1938/39 Parkes Lightweight

[Jonny69]

Not much progress for a while. I've just had a knee op so I've got some enforced time off work. Ideal time to get through a few little jobs I've been putting off and I can get the bike ready for when I can ride again!

First up is the Wrights saddle. I took some before pics earlier in the thread:

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It's basically sound but in need of a bit of TLC. The leather is dry and marked and it's a bit out of shape but it's salvageable with a bit of work. I've tackled a couple of leather saddles before so I'll run through with some pics how to save one.

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First up, some damage assessment. In the two pics above we can see that the leather is very dry and very hard top and bottom. It's skin tight and sounds like a drum skin if you tap it, despite being backed off the tension adjuster. If I were to sit on the saddle at this point, I would expect it to crack away from one of the rivets at the back - so don't sit on it yet! It's also slightly out of shape, bulging on one side and a bit squashed on the other. I reckon it was sat in someone's parts drawer in the shed for a number of years. In my head it seems typical of a saddle that has had stuff stacked on it in the cold and damp and the leather has eventually yielded. First priority is to get it cleaned up in hot soapy water with a stiff scrubbing brush:

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I'm going to be re-shaping the leather so, once scrubbed, I left it in the water to soak for 30 minutes or so. The leather goes soft and floppy and it can easily be re-shaped. The leather holds its basic shape and 'sets' when it dries out. You can therefore modify the shape by clamping or blocking it while it dries. I used a quick clamp to push down the bulge in the top and a zip tie to hold the sides in:

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It takes at least 48 hours to fully dry and if you get it wrong you can simply repeat the process. The dry leather surface conveniently shows up the stampings at this point, so I now know that this is a 1960s Wrights W3ST. Velobase tells me "The W3ST was Wrights’ fast touring/audax model; much rarer than their standard sports W3N model. Similar in size and shape to a Brooks B17, but lighter and sportier. With bag loops, and the oval “Wrights” emblem stamped into each flank." Cool!

Once dried out, the leather goes hard and dry again. It needs nourishing before it can be used. On this one, because it's so dry, I'm going to use a combination of waxes top and bottom. Dubbin is your best friend, as a general rule. It's greasy and waterproof and this old dry thick leather loves it. It doesn't give a good shine, however, so I'm going to put a few layers of beeswax on top at the end.

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Use an old toothbrush and slather on the Dubbin. Scrub it right in and make sure there's plenty on the surface for protection.

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Same on the top. I didn't apply quite as much as underneath because I want to let it soak in and I'll put beeswax on top. From here I'm going to leave it a couple of hours to soak in and dry out, I'll buff it off and then start on a couple of good coats of beeswax which should shine up quite nicely. Clear shoe polish also works well. Let's see what happens...

 

[Jonny69]

I can see you're all on the edges of your seats waiting to see how the saddle came out. Two coats of wax and this is what I've got:





If I did it again, I'd stick some brown shoe dye on the leather before waxing. It's a bit bleached out in places. But it's come out quite nicely and the leather has softened up. It definitely looks the part for the bike.

Ah yes, the bike. Progress. I don't normally paint my frames because I like original patina, but this one is a bit too tatty to leave as it is, so:



Naked! I thought the blue was the original colour, but under the blue there was clearly a gloss black layer. I had actually matched up some paint quite closely to the blues, both Rover colours: Henley Blue for the light and Tahiti Blue for the dark. I did quite fancy changing it to black, though, and since I now know it was originally black, it's going to go black. I'll pick out the ends by hand in gold pinstripe.

I mentioned I like original patina. There's one bit on the frame I don't want to lose because it's very old and very rare, and that's the old Reynolds 531 sticker. It's a very early obscure 30s one and it's not shown on the H Lloyd list of early 531 stickers so I'm going to make a lot of effort to pick it out and save it. Basically I need to get a bit of clearcoat over the top of it so I can mask it off without destroying it, then I can get the paint off from around it, then I can mask up and paint. I feel it's lasted this long and otherwise it'll get lost in history if I scrape it off.

 

[Jonny69]

Re:

Final build is ON!

Frame is painted in Tekaloid enamel - which I thoroughly recommend. There's a lot of **** paint out there these days, but Tekaloid is still top notch. Wheels are built and trued. Tyres are on their way. Wingnuts on their way for the front. Cloth tape in the shed once I've decided which bars I'm going to use and I just need to find a skinny brake lever that doesn't look out of place. Go! Go!

 

[Jonny69]

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They're way too big (07/09/2021 - it was a 30mm tanwall tubular). Which is a shame, because they're great looking tyres. Needs to be a 25 I think.

 

[anidel]

Amazing build. Lovely frame, much similar to my Holdsworth from the same year (1939).

loved how you saved the saddle and the 531 sticker! Picture of the sticker after the re-paint is missing though

 

[anidel]

Btw you can see the steps of my build here: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/254501/

 

[Jonny69]

I didn't manage to save the sticker, sadly. I masked it but the tape pulled the top layer of the sticker off and it looked terrible. Thanks for the link to yours - I think I've seen it before but I'm looking forward to having another read!

 

[anidel]

I didn't manage to save the sticker, sadly. I masked it but the tape pulled the top layer of the sticker off and it looked terrible. Thanks for the link to yours - I think I've seen it before but I'm looking forward to having another read!

Shame about the sticker :/

 

[Jonny69]

It's Goodwood this weekend and I'm planning to ride down from London. Yesterday was a quick shakedown run after being parked up for a few months. Lovely day for it.

Sad that all the images in the thread are now dead. I'll try and find them and put some of them back.

Edit: most images reinstated

 

[Jonny69]

A couple of bits that I never posted. Just before I stuck the tyres to the wheels, I wanted to deal with the loose eyelet on the valve hole. I don't think it was going to cause an issue, but I wanted to sort it out sooner rather than have to do it later. Essentially, the back of the eyelet had corroded and it could shift around. It was a bit too thin to permanently peen back into position and I didn't really know where to get another one. I decided to bond it with a modern structural adhesive used on aircraft, F1 components etc. Here you can see where I've held it in place with flashtape and bonded it from the back, which has both added support and holds it in place.

This was late 2016 I think.