Campus bike project part II: Progress and road blocks (1978 Schwinn Traveler III)

Last weekend I started on cleaning the brakes for this project which had some rusty bits and I thought I would try Oxalic acid.

Oxalic acid bath

It wasn't warm enough outside, only about 50 degrees F, and I wasn't able to soak them for more than a couple hours but I gave it a shot anyway.

It wasn't perfect but I did see enough improvement in my abortive attempt to want to try again when its warmer and I can do a proper soak.  It was fine for this project as I don't want things too shiny.

The barrel adjusters were still frozen even after the acid bath so I soaked them in some liquid wrench and then went to True Value to get a small adjustable wrench as the nuts on the adjuster bolt were smaller than 9mm which was my smallest open end wrench.  I have sockets and box end wrenches that are smaller than 9mm but I needed an open end.

Using pliers as a vice and my new tiny wrench I did get the adjusting nut freed up so that the barrel adjusters are once again fully functional.

And that meant I could reassemble the brakes, I did make the mistake of taking both brakes apart at the same time when I should have really left one intact to use as a template, but I was able to get everything back together.

I used my headset cup remover to get the crusty headset cups out of the frame.

And then they got a long soak in the sonic cleaner to loosen and soften the decades old grease.

Which made them easy to clean up.

I didn't bother to remove the lower crown race but I did get it cleaned up in place.

To keep this bike ugly and therefore unappealing to campus bike thieves I am leaving the paint scratched, and scraped and rust spotted, however there were a few major rust spots I wanted to deal with.  I treated them with naval jelly and then after the frame dried I rubbed in some 3 in 1 oil, later I will either wax those frame sections or use some clear nail polish to slow down the rust returning.  In addition to naval jelly the bb shell also got a brass wire brush dremel session and then got a thin coat of grease.

I did a quick check of the wheels in the truing stand and then put the "new" rubber on and in doing so discovered that the front rim was a somewhat rare 27" rim drilled for a presta valve.  I could have drilled it out to accomdodate a schrader valve but I had a presta tube and it really goes with the mismatched theme of this bike, the wheels, tires and now tubes are all mismatched.  The tires are Boontrager and Specialized, the hubs are Shimano and generic, the rims are alloy and steel and the tubes are presta and schrader.

My work on the frame, headset cups and bb shell meant that by end of day Saturday I had the headset back together and the cartridge bb installed.  You may notice the bb pictured is different than the one  I showed last week, its what I always intended to use on this project since it is used but I couldn't find it last week!  Rummaging for other things in the parts bin turned it up so the new one will be saved for some other project, I also find using the half inch socket driver gives nice leverage when installing the bb cups.

It was all going well yesterday until I got around to dry fitting the stem.  I know about French bikes having an odd headtube size and stem (22.0) but it had slipped my mind that a majority of 70's Schwinns used an American standard of .833 inches for their stems or 21.15 in metric which is why my 22.2 stem wasn't going anywhere.  It wasn't a total loss as the handle bars I want to use were too small for that 22.2 stem without a shim, which I don.t have, but will work perfectly with the 25.4 opening (1 inch) on a standard .833 stem.  I made a mental note to visit bike works on Sunday as I didn't want to pay $16 to have a new stem shipped on Amazon for this low budget project.

Since bike works doesn't open until eleven, I went about my day before driving over...and found them closed!  I stood dumbfounded for a moment as it clearly says they have hours on Sunday and its 1 pm, and then I noticed the poster at the top of the door and recalled getting an email that they had an event today and realized I should have put 2 and 2 together earlier and saved myself a trip.  I consoled myself at the nearby Columbia City bakery with a blondie and a macaroon.  Next week I will come back for a stem and try to avoid the temptation of the warehouse and all the potential project bikes that lurk there.

The weekend wasn't a total loss, the derailleurs, brakes and cranks are mounted, I have a wheelset ready to mount and when I get the right stem I can unblock this project.

There is even a seat post and saddle secured to this frame.  Hopefully there will be more to come next week, until then Ride.Smile.Repeat.