I got the frame back from the sand blasting and powder coating guys. I settled on a pearl white paint scheme for this one. The powder coating results are ok, but I do get a better finish when I paint the frames myself. You can see that the paint hasn't quite adhered to the metal on some of the high points on the frame, most notably near the bottom bracket. This was the first frame that I took to get powder coated and it will probably be the last. You just can't beat the attention to detail that you get when your painting your bike out of a passion rather than quickly pumping out as many powder coated products as you can to turn a profit.
Here's a pic of the frame with test fit bottom bracket from my box of spares.
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| Pearl White Apollo Frame - Nice! |
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| Test Fitting the bottom bracket |
A rainy weekend meant that I also got to spend some time on the rear wheel. A lot of what I do to this bike will be determined by what I can do with the rear wheel and built in Shimano 3 speed hub.
This was the first time I have pulled apart a vintage Shimano internal hub so I took plenty of photos during the disassembly. The condition of the hub and gears actually look to be in pretty good shape. There was plenty of accumulated dirt and grease in the hub as is expected but the pleasant surprise is that there was zero rust in the actual hub. This is great news as I was expecting the hub to have seized and hence why the gear cable had been snapped somewhere up the line. The following photos serve as a pictorial sequence on how the hub came apart, hopefully, putting it back together will just be reversing this order.
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| Step 1 - Plenty of junk on it - I was thinking the hub was seized at this point |
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| Step 2 - The gear cable thingy has been screwed off, note the lock nut washer thingy |
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| Step 3 - The nuts have been removed, clip spring thingy, and that long skinny bolt that runs through the hub |
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| Step 4 - The Cog slides off, use your cone wrenches to loosen the cone |
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| Step 5 - Looking into the heart of the hub |
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| Step 6 - The non drive side of the wheel