AS Gillott - King of Rats in for a (Light Touch) Rennovation

^ Excellent tip - I shall investigate further. Thanks

Try these from St. John Street Cycles :

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/cane-creek-weinmann-and-mafac-style-cane-creek-road-brake-lever-hoods-black-prod26321/

Inexpensive and do the job. Also available in tan colour. I have also used them successfully with Campag levers. The makers name is not really noticeable when installed. Warm them in hot water, dry off and apply quickly makes them easier to get on.

I've got some Weinmann hoods you're welcome to: only black or white though.

Thinking back to my woodwork lessons, bear with me, we used to mix up sawdust and glue to fill-up recessed screwheads: I wonder if you could do something similar with bits of a donor hood and some of that glue they use for wetsuit repairs?

Cheers Scilly - Black may work, but I think it needs to be tan...

re: DIY moulding I think this needs some thought....
Being able to mould decent tan hoods would be really handy...

Those slip moulds you get for plaster of paris appear to be made from a latex rubber... presumably we could get a decent hood, press it into something soft to make some kind of mould into which a former is pressed to ensure it's hollow....

Not necessarily a job for this particular project, but worth thinking about....

You can always wax the frame, not a permanent solution naturally, but it's a good way of preserving the bicycle and keep the rust from occuring.

I think I will - I was planning to use one of those heavy duty car polishing waxes e.g. Simoniz or a poundland equivalent

That worked well with my Mercian.

rik, i'm pretty sure i've got some new tan hoods, let me have a look in the shed when i get home tonight, if they're any good i'll post up a picture

That would be bloody marvelous, thanks

This article might be worth checking to prevent damage to those fragile gum hood;

http://www.raydobbins.com/molteni_replica/molteni_tip

good tip, last time I did it, I wrapped from the top down to the brake lever clamp, and from the bottom up to the brake lever clamp, trapped the free ends under the clamp and then glued some tape to the outer surface of the clamp - a bit of a kerfuffle, but when you shellac over them the direction of wrapping ceases to be a concern, quite like the idea of wrapping in one direction though.

Strong work with the stem bud :0)
I never realised it was one of those......I've been looking for ages, over a year, for one just like it!
I also have some diacompe hoods on my hetchins.....they were something like £8 off Ebay. I barely tried to get new Galli ones! The originals were long gone, and mine had cracked, black Weinmann ones on, so it wasn't an issue for me to lose them.
Classic car boss use a product called 'ankorwax' for the preservation of patina on older cars....it's not cheap, but would literally last a lifetime for bike usage.

Had a quiet hour this afternoon to get the Gillott out of the shed and make a bit of progress

Decided to leave the hoods as they are and just polish up the brake levers... I quite like the scratches and don't think I need to do a wet&dry grade - Autosol is enough in this instance - here's the before and after..

I then removed the brake calipers and stripped them down ready for a toluene clean and buffing wheel job later this week.

I polished up the headset which came up nicely, then moved onto the bottom bracket & chainset.
I don't have the tool for a 49D crank removal but the bottom bracket is still silky smooth so I'll leave that be and polish the crank arms in-situ.

Pedals are a different story, there's about 5mm of play on each pedal. No bother I thought, as I have a spare set of Koyokuto pedals in the shed, but I couldn't get the blighters off... I don't think the drive side has ever been removed - I'll have a go at dismantling them in-situ and re-building them...

Looking good.......but don't cut corners! :0)

I managed to have some incredible luck over the last few weeks, part of which, enabled me to get this (these!)

So my search for a stem is over!

oh yes! my search for a stem begins!

Wow Pat - that's fantastic, you are doing well at the moment!
Holdsworth? and matching bars too?

Did you see the Cinelli stem that Gaz1979 renovated a while back? he did a pretty nice job of it.

re: shortcuts - I was getting a bit impatient this afternoon!!
main reason was that I'd managed to mislay the brake levers and bar tape and couldn't find my meths to mix the shellac so it was all a little frustrating! I think I'll take off the cranks, stick them in a vice and then remove the pedals!

:0)
All my stars must have aligned or something! Good spot indeed, it is a holdsworth track bike (unsure of model?)with the stem and matching steel campione del mondo bars!
I don't want to crash your thread, but I'm unsure where to tell the incredible story!

All thread digressions are positively encouraged...
Looks great - I assume that's a Unicantor too, and the pedals look like the Lyotard Berthet from the side....
Same cranks as the gillott (49D)

Go on, tell us the story.

oh yes! X2!
good find pat, i'm with james...... story please........

Ok, if you say it's ok!
Part 1.
So, a bloke was selling off lots of hetchins items on eBay, on behalf of 'the family'.....about 4 months ago?. I contacted him, to pass on my regards to the family, and to let them know, that even though it is no longer in family hands, that his name will live on forever, due to the wonderful machines his grandfather created....I wasn't being a creep, but I genuinely feel that way :0).
Cut a long story short, Paul Hetchin and I, have been in regular email contact since, as the guy passed my details on, this culminated with Paul sending me, unsolicited, a shoebox through the post last week......details to follow!

Part 2.
I saw a lovely old 'bird brothers' time trial bike on eBay a fortnight or so ago and arranged a deal for it. Turns out that it was an exact copy of Alf Engers machine from back in the day, made in 1971 for an aspiring Tester! He turned out to be an amazing chap, and we chatted in his garage for ages, before he mentioned the fact that he had an old track bike for sale too, that I could have for a very reasonable price.....when I saw it, it was mine!

Part 3.
I applied to be one of the lucky 100 globally, who gets to test the new Brooks Cambium saddle.......and got the email saying it will be on its way to me soon!

The only downside, is that I will probably have to sell the Alec Bird built frame and fork, as its too small for me.......but I can salvage some excellent parts from it!

An amazing few days for me.......about bloody time I had a bit go my way too!

Amazing story, thanks for sharing!

http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad131/stedlocks/image_zps1823ca10.jpg

http://i929.photobucket.com/albums/ad131/stedlocks/image_zps37238606.jpg

;0)

Nice score on the shoe box of hetchins stuff! Headbadges can be very very hard to get, use it wisely!

It's better than that...unseen photos too, but the headbadge is one of the original prototypes, before they were properly produced. It doesn't say "Tottenham" or the address on it.....only dots where they were.
None of the bits will be going anywhere.....I'll be framing them up, and I will try to mount the badge on mine, unless you can still see the original headtube transfer....then it wil go in the frame too :0)

Wow re the Hetchins stuff, Stedlocks I am now moving my boat to Hallingbury so we will be virtual neighbours- perhaps we have a Hetchins ride (although mine is non curly and with modern bits or a Vintage ride with my 1970 time warp Holdsworth or the 70s shopper bought from you!

Gareth