Josephine! - Restoring a Joe Waugh ladies tourer

Just picked up an old Joe Waugh ladies touring bike.
It hasn't been used in 20 years, and is in a bit of a mess, but the plan is to restore it to it's former glory in time for some light summer touring with my girlfriend.

It'll take a fair amount of work; un-seizing of probably everything, maybe a respray (budget permitting), new cables / housing, new chain / cogs, probably new front and rear mechs. New tyres / tubes. New bartape. Etc etc etc... We're sticking with the original groupset, which is Deore LX.

The main problem is rust: The frame has one or two bubbly patches, and the groupset has very rusty nuts and bolts - any advice on where to get replacements would be welcome. I have no idea if they are standard sizes, or only made by Shimano?)

So far it's cost £38, which leaves us with a rough budget of £160 to get it back on the road, and looking pretty again. Here goes....

Sounds like a nice little project. Hope do be doing exactly the same thing for my girlfriend in the not too distant future so will be watching with interest.

Personally if there are bubbly patches of rust I'd be looking at a respray. I'm sure all the bolts will be sourceable - do you know what year the groupset is from?

Nice.

I don't think there's going to be room in your budget for a respray though. Also you'd be much better off spending that money on some wheels*/ tyres, and drive train (chainrings/cassette/chain/BB).

I'd add new brake blocks to your list. Fibrax are cheap and good. As for the rear mech, it depends on the condition, but you may actually just be able to take it appartly and service it - although you can pick up second hand ones cheap.

First thing to do is get it all stripped down and have a look.

*altho it's hard to tell what condition the wheels are in.

Almost stripped down to the frame now, just need one of those two-pronged tools to take off the crank bolt covers. So far only the seat post is stuck, which shouldn't be too much of a pain as long as I can get the BB out to pour stuff down there and loosen it up.

Thankfully, much of the rust on the components seems to only be superficial, and I think it'll scrub off.

The groupset is FC M550, early 90's I think.
Fibrax blocks look good - thanks for that.

The wheels need a clean, but are basically ok (straight n true, with lots of braking surface left), but I've yet to try removing the cassette, which is bright orange and almost furry with rust....

The rims might a weird size, though: 32 622 (28 x 1 1/4 x 1 3/4).
622 should be 29 inches, right? Not 28. (Sheldon, if I understood him correctly)
Anyway, I tried some 700c tyres on them which seem to fit, so maybe I can ignore the illogical metric/imperial discrepancy? Or maybe I'm just confused for no reason...

622 is 700c

I know - but isn't 700c supposed to be 29", not 28"?

Spent some time cleaning and servicing the wheels the other day. Dug out some better QR levers from the parts box, and cleaned and repacked the bearings. This was mildly exciting as I'd never done it before. There was a teeny bit of pitting in one of the ball races, but I think it will be OK for the meantime. Luckily I had some spare bearings which came out of a wheel I found in the street ages ago, which have now replaced anything even slightly corroded: I knew it would come in handy one day.

Got some Schwalbe Marathons in the post and put them on whilst people in town were doing a real marathon. They cost about the same as the whole bike...

Now the wheels are as good as new. Job satisfaction kicking in.

...I've been shopping too:

Those of you with a keen eye for detail will notice that I have the wrong cassette block. The correct, splined one will be arriving soon, whilst this one makes an appearance in the classifieds. That'll teach me not to read listings properly.

Is that the original wheelset? I didnt think splined/freehub cassettes had been around that long!

Yeah it's the original wheelset, still has the M Steel stickers.

Went to Clerkenwell Screws yesterday, and picked up a whole load of different bits n bobs, most of which seem to do the job quite well; only one or two for the mechs that are totally Shimano specific.

I'm having trouble with the deore brakes, it seems difficult to find threaded V / canti pads that are fat enough to reach the rims. After a bit of research, I've ordered some KoolStop Eagle 2's, as they look beefy, and have threading all the way down, making it easy enough to space them correctly. Finger's crossed.

I've also been watching youtube videos about how to polish aluminum, so might give that a go on the cranks.

I have mixtenvy.

The V brake pads won't work , this is pre V brakes. You have the right blocks in that picture. Swiss stops are even better!

The cantilevers don't look too low pro - so you should be ok with the lever/brake combination, but check Sheldon on Canti set up.

What was wrong with the originals btw ?

the original pads? they had very rusty attachment bolts, which looked ugly... also wanted to make sure it was easy to get replacements..

Right, more stuff has arrived. Think I'm pretty much there in term of parts now. Just one or two glitches to sort out, then I can start putting it all back together again; the seat post is still stuck (but i got the BB out, so I can start on the chemicals today), also a bit of polishing.

One question though... there are little holes and raised bits on the chainrings:

What are they for? Do they need to line up with anything, etc.. or do I just put them on however?

I don't know what the holes are, but the bits poking out are pins to make shifting easier.

Alt+F Search "Ramped & Pinned" here: http://sheldonbrown.com/gloss_ra-e.html

Just finished polishing the groupset - surprisingly easy, and didn't use any special tools. 400 grit sandpaper, then 1000, then 1500, then polish and rag.

I'm pleased, but it would've been better to take before and after photos.
Here's the after photo anyway:

Thanks Hugo... couldn't get Sheldon's glossary to load, but after a bit of other research, it seems they should be fine as long as the logos on the chainrings line up.

In the meantime, the frame is now lying upside down with a pint of super strength caustic soda solution fizzing loudly inside her:

Everything else is ready to go now, so as soon as the seat post is out, I can start building her up again.

The colour looks awesome close up.

Yeah, it's a metallic purple and pink two tone vibe. Not that bad really - and I'm already a little over the budget, so a respray is definitely off the cards.

if the caustic soda doesn't do the trick maybe give balsamic vinegar a try. I used it on a bottom bracket recently and it worked a treat. Gave off some hoaching fumes though!

Balsamic Vinegar going in as well, why not indeed?!
I reckon a pipe wrench might be good here too.

Still she fizzes...

OK, things are getting serious with the whole stuck seat post thing now... this afternoon, me and the neighbours had a proper brutal attempt at getting it out, all to no avail - now the seat post is mangled way beyond use-ability, and still stuck in there.

Tried so far:

1. Soaking it in caustic soda / wd40 / vinegar / etc, for a couple of days.
   
2. Two pipe wrenches at the same time twisting it.
   
3. Upside down in a vice and twisting the frame.
   
4. Heating and cooling the post with a blow torch and a bucket of water.
   
5. Tapping it down with a hammer.
   
6. Tapping it with a chisel (upwards, with the frame upside down in the vice).
   
7. Twisting it around again....
   
8. ....until the head snapped off from the post.
   
   

What are the other options?
Don't be shy with the suggestions; now is the time to get extremely brutal, or get another frame.

You can cut it out. Give me a minute and I'll find a link

Al la Sheldon
"If nothing else works, the final resort is the old hacksaw blade trick. Cut the seatpost off so that about 1/2" is left sticking out, then insert a hacksaw blade into the seatpost and carefully cut a slit in the post. This is very laborious, and you run the risk of damaging the frame if you cut too far, but this approach cannot fail. Once you have cut the slit, grab one edge of the cut with a locking plier and roll the seatpost up inside itself and pull it out."

http://sheldonbrown.com/stuck-seatposts.html