Bike Restoration Project - Before

Some eagle-eyed readers have commented that I have referred to a new bicycle in a couple of my posts. I'm finally ready to unveil my project. I bought a vintage bicycle about a month ago from a local seller. The components have a dating stamp on them that indicates that they were manufactured in 1973 so I'm guessing the bicycle was assembled in 1974.

The bike was hand-made and wasn't constructed by a major manufacturer. After weeks of reasearch, I've determined that it is very probably an Andy Gilmour racing bicycle. Andy has been building bicycle frames since the early 70's. I've been in contact with Andy via email and he says that while he can't be 100% certain, that it definitely looks like one of his early builds.

The bike is built in the classic lugged steel construction style using lightweight columbus steel tubing. The original owner of the bicycle went out of their way to outfit the bike with top of line lightweight components and parts and build the best bicycle they could. The components are the highly desirable Camagnolo Nuovo Record group and all the bolts were replaced with lightweight aluminum alloy ones to further reduce the weight.

While it was fortunate that the original owner took such great care to assemble the bicycle, the second owner wasn't as kind to the bicycle although it was obviously a "rider" instead of a "show-er" for him. There was a significant rust issue, the bike was filthy and it would definitely require a new paint job.

Here are the obligatory before photos.















As I bought it

Note the padded gel seat and "unique" bar tape. Gah.















Super Record Chainrings

Drill pattern to further reduce weight. Beautiful.




















Hand cut lugs

Pretty.




















Bottom bracket

Hand cut "G" detail.




















Little Rust Problem

The owner lives about 50 yards from the ocean and the bike was stored in a non-airtight storage room and just started rusting away. Rust was my biggest concern but it appeared to be limited to a surface issue.




















Campagnolo Nuovo Record Rear Derailleur

As noted above, the bike was filthy. I spent no less than 6 hours cleaning it before sending it in for repainting.




















"G" Decal

Remnant of a decal that doesn't match any manufacturer I've been able to find. In the future I'm going to have to have it recreated.

I'll let you stew on these and will begin posting some "after" photos in the near future. If all goes well, I'll get this baby back on the road in the next two weeks.