Vintage bike restoration

My brother had my mom’s old bike rusting behind his shed. When I visited him this summer, I decided to take the bike and try to restore it. I had always liked this bike that my mom bought back in 1977. It doesn’t have gears or handbrakes but is made of good and sturdy materials. My brother was happy to give me the bike, and my nephew helped me take it in smaller parts to fit it in our car trunk/boot.

A word of warning. English is not my mother tongue and some of the terms might have errors. I’m not even sure I know all the bike part names in Finnish, although I learned a lot during this project!

So here is the bike back at home. The next thing was to take it completely apart.

My new (old) bike was made by Norwegian Jonas Øklænd. I found a handy website that you can check to find out the year of manufacture for these old bikes. This particular bike was made in 1977 which fits well with my mother’s telling that she bought it in 1978.

The saddle

The saddle was the worst part of the bike. The last few years outside in the sun, rain and snow had thoroughly destroyed the faux leather that wasn’t in good shape to start with. As sewing is my hobby, I started with reupholstering the saddle.

I got faux leather that was meant for outdoor use in boats and such from a local upholsterer. He was kind enough not only to give this small scrap of leather for free but also to glue a thin layer of foam underneath. I used the old saddle piece to cut an approximate shape and then started stretching it over the saddle. Warming up the leather with a heat gun helped a lot and those clips were a life saver.

Once I had the cover pretty well adjusted, I added a few stitches to hold the corners in place. Then I started stitching around the saddle. I used thick topstitching thread and the saddle stitch (how fitting!). First I stitched only to fasten the outer layer. I went mainly through the old holes in the saddle but I found out that with the help of pliers, I could stitch through the plastic in places where it was needed.

Then I glued the edge of the leather to the inside of the saddle.

Then I stitched around the saddle edge once more to fasten the inner edge as well. I then took the saddle to a local car upholsterer who attached the rivets.

Disassembly

Then I had to continue with the frame. First, I couldn’t figure out how to remove the handlebar. I could take out the long screw that fastened the handlebar in place but the actual stem tube was stuck. Luckily I could call my dad and he told me to put the screw back in and hit it with a hammer! Well, that did the job. These vintage bikes have a hidden cone inside the stem tube that has to be removed with brute force.

This is how the inside of the head tube looked:

I removed the cover, the ball bearings and the little washer. The rusty part in the middle is the cone that had to be loosened with a hammer.

The next challenge was to get the crank out. This bike has a Fauber crank that is one continuous piece. Once more brute force and a hammer was needed but that wasn’t all. I started removing the worn pedals. The first came off easily but the second needed some soaking in deep penetrating oil to loosen the rusty threads. (The threads in the pedals also go in opposite directions.) I removed the washer by attaching a screwdriver to one of those grooves at the side and hammering it. I removed the dust cup and the ball bearings and then got stuck.

To get the crank out, I had to remove the ball-bearing cups on both sides of the hub. Those were screwed in place and the threads had rusted in. No matter how I soaked the joint in deep penetrating oil and hammered, I couldn’t move anything. Finally, I got one side open but the other side didn’t butch.

Finally, I bought WD-40 that I read about online and after two days of soaking the threads in this stuff, I managed to open the hub and got the crank out. After four days of trying, I felt like a winner!

To get all the greasy bits out I then took apart the wheel hubs. The back wheel has a brake system and the assembly is quite complicated:

The front wheel is much simpler:

I washed all the parts and used my Dremel to sand away the rust. The ball bearings were in a very good shape, all except one that had lost some balls during my struggle with the crank removal. Luckily I found the replacement part in a local bike repair shop.

After washing everything, I had unfortunately forgotten where all the parts originated from! I was pretty happy that I took at least some pictures!

I wanted to remove the kickstand but that was easier said than done. Apparently, there is a tool that you could use to easily remove the kickstand but I couldn’t find any bike shop that had one. So, I left the kickstand in place and covered it with tape. Then I sanded the frame thoroughly for the painting removing all the rust and making the surface ready for the paint.

New paint

I have painted one bike before but it is a hassle. This time I decided to use a professional. There is a car paint shop less than half a mile from where I live and they were more than happy to help me. They even managed to find a matching colour!

Here is the bike frame after I got it back. And yes, I went and retrieved it with this cart since I had temporarily misplaced my car keys!

I was left to paint the mudguards and the chainguard. I started with a layer of rust primer and then added two layers of white metal paint.

