment as well.

The wheels are true. The hubs and bottom bracket only need cleaned and greased. The old D/A 7400 Bottom Bracket is a marvel. I've got two of them and both have run perfectly for many years.

The components that are in rough shape will be stripped and/or de-anodized and polished. I'll have some progress photos of the cranks, handlebar and stem tomorrow.

The Frame:

The frame will be the subject of a future post. So many possibilities and limitations. Some decisions I'll have to make as I clean it up and evaluate just what is possible.

Begin the Bike Blog!

Scattered across the mighty span of the internet there are thousands of blogs about bikes. This one is mine.

The immediate inspiration for this blog is the restoration of my old Proteus. A fine bicycle, obtained under dubious circumstances and ridden through good times and bad. After twenty years of indifferent maintenance and Florida's humidity, the chrome plating had deteriorated and the components had suffered. In future posts I will tell the full story of this bike, it's origins, career and resurrection. For now, here are some photo's of her condition as I begin work.

You will notice plenty of rust, some of it a light dusting as on the fork legs other spots are mole-like defects. The areas around the lugs are hard hit as is the top tube both under the sweat catching rear brake housing and the bottom of the tube.

Here are some shots of the frame and componentry.

Click on photos to enbiggen.

I'll see you next time with history and progress. My two favorite things