New years starting off with a bang! Ritchey

[Remko]

Re:

Nice!! I like the rack.

 

[Retro junkie]

Re:

Not some much of a bang, more like a cannon going off!!! WOWZER!!

 

[eshew]

Re:

Had a chance to work a bit on the bike today. Today's first challenge was to see if we could get the front derailleur looking better. Lots of rust, might have a 2nd pass at it later but it'll do for now.

 

[eshew]

Re:

After finally getting the rack off, (it's a loss, was a nice rack though) I decided it was time to focus a little lower.

Crank removal was next on the list. How hard could that be, right?

Got out my 15mm socket...

 

[eshew]

I missed the 15 minutes of sun we had today to show off my motivation. So here are some LED light enhanced pics, going to need to do some cutting & waxing on this bike to help the paint out. Although I have no idea what cutting is, so maybe not.

The plan is to keep EVERYTHING original on the bike aside from housing & any cables that can't be salvaged.

I need pedals & wanted a set like these, but I'll have to keep it in the want & aint never gonna have em list.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Bill-Grov ... 7675.l2557

 

[eshew]

Re:

Cranks cleaned up well & moved on to rear triangle cleaning.

I've never been so motivated to clean a bike before. Fun around every corner.

 

[Retro junkie]

Cutting I think refers to cutting compound. Something like T.cut or such.
Personally I use autosol in the black and gold tube... Has the consistancy of toothpaste. It should be used on alloy and such but works great on refreshing old paint work to get rid of any fine layer of dull paint work.
Basically it give you the desired effect your after to make the finish pop that little bit more. Be sure to give it a wax after you have buffed it off.

 

[eshew]

Sounds like that will be just what the paint needs, just a little off the top and a polish to make it pop. I assume it's best to mask off the decals when cutting and polishing.

Everything is cleaning up well. I need to figure out if I can get cable housing ends for the 6mm brake cable housing & step up adapters for the brake levers. Once I get those or find a workaround it's show time!

 

[eshew]

Re:

Finished! & a sunny day as well!

 

[eshew]

Finally picked up a set of 83 Suntour XCII's I pulled off of an OG Diamondback Ridge Runner. The Ritchey is done!