Oh. My. Gios! My First Dabble At This

Just bodge the wheel in you'll be fine.

It’s 2mm each side. It doesn’t need respacing. Just pull it while you put the wheel in

I’ve heard I can do that, but I have noobie reservations.

1. Won’t bodging it in mess with wheel alignment?

2. As I’m thinking of a re-spray down the line. Wouldn’t bodging wheels in and out risk cracking paintwork?

Sorry if these are absolutely ridiculous questions, but I was always taught by my recently departed Dad, that if a job is worth doing, then do it right.

It'll be fine.

It's a steel frame and 2mm movement on the stays is well withing tolerance. If you were re-spacing from 120mm then you might want to consider cold setting but from 126mm to 130mm is fine.

Seriously slap a wheel in there and see for yourself. A tiny tiny bit of effort and it'll slide right in.

And paint is more flexible than steel so worry not about that. And as for wheel alignment, well with horizontal dropouts you're more likely to misaligned by not paying attention when tightening the skewer then putting the 130mm wheel in there.

I agree with your dad, and sorry for your loss, that a job is worth doing right but there is no benefit to getting it re-spaced by a professional. You'll have a lighter wallet which might help with a KOM attempt but that's it.

Thanks for the advice. I was hyped at doing something by my own hand for the first time, but my time will come. As for saving money......it just means I’ve got £40-£50 up for grabs if anyone has parts. 😂

Edit: £40-£50 more for parts 😂

Up till now I haven’t shared my project with the Mrs. Didn’t want the “you’re going spend more money on ANOTHER bike” type of response. Well, we were having a few drinks the other night, as you do, and I casually dropped it into the conversation. Maybe it was the drinks, maybe she was impressed I was trying it (some of it) myself, but there was no negative reaction. I’ll take that as a green light!
Very next day I called the sprayer and got my frame in the queue. I’m actually quite excited about this. I’m hoping you guys will like it.
I’ve also managed to source a seatpost, thanks to @Theoazb.
I may also have found a groupset, Campagnolo of course, and a headset.
I now need to turn my attention to stems, bars, saddle and wheel set. Ideas are most gratefully received.

Cheers for now
Gary

P.S. Had a totally mad idea to have the cables internally routed. Is this even feasable?????