Concorde Flies Again...

[jackosbournesnr]

Re: Concorde Flies Again... soon

Finally started the strip down and clean this morning, and then spent five hours taking the Gavina apart so that I can get to the frame to touch up the paintwork.

Hit a couple of issues almost straight away:

Forgot about the vintage nature of the crank bolts...I dont have a 15mm box spanner and nether did the LBS round the corner, so I need to go shopping tomorrow to get the cranks off.

Next up was the front brake bolt... beautifully fused into the fork. I've been soaking it in gt85 for over a week and it made zero difference. I eventually had to remove the fork and rotate the whole brake out of the nut. I'll drill the nut out in the morning.

Minor issue with the stem, but the rubber mallet "malky" sorted it out in a couple of minutes.

The Headset was solid too... It took nearly 15 minutes of rubber mallet "malky" to get it out.

After that I gave the frame a quick clean (deep clean tomorrow) and got the ultrasonic cleaner out...

I'll post the results tomorrow, but here's how the deltas started

Anything look amiss here?

 

[jackosbournesnr]

Re: Concorde Flies Again... soon

Been grounded (had to supervise sprogs) and its been hammering it down all morning so no advance with crank removal or frame cleaning.

Just about to jump out to the toolshop for the required box wrench and eclip (the missing bit from the delta) but had a quick check of the rest of the bits that aren't currently attached to the frame...

The not-quite-in-shot saddle is a white Flite Flow. Not pictured are seatpost (currently a period Primax still fitted) and new bottom bracket. The rear mech may get the logos removed as they look waaay out of place. I'll make the call on that and the seatpost once the build is complete.

I forgot to fish the new brake shoes out from the shed - I have spare pre-2000 shoes which should hopefully have the same anodise finish as the deltas and although they won't be period will both stop me and look a darn sight better than the Canti pads they had fitted.

 

[kingbling]

Re: Concorde Flies Again... soon

Looking good so far Ken may I suggest for that seized brake nut screw a bolt in to it from other side and do some mallet malarky on it.

 

[Happy Tom]

Re: Concorde Flies Again... soon

Interesting project this. Will be followed with interest.
Is it 9 speed rear mech?

btw here's my Aquila, fitted with an 11 Athena

 

[jackosbournesnr]

Re: Concorde Flies Again... soon

Looking good so far Ken may I suggest for that seized brake nut screw a bolt in to it from other side and do some mallet malarky on it.

Cheers Clive, I'll give that a bash. Its definitely an ally nut so if I do need to resort to the drill it shouldn't be much of a challenge.

Its currently soaking in some Rustins Rust Remover to see if that will clean up the underside of the crown. Even the usually magical tinfoil couldn't shift the combined crud and rust underneath. It looks sound enough though.

BTW - "Malky" is a Scottish word similar in meaning to giving it some "welly". "Malky" is however a much, much more aggressive version of "welly"... and often refers to physical violence.

Interesting project this. Will be followed with interest.

Is it 9 speed rear mech?

btw here's my Aquila, fitted with an 11 Athena

Nice retromod HT. That groupset looks great.

Its a 10 speed mech thats going on.

I've taken the 9 speed Mirage ergos and rear mech off and will be swapping in modified (to 10 speed) down tube shifters and period Chorus brake levers.

I'll run with the original 1st gen. Chorus chainset and front mech, although I might see if the spare Record triple chainset I have will work with the Chorus mech as it will make the bike much more useable than the 53/42 Chorus double.

 

[jackosbournesnr]

Re: Concorde Flies Again... soon

Got a set of box wrenches for a tenner and had the chainset bolts off in under a minute.

Horror of horrors, there was a cheapo Shimano BB hiding in the shell. Just as well I bought a new one!

I haven't managed to shift all of the crud out of the deltas, so the steam gun is coming to bear tonight

 

[jackosbournesnr]

Re:

And we're now ready for painting!

Rustins Rust Remover on the patches where cable rub had gone through the paint followed by a (second) wash down with Fenwick's. After that, a rub down and buff with T-Cut metallic and then a spot wipe with Isopropyl alcohol on the spots needing painted.

I'll re-do with IPA as I move from spot to spot with paint.

Huge improvement on the appearance I got the frame in, but even with the best will in the world, the paint is showing its age. It'll need regular polishing for the rest of its life.

If I can get a decent shot, I'll post a photo later.

 

[kaiser]

Re: Concorde Flies Again... soon

Interesting project this. Will be followed with interest.
Is it 9 speed rear mech?

btw here's my Aquila, fitted with an 11 Athena

HAppy Tom, do you have a thread about your Concorde?

 

[jackosbournesnr]

Re:

Forks now complete. The welded-in brake nut succumbed to a combination of kingling's "thread a bolt into the nut" and some good old Scottish "malky" which had it out in a couple of minutes.

Got as much of the rust off the crown area as possible and have fitted new Columbus decals and clearcoated over them. Sadly, the pitting around the underside of the crown and top of the legs is quite severe, but a tyre and the physical bulk of a Delta brake will hide most of it. I'm away on business for a couple of days, so a few coats of polish and silicon oil will go on when I get back.

Having been utterly filthy, both Deltas have been ultrasonically bathed, steam cleaned and had multiple flushings with GT85. I managed to refit two missing e-clips to the mechanism of the front without stripping them down... which was a relief. They're still ever so slightly gritty but I'm not convinced gritty enough to warrant taking them apart completely. Another flush or two of GT85 will hopefully get the last.

The frame is coming along fairly well after an unsuccessful first touch up with the wrong colour. The black is definitely black and very definitely not anthracite!

Have got most of the bigger chips and cable marks, but the mesh/snakeskin sections are proving to be a challenge to touch up convincingly with the colours I have. Between this and Loud Cougar, I might end up with a better paint collection than a model railway enthusiast!

Anybody know where I can source two thin lines of white vinyl? The seatstays would have originally had the same decal you can see on Happy Tom's Aquila. I can get the "Concorde" script (buy buying a full set of decals!) but not the white lines.

Got a big project running at work, so all things going well, final build on Sunday afternoon.

 

[kingbling]

Re: Concorde Flies Again... soon

White electrical tape cut to size will solve the problem.