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

Agreed on the "shiny stuff and vintage paint" theory.
My only reasons not to do so are
1) cost - not sure how much it costs to chrome a stem, but my local electroplaters have a MOC of about £40 or something like that....
2) hassle of removing handlebars! The Maes bars don't have an integrated clamping bulge and are 24mm OD throughout. There's a steel shim to bring them up to the 26.0mm clamp, but the sleeve seems to have siezed onto the stem and I don't want to mash the bars getting it out!

Since this is a light touch approach I think I'll have a go at dealing with the rust with some of that phosphoric acid stuff you mentioned lecky - would you propose leaving the ferric phosphate (blue/black stuff) on the surface as protection, or rub it off to silver and cover it with something to stop the rust returning...
As you say, worst case is that it'll need to be removed, stripped and rechromed, but we can do it at a later stage.

The only other approach I'd been considering is a bit more naff....

How much has flaked?
If its loads, I'd be tempted to take the rest off and have a go polishing it.... Or with a wire wheel in the drill for a brushed finish. The wire will shift the rust, and even though some of the chrome will follow it, if its clean it will still look good.... Without looking properly though its hard to gauge. Paint will look a bit gash to start with, but a lot of old stems/posts were painted black when the finish got a bit tired.... I'd have a play with a wire wheel on the underside first, to see what happened.....

^ Good ideas, cheers Pat.
assuming the steel polishes up nicely do you think a lacquer would be the best bet to seal it?

Can't you fix up chrome with tin foil and coke? Saw a diy rescue of an 80s bmx race frame that was originally fully chromed but when the guy started it looked like mostly blistered busted up rust, when he finished it looked like porn.

^ I'm always amazed at what can be done...
Here's a good example http://www.lfgss.com/post3185021-68170.html
That said, the stuff was flaking off in big chunks, but if the steel beneath can be polished up like an axe blade and lacquered, that should be good enough for a light-touch renovation!

to

Lacquer would do it, but so would clear wax or dubbin.....very lightly applied, and top it up every now and again

I'd pop the whole lot in coke for a few days and then revisit with some wirewool and WD40.

Lovely patina on the break cables.

I've had Hiduminum in the past, lovely lite alloy, sells for alot on Ebay. With a bit of elbow grease it shines up incredibly well.

Don't use that chrome spray! I tend to get rid of the residue left from the rust remover and use autoglym resin polish (also good for paintwork) to polish and protect, it's quite popular for classic cars, and does the same job on a bike. Needs re-polishing up every now and then.

Thanks for all the excellent suggestions - most helpful, and very much in the spirit of "light touch".

The story of the beautiful lugged stem is as follows...

1) Chrome bubbling up & areas of rust showing through...

2) Coke & alu-foil therapy
Lots of the chrome plate lifted, revealing bubbled-up rusty metal.
a drop of neat phosphoric acid helped to deal with the really rusty bits

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/72712370/before
3) Elbow grease/buffing wheel/Autosol/Simoniz Auto Wax followed by a relatively crap photo......

looks fantastic.

Cheers lecky - I wasn't sure how far to take this - I'm not planning to respray the bike or anything like that so perfection was not the final goal, however I did want a clean slate so that any new rust will be visible and dealt with. I quite like the dull grey bits, certainly looks in-keeping with the rest of the bike, and as sandbag correctly states, the hiduminium bars come up to a mirror finish, so it's a nice combination of patina and bling!

Quick bit of geekery....
Hi-Du-Minium is derived from that of High Duty Aluminium Alloys
(a series of high-strength, high-temperature aluminium Alloys developed for aircraft use by Rolls Royce back in the late 20's).
Reynolds started using hiduminium alloys for lightweight racing bike components in 1934 and GB started making brakes, bars and stems from it after the war.
Olympic torches in 1948 were also made from Reynolds Hiduminium - I met a lady recently who still has one from her husband, it was a proper British HTFU torch relay, he ran between 1 and 4 in the morning 20miles at the Somerset/Devon border - none of this walking 100yards in front of massive crowd whilst wearing a white-shellsuit and filming yourself with your mobile back then!!

Looking very nice. I might be going back to this period myself soon with one of uncle's uncle's (great-uncle?) bikes. He happened to mention over dinner the other day that this uncle of his was an Olympic cycling triallist in the 1930's and that he had the bike in the garage...

^ good stuff - look forward to seeing photos.
I have a 1930's Claud Butler in the shed waiting for a rainy day...

Where do you accumulate all this stuff? I need to go over to his garage in St. Albans to check it out, might make a nice ride from Cambridge after exams I think.

This Gillott belongs to my father, but the rest of the crap goes back to a job change a couple of years ago - I'd been in a mental job with 40mile commute for 5years and riding the same bike every day (a De Rosa - poor me) then I moved to a rather chilled and much better paid job 10miles away and decided it was time to build some fun bikes!
I began with an ebay binge targeting job-lots, poorly listed stuff, anonymous classic frames and damaged/ugly ducklings - Since then I've been trying to rationalise the contents of my shed and got quite good at identifying who made what. I've kept the stuff that fits and rides well, the rest I've identified, tidied and sold on to fund the sort of stuff that crops up on here and you just have to buy!!

I'm about to go the other way sadly - chilled student life to stupid hours job. Having to be very disciplined not to buy this from Hilary...
http://www.hilarystone.com/images/sale%20images/frames/Ken-Bird-TT-802.jpg

I'm going to get me some of those Grab On sponge grips.

There's something irresistible about 70's British TT frames - and that's before you get onto drillium components.
Here's another of the ugly ducklings in my shed....
70's Chas Roberts TT frame

i'm going to get me some of those grab on sponge grips.

lol

^^ exactly that.

Useful thread, I'm planning on giving my Holdsworth a similarly "light touch" refurb.

Oxalic acid is good for bringing chrome back, but obviously not if it's flaking: I like what you've done with the stem, probably the best outcome.

Cheers Scilly, It was the part of the job I'd been most apprehensive about, and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

This weekend if I have a spare moment I'll fit the brakes, tape the bars and then have a quick look at the headset.....

Although the gum hoods are looking pretty perished they're still intact.
Is there any good ways of filling the cracks in the hoods or should I just leave well alone.

I'm guessing I can forget finding replacements at a reasonable price - Even JD whiskers who are usually pretty good at finding old bits and bobs on the shelf and selling them on at period correct prices thought I was a bit hopeful for even asking!!

The only other option is that chap in California who moulds his own, but I think he concentrates on the more exotic end of the market (Campag/Dura-Ace/Universal) and probably wouldn't stoop as low as a Weinmann hood!

I've tried liquid latex to repair Campag Ergo hoods without any success, but I'm always happy to get my pot of copydex out.... I just don't want to ruin ones that are functional if a little cracked! - Anyone got any ideas for rejuvinated brake hoods????

Shoo Goo http://www.patrolstore.com/Shoo-Goo.html?gclid=CI6jou3Q-bYCFXHLtAodRnYAZQ Did an ok job on my ergo hoods, not sure if there is a gum coloured version though?