Sympathetic early road/club restoration

what area are you based? enamel rather than powder coat i would say. Mario Vaz in London, or loads of great painters outside of town. Argos, Mercian....

London based but spend a bit of time down south so argos is an option

just don't think I can take their chroming prices if I get the forks and frame ends re done :0

so I have had this very nice bike waiting to be restored for a while now I got a great deal online and have been saving so I can do a sympathetic restoration

the previous owner had already stripped away the multiple paint jobs it had been given over the years so I am at square one

It's an unidentified 30s- to early 50ish (by my fairly uninformed reckoning) frame that has a head clip and came with a convincingly worn Major Taylor stem and basically all the parts look fairly original or at least of the right era

I am thinking of getting all the parts re-chromed/nickel plated (depending on the most historically appropriate choice) including the fork ends and chain stay/seat stay/ drop out tips as they look like it was this way from what's left of the original finish (probably use london chroming)

then my plan is to pick a colour for the frame forks and have it painted coated somewhere

however I am building this back up as a bike I will regularly ride so if you guys have any ideas or advice or think I should do something else (i don't want it to feel perfect like an unreadable museum piece) then I would like to hear your opinions

Lots can be said about this but I'd start with a simple staement about restoration. You need to be very clear about what is restoration etc and therefore budget. I know it sounds simple but many fail to do that.

A specific point re paint. The frame was not built/finished to be left raw so paint is essential.

Powedercoat will do but enamel is right for it and there are several craftsmen in London who can do the work and many are on here and you can get good recommendations by searching. I'd recommend Mario Vaz, who has done several jobs for me, but advise you to look around before comitting to anybody.

Lots can be said about this but I'd start with a simple staement about restoration. You need to be very clear about what is restoration etc and therefore budget. I know it sounds simple but many fail to do that.

A specific point re paint. The frame was not built/finished to be left raw so paint is essential.

Powedercoat will do but enamel is right for it and there are several craftsmen in London who can do the work and many are on here and you can get good recommendations by searching. I'd recommend Mario Vaz, who has done several jobs for me, but advise you to look around before comitting to anybody.

well restoration for me is anything that prolongs the life of the object and restores it to working function without drastically changing its nature or spoiling it's genuine charm ect

I imagine after re-chroming only the parts that need it for survival and cleaning polishing everything else else and getting the frame painted a single colour I would be looking at no less than £300 probably allot more

and that has been my plan from the start just wanted to entertain other options

still the all chrome Claud Butler in the science museum has always called out to me :3

Re spraying a frame at Argos would cost around £300+/- for a single colour + lug lining + decals applied. It also depends if they have got to fill some pitting and how much as that will alter price. Then your decals £30 ish. I can highly recommend them but I understand that Mario Vaz is cheaper.
Most chroming places will take bike bits but check first because the most industrial places will prioritize big jobs and might leave you waiting months for your bits. And I found that it will be more expensive if there is a lot of polishing to pitted parts to be done, as this is time consuming, but otherwise will show if rechrome without polishing.

Re spraying a frame at Argos would cost around £300+/- for a single colour + lug lining + decals applied. It also depends if they have got to fill some pitting and how much as that will alter price. Then your decals £30 ish. I can highly recommend them but I understand that Mario Vaz is cheaper.
Most chroming places will take bike bits but check first because the most industrial places will prioritize big jobs and might leave you waiting months for your bits. And I found that it will be more expensive if there is a lot of polishing to pitted parts to be done, as this is time consuming, but otherwise will show if rechrome without polishing.

I know but I don't plan to put back decals or lug lining probably going for just the chroming and a black enamel frame and forks like the evans above but without decals, I imagine this bike was a club bike and has simple no frills construction so I'm not to bothered about fancy stuff just the basics done right

I am probably gonna take all the bit's I want done to London Chroming to ask their advice and get a quote, they seemed up for it on the phone

Fair enough. Then probably Mario Vaz will be a good option. I've never had any frame sprayed by him so cannot make an opinion but there is a thread about his work.

I have heard good and bad things

which to be fair probably means he is ok and good for the price

would like to see some examples

there's some here

Hello Sir,

James from work here-
surely if you are going to paint it stove enamel would be best, especially if you go for black as it always looks a, erm, deeper more-black type of black. Conrad always moans his path-racer is not black enough-that's powder coated I think. I know it's costly but... You've seen my Viking so that should tell you what powder coated clear-coat looks like, if you do consider that - even if as something not to do.

Where exactly is that little braze on by they way? I can't quite figure it out from the photo. That may at least give you a rough idea of the age if it is for some specific type of gear or something similar.

And if it's rideable bring it in please next time it's sunny-I want to see it in person!

