Restoring my first proper bike

[Dinnaken]

Hi Folks,
I was directed to the Retrobikes site by a colleague who is a keen mountain biker.
At her prompting, my project for this year has become to restore to working order my first proper bike, a Dawes Galaxy which I bought new in 1980 after a few months in my first job.
I used to go everywhere on it, it was my pride and joy. However, it's spent the last decade in my shed after a crash, followed by a botched respray at my local bike shop (quote "We've got a bloke that can do that" - well you live and learn) and finally my dearly beloved accidentally spilling a corrosive chemical on it.
After all that, thoroughly disheartened I stuck at the back of my shed but no longer...
I'm aiming to restore it as closely as possible to its appearance in 1980 and so I'm looking for advice on sourcing replacement parts as close to the originals as possible and for hints and tips on restoration.
Thanks

 

[Ian Raleigh]

Lets see some good pic's of your Dawes first

That will get all the eager full time members something to work on


Cheers.
Ian.

 

[bulldog]

yes pics please

 

[Rich34]

Welcome to the forum and as others have said - need some pictures of your Galaxy so that we know what to get excited about! There are a couple of Galaxies on here, including mine, and there's always room for another.

Not looking forward to seeing the damage to the paint though...

 

[Dinnaken]

My first proper bike

Hi Folks,
I hope I get this right I'm not a regular user of forums...
Thank you all for your kind welcoming words, much appreciated.
Here goes with some pictures; I'm afraid they're rather large
One shows the frame after I'd started to strip it down.
The other is a close up of the rear drop outs where the corrosive chemical spilt on it.
The rust looks very bright and aggressive but since that picture was taken I've sanded down a section of it and, fortunately it's surface rust and the pitting doesn't seem too deep.

 

[Ian Raleigh]

WOW....big pictures !

The rear stays are badly rusted. I myself would be wanting to know if they are pin-holed at all !
If they are they could fail if you put the frame under heavy pedalling, time to get the screw-driver out to find out :?

 

[Dinnaken]

Yes, that's a very good point. At some point all the paint has to come off for a proper re-spray so, as you suggest it would be as well to find out now rather than later.
Time for some aggresive sanding I think...
Regards

 

[Ian Raleigh]

Using a Stanley knife with a new blade is a good way of scraping the paint away then you can use a pointed screwdriver to prod at any bad rust marks.

Don't just think 'its only surface rust' you need to be sure so get prodding

I had a nice Raleigh once which looked good but after i removed the paint were it was blistering an hole appeared the size
of a five pence. The frame was scrapped because i couldn't afford to have it repaired.

 

[Dinnaken]

Thanks for the advice. I'll get the stanley knife out this afternoon and let you know what turns up!

 

[Dinnaken]

Hi folks,
Following your advice I've just spent 30 minutes with a steel wire brush and some 180 wet n' dry paper sanding down the worst areas of the frame. The good news is that probing with an engineer's scribe has failed to reveal any holes despite a lot of pitting.
I guess that the suspect respray has let damp in under the paint as it looks like a small burrowing animals have made themselves at home under the paint.