However, the paint on the mudguards was hardly dry when I changed my mind. I ordered new tyres online and found cream-coloured tyres that didn’t look so good with the white paint. So, I repainted the mudguards black. Luckily it had taken me some time to remove the coloured plastic film on the chainguard, so I hadn’t had time to paint that white as well.

The rack and the lock

Then I started looking at the assembly. I hadn’t paid much attention to the rack. On my bike, the rack was an important part of the bike frame as it held the mudguard in place. Unfortunately, there was a crack in it. I couldn’t find a new rack that would fit, so I had to find someone to weld the crack. Once again, Dad came to my help and found a guy who not only welded the crack but also straightened the rack that was bent in the middle.

The original lock hadn’t moved in about 20 years. The key didn’t budge at all. After my success with the centre hub I added WD-40 to the lock and left it for a few days. When I tried to turn the key, the lock moved! With some more oil, I managed to make the lock functional again! Of course, this kind of lock doesn’t really protect the bike as it doesn’t stop anyone simply carrying the bike away but as it was welded to the frame, it was nice to have it working.

Assembly

Assembling the bike is messy, so I first practised without grease. That helped me figure out where all the little bits and pieces were supposed to go. Luckily there are lots of pictures online. Here is a nice picture how to assemble the back Shimano hub. I

couldn’t find a detailed picture of the Fauber center but this helped as it has all the parts listed. I also found some really good videos on YouTube. Figuring out the place for a little locking washer like this wasn’t easy, though. I had to take the bike hubs apart several times until I found a place for this thing (FYI it went to the Fauber center):

The new tires look so good! I have also fastened a new backlight. Here the chain and the pedals are still missing.

The pedals turned out to be a bit tricky. I had ordered a pair of white Union pedals together with the tyres. Unfortunately, they didn’t fit my bike which had old-fashioned 1/2″ threads on the crank. All new bikes have 9/16″ thread and that’s what I had bought. So, I had to leave my pretty white pedals and buy similar pedals but in black as I couldn’t find black pedals with the 1/2″ thread.

The front light

I found a pretty battery-powered frontlight at Amazon. However, the little bracket the light came with was too short to reach to the screw underneath the front mudguard. So, I took this L-shaped metal connector bit from a hardware store and turned it to an extender part with some bending.

The installed frontlight is pretty similar to the one I remember the bike having originally.

I know that a dynamo light would be more accurate historically but I didn’t want to add extra work for my poor legs. Besides, I didn’t go for a historically accurate bike anyway. I did also consider painting the back part of the mudguard white and adding the stickers back but I finally decided against it as now it fits my Victorian aesthetics better.

The chain

I threw away the old and rusty chain and added a new one. I shortened it a bit but apparently not enough as on my first bike trip I dropped my chain three times. Finallym, shortened the chain so much that it actually pulls my rear wheel forward a bit. However, the chain stays in place even when biking uphill.

The dress guards

Remember me spray-painting the mudguards several times? Well, I could have saved myself from trouble as I finally decided to install vintage skirt guards (these ones). That meant I had to drill 59 small holes in the mudguards. I tried first doing this at home as I had successfully managed to drill a hole for my backlight. However, the first hole taught me that it wouldn’t work. My Dremel was too unstable and there were way too many holes. So, it was time to take a trip to the local library!

I know this is not something that libraries are usually offering but Helsinki metropol libraries have all kinds of equipment for people to use from laser-cutters to 3D-printers and sewing machines. Well, what I was after was this vertical drilling machine. I had never used it before but I found it was a perfect tool for the task. I could clamp my mudguard in place and drill away!

Of course, I still had to re-paint the mudguards but this time I already had lots of experience!

Installing dress guards took some time as some of the metal clips on the skirt guard were too loose and the hooks on the net came off. I had to sew several of the loops in place but the shop I bought the guards from compensated for the trouble.

The final thing was to centre the wheel under the mudguard. The dress guards are so close to the wheel that the wheel has to be aligned well. At first, it stuck to the left skirt guard. Finally, it took some careful positioning of the bike on our lawn and both me and my son gently jumping on the frame to bend the rack and therefore the mudguard attachment so that the skirtguard didn’t hinder the wheel movement.

The finished bike!

I’m super happy with how this project game out. It took a lot of time but I enjoyed it a lot. The bike looks like new and riding it is smooth. I still have to adjust to not having a hand-brake but otherwise I have no problems. I have no need for gears as this bike is easy to pedal both uphil and downhill. Now I hope this bike will last another 50 years.

Thank you for reading and see you soon,

Katja