Rusty old Muddy Fox

[Tsundere]

It's quite satisfying when that stubborn part is finally defeated!
Tbh I'd probably be binning most of those components and replacing with the ones you have in the garage. Some might be salvageable with a lot of time and effort, but it may not be worth it. Things like bars + stem are worth saving/repainting though as they may be unique to the bike, the Shimano parts you can easily/cheaply get if needed.

Yeah, I have an identical crankset ready to replace this one, I'd like to re-use the BB if possible but will replace if there's any doubts about its fitness. This was the hardest part I've had to deal with yet, luckily I've never had a seized seat post, but this was genuinely rage inducing at times, the relief when it came off almost made the suffering worthwhile.

 

[Tsundere]

Some more parts emerge from the evaporust, bottom bracket looks fine, no pitting in the races and bearings showing no obvious signs of excessive wear. Front derailleur looks as good as can be expected.

There was one notable casualty from the Battle of Bracket Bottom...


Looking at the frame there are several pretty bad rust spots and rashes, and although generally the decals are in excellent condition, the paint itself is very badly faded, in places it's not so much fluro yellow as last weeks custard yellow, this is most obvious when comparing the worst bits with paint that avoided the suns glare, pictures don't really convey how dull parts of the frame now look.

As much as I want this to be a faithful and sympathetic restoration, it gets harder to avoid fact that this bike is in need of a fresh paint job.

 

[Tsundere]

Some more bits after a bath in Evaporust, stuff is amazing. I'm planning on replacing the chainset but cleaned this one up just to see how it would come out, lost all the black paint too but actually looks perfectly usable. Seatpost QR bolt will never be shiny as most of the chrome was displaced by the rust, but again it's looking alright, I was almost certain this bit would be beyond saving but seeing it now and depending on how well it polishes up I'll probably be using it.

The derailleur guard has lost some paint but otherwise looks sound, and the derailleur itself has come out really nice, although it's lost a bit of the black enamel. Any tips on how best to restore it would be appreciated.

 

[Peachy!]

Good work, but you need to keep in mind that the cleaned mild steel parts will soon get a fine layer of surface rust if you don't do something quick..either a whiff over with clear coat, or polish up with MAAS or a coating with a silicone spray..

 

[Tsundere]

Indeed, I am applying some maas as we speak
Edit...

 

[Tsundere]

Only made a small amount of progress the past few days mainly because of work and other distractions, but I wanted to share this relatively minor part because for me it's the bit I'm most pleased with so far. Along with the seat post QR bolt it was a part I was sure would end up in the bin, I didn't bother photographing it before as I was certain there would be no after pics worth sharing, although you can see a bit of how bad it was in the sellers pic.

Brasso and sanding pads did most of the work after a second soak in Evaporust and hours of attacking it with a wire brush and steel wool shifted the rust, like the aforementioned seat post bolt this will probably make it to the finished build, I'll keep working on both parts as I'm sure there's still room for improvement.

So an old half empty tin of brasso that I found in the garage many years ago but never used seems to be a great product for bringing seriously rust damaged and tarnished parts back to life.

 

[Tsundere]

Another couple of bits saved from the bin, this is rapidly becoming an extremely thrifty resto job
I might even have to repaint it myself

 

[sam_white]

Can't believe no one else has mentioned the frame number. I haven't seen a Hodaka built MF before, and that number indicates a build date of 1989.

 

[kingoffootball]

Can't believe no one else has mentioned the frame number. I haven't seen a Hodaka built MF before, and that number indicates a build date of 1989.

That is interesting, I hadn't even seen a Hodaka frame number that early. That suggests the GTs, Konas etc. with T serial numbers were built in a different Taiwanese factory, right? Do you know what that factory/company was?

 

[RetroDavy]

T = Toyo, I think.