Marin 1990 Bear Valley Rebuild - FINISHED !!! PAGE 38 !!!
- Thread starter WD Pro
- Start date
I know a lot of people are watching this thread so I am hoping someone could help with this ? http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=101189
I only need the forks and will pay all costs and time if someone could pick up and post me the forks - all the other bits you can keep / sell etc
So, anyone want to do me a favour and make some beer money / get some spares in the process ? Please ...
WD
I only need the forks and will pay all costs and time if someone could pick up and post me the forks - all the other bits you can keep / sell etc
So, anyone want to do me a favour and make some beer money / get some spares in the process ? Please ...
WD
Fingers crossed, but it looks like the correct forks I have been waiting for are now on there way to me with great thanks to ‘dannywhiteley’ and ‘GT-Steve’
I am not out of the woods yet though, the steerer will need extra thread adding and shortening … :-(
So any ideas who can do this for me and guarantee a top job ? Any recommendations for people / places that you have actually had work done there would be greatly appreciated. Is anyone on here able to do them ? I will post them wherever required and am prepared to pay good money to get these things right – I have waited long enough for them
In the meantime I located a great pair of thumb shifters from ‘d_douglas’ I only bought them for the condition of the levers and these came still with the protective film on :
Even the clamps are pretty good :
But the clamps won’t actually be used on the Marin as I have the others that I have modified (pictures further up the thread).
So in my quest to find the perfect shifters I have actually ended up with three sets The best set for the Marin and the second best set will end up on the GF’s bike.
One set which are ‘ok’ will be going spare – anyone interested ? ;-)
WD
with great thanks to ‘dannywhiteley’ and ‘GT-Steve’ I am not out of the woods yet though, the steerer will need extra thread adding and shortening … :-(
So any ideas who can do this for me and guarantee a top job ? Any recommendations for people / places that you have actually had work done there would be greatly appreciated. Is anyone on here able to do them ? I will post them wherever required and am prepared to pay good money to get these things right – I have waited long enough for them
In the meantime I located a great pair of thumb shifters from ‘d_douglas’ I only bought them for the condition of the levers and these came still with the protective film on
:
Even the clamps are pretty good :
But the clamps won’t actually be used on the Marin as I have the others that I have modified (pictures further up the thread).
So in my quest to find the perfect shifters I have actually ended up with three sets
The best set for the Marin and the second best set will end up on the GF’s bike.One set which are ‘ok’ will be going spare – anyone interested ? ;-)
WD
Well the forks have turned up but there are still a few hurdles to cross
There was quite a lot of paint damage (not bothered about that as there being re-powder coated anyway) but some of the chips looked quite large, possibly dints.... I sanded the paint off around the worst of them and after removing some burrs, all other than one looked ok.
It apeared that it was hammer damage on the underside of the crown ? Took me a minute to suss out why - there was an expander wedge stuck in the steerer !
It was pretty firmly in there but with a bit of gentle persuasion it came out i.e. a lump hammer and long bar It was stuck in there a bit tighter than it might have been as the previous hammering had spread the ally efectivley peening it in there !
So I think / hope the remaining dint can be filled by silver brazing so I will purchase some rod and flux and give it a go
I should be able to borrow an old 1" die on Monday so I will also have a go at extending the thread. Hopefully the die will be good / sharp enough - I will try on the old ones first !
Then I just need to chop the end off the steerer and remove the rack eyes
Pics coming soon
WD
but there are still a few hurdles to cross There was quite a lot of paint damage (not bothered about that as there being re-powder coated anyway) but some of the chips looked quite large, possibly dints.... I sanded the paint off around the worst of them and after removing some burrs, all other than one looked ok.
It apeared that it was hammer damage on the underside of the crown ? Took me a minute to suss out why - there was an expander wedge stuck in the steerer !
It was pretty firmly in there but with a bit of gentle persuasion it came out i.e. a lump hammer and long bar
It was stuck in there a bit tighter than it might have been as the previous hammering had spread the ally efectivley peening it in there !So I think / hope the remaining dint can be filled by silver brazing so I will purchase some rod and flux and give it a go
I should be able to borrow an old 1" die on Monday so I will also have a go at extending the thread. Hopefully the die will be good / sharp enough - I will try on the old ones first !
Then I just need to chop the end off the steerer and remove the rack eyes
Pics coming soon
WD
Hey, no worries dude !
It was greatly appreciated you picking them up, packing and posting them. In the scheme of things the wedge was little problem and came out OK
The only job that really concerns me is the rethreading and I have to do that regardless of condition
I am not going to do any more work on the fork until that bit is completed 100 % ;-)
Hopefully these will be the turning point in finishing the build
WD
It was greatly appreciated you picking them up, packing and posting them. In the scheme of things the wedge was little problem and came out OK
The only job that really concerns me is the rethreading and I have to do that regardless of condition
I am not going to do any more work on the fork until that bit is completed 100 % ;-)
Hopefully these will be the turning point in finishing the build
WD
Spent a bit of time last night on the replacement forks and for a change, it is all good news
I managed to re-borrow the ancient tool (suspected to be circa 30 years :shock: ) for re-threading the steerer. I had used this before when I was trying to re-build the old threads with epoxy but I wasn’t sure if the tool would be in good (sharp) enough condition to actually cut new threads onto steel :?