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Hello Sir,

James from work here-
surely if you are going to paint it stove enamel would be best, especially if you go for black as it always looks a, erm, deeper more-black type of black. Conrad always moans his path-racer is not black enough-that's powder coated I think. I know it's costly but... You've seen my Viking so that should tell you what powder coated clear-coat looks like, if you do consider that - even if as something not to do.

Where exactly is that little braze on by they way? I can't quite figure it out from the photo. That may at least give you a rough idea of the age if it is for some specific type of gear or something similar.

And if it's rideable bring it in please next time it's sunny-I want to see it in person!

James ! good to hear from you, will bring it back in once it's ride-able, it was actually in work till the other day stored in a cupboard! once I have it enamelled and the important bits chromed it's on! bike off at high noon, I really like the finish on your Viking a very tasteful build all round, hope I can compete

that little braze on is on the inside of the drive side chain stay, I am guessing it's for some sort of gear mech hanger although the flip flop it came with looks fairly legit

its a chain peg/ hanger, hang your chain out of the way when you take the back wheel off.

chain peg

ohh makes perfect sense!

most of the bitz are original but if I replace the wheels at some point what are roughly historically correct hubs ?

Before you make the call to paint, have a look at a product called 'ankor wax'.....it's what a lot of classic car buffs use to preserve patina, whilst still giving complete weather protection........

It's lovely, by the way!

this site has some nice evans catalogue scans, looks pretty likely this is an evans frame with all original parts
http://www.bikebrothers.co.uk/evans.htm

gonna go with re-chrome and black paint job, to insure the frame is good for the long term, undecided on transfers as I don't know enough to make sure they are right and I quite like the anonymous club look

as for the parts I think I will take a more considered approach

does any one know if old willams rat trap pedals and the like are serviceable ? I don't know if I will resort to getting them and the willams chain-ring/cranks rechromed but if I do I will need to dismantle the pedals

I would love to hear from people who have carried out similar projects or any good links to blogs ect

Decals: http://www.hlloydcycles.com

Maybe contact the VCC to find out if it is 100% a FW E: http://www.v-cc.org.uk

There are hundreds of builds and restorations of vintage bikes on the World Wide Web.........and you are posting in a section of lfgss called "current projects"....

And regarding the pedals, it would be hard to know what the condition of your pedals are like without holding them, but yes. They are serviceable and there is no reason why you should not be able to get them up and running smooth again.

This looks to me like a London built frame. If it is an Evans it will probably have an oiler for the right hand BB cup. Also I think that at this time (thirties) Evans frames had a four digit frame no.

You will notice that the Evans frame shown above has completely different front forks from the unknown frame, which has ‘Russ’ style forks. It’s only a guess, but see how your frame no. matches up with Claud Butler for that period. They certainly used Russ type forks.

**Williams Chainsets **

Absolutely fine for everyday use, and many time trials must have been won on them. If the cranks are the right length for you, they should give you decades of good service. Yours is a ‘C34’ model, probably the commonest, so there are plenty of spare chainrings around even today. I might be able to help if you’re stuck with this. I can’t see what the pedals are, but the crank threads are standard. The same goes for the BB cups and spindles.

Wheels

I expect you’ve already realised this, but if the rims in your machine a 26” x 1.25”, you will find that 700c rims will be a good fit and be much more practical.

Finish

It’s not easy to say what’s best here. If shot blasting is necessary, rechroming usually doesn’t come out very well because of the difficulty of polishing out the rough finish left by the blasting. Personally, I’d go for the oily rag method: just call it ‘patina’.

Although this machine must be coming up for its eightieth birthday I would expect it to be a very rideable bike. Good luck with it!

Blasting won't affect chroming.
Its part of the process in most industry specs.

Also, shot blasting isn't really the appropriate term, grit (shot) would be too course. Bead, or Ally Oxide.

Also, shot blasting isn't really the appropriate term, grit (shot) would be too course.

Course isn't the appropriate either, it should be coarse.

Blasting won't affect chroming.
Its part of the process in most industry specs.

Also, shot blasting isn't really the appropriate term, grit (shot) would be too course. Bead, or Ally Oxide.

I was just using 'shot blasting' as a generic term for any type of blasting. Naturally, the medium used will affect the result.

As to 'industry specs' we are not talking about modern engineering here, but restoration of a few bike parts. If you can find anyone to take an interest in a small job like this you should expect him to use whatever medium he's got handy: in the past I've had a frame back from blasting with a hole blasted through the bottom bracket shell ! God knows how they managed to do that, but be warned.

Incidendally, even when done with reasonable care (and that's the highest standard you can expect) each time a steel frame is blasted it loses about half an ounce of material. So this is not something that should be done regularly.

My experience is that chrome is competely unaffected by bead (not even enough to give a key for paint) but with heavier media it will sometimes start to peel in places, but remain untouched in others - a pretty hopeless outcome. If the blasting is heavy enough to remove it completely it will be ok for painting, but the Devil's own job to polish for re-chroming.