I was quite dubious / cautious as A) the LBS damaged the original fork threads - supposedly only cleaning off a burr :evil: and B) the ‘emergency’ forks I had (Pictured on page 12) were also damaged when the thread was extended by a very well known / respected UK frame builder This was all documented in writing with an initial email warning :
“We can certainly try. There is an element of risk though. If the column is of poor quality steel the thread may tear.”
And then another when the job was completed :
“Your forks arrived on Friday. The job is done and they're leaving today with ***. The tracking no. is ***
As we thought might happen, the thread has torn slightly, but is OK. We have had 2 nuts on tightened. Just take care when fitting and ensure the thread is well lubricated.”
I can post a picture if anyone is interested, although they would work OK, they certainly don’t look very pretty :-(
So with the forks in a wooden work mate and my friend holding everything still, I had a go on the black forks that I am replacing, all looked ok …
Switching over to the new forks (and a good while later) produced this :
Which was soon cut down to the correct length, de-burred and chamfered to leave the finished item looking like this :
It did leave me wondering WTF the LBS and frame builder had done to screw up the others though …
I have now cut the thread longer on the original black forks so they can be used as spare / replacement forks for either my mums orange or the (yet to build) specialized for the GF, both of them have really short head tubes – the forks / dropouts are to nicely made to be skipped
So the last hurdle is the dint that needs filling :
I am going to have a go at this myself - fill it with braze and flat it off to the original profile etc
By chance I found the brazing rods at work :
I work for a company that recently closed manufacture on our site (Resulting in a loss of 407 employees :-( ) and completely striped out all the machines etc as the property (20 hectares) is now up for sale. I was walking past the old tinsmith’s workshop and thought I should just have a quick look around for anything useful. The place was completely stripped of everything, with the exception of a tube of brazing rods sat in the corner waiting for me A quick search on the net indicates that the grade of rod should be OK for using on the forks
Just need to see if my torch is hot enough now, but I have lots of spare forks to practice on …
So last night turned out great and I went to sleep a happy man with my fingers smelling of …
Park CF2 cutting fluid …
WD
I managed to re-borrow the ancient tool (suspected to be circa 30 years :shock: ) for re-threading the steerer. I had used this before when I was trying to re-build the old threads with epoxy but I wasn’t sure if the tool would be in good (sharp) enough condition to actually cut new threads onto steel :?
I was quite dubious / cautious as A) the LBS damaged the original fork threads - supposedly only cleaning off a burr :evil: and B) the ‘emergency’ forks I had (Pictured on page 12) were also damaged when the thread was extended by a very well known / respected UK frame builder
This was all documented in writing with an initial email warning :“We can certainly try. There is an element of risk though. If the column is of poor quality steel the thread may tear.”
And then another when the job was completed :
“Your forks arrived on Friday. The job is done and they're leaving today with ***. The tracking no. is ***
As we thought might happen, the thread has torn slightly, but is OK. We have had 2 nuts on tightened. Just take care when fitting and ensure the thread is well lubricated.”
I can post a picture if anyone is interested, although they would work OK, they certainly don’t look very pretty :-(
So with the forks in a wooden work mate and my friend holding everything still, I had a go on the black forks that I am replacing, all looked ok …
Switching over to the new forks (and a good while later) produced this :
Which was soon cut down to the correct length, de-burred and chamfered to leave the finished item looking like this :
It did leave me wondering WTF the LBS and frame builder had done to screw up the others though …
I have now cut the thread longer on the original black forks so they can be used as spare / replacement forks for either my mums orange or the (yet to build) specialized for the GF, both of them have really short head tubes – the forks / dropouts are to nicely made to be skipped
So the last hurdle is the dint that needs filling :
I am going to have a go at this myself - fill it with braze and flat it off to the original profile etc
By chance I found the brazing rods at work :
I work for a company that recently closed manufacture on our site (Resulting in a loss of 407 employees :-( ) and completely striped out all the machines etc as the property (20 hectares) is now up for sale. I was walking past the old tinsmith’s workshop and thought I should just have a quick look around for anything useful. The place was completely stripped of everything, with the exception of a tube of brazing rods sat in the corner waiting for me
A quick search on the net indicates that the grade of rod should be OK for using on the forks Just need to see if my torch is hot enough now, but I have lots of spare forks to practice on …
So last night turned out great and I went to sleep a happy man with my fingers smelling of …
Park CF2 cutting fluid …
WD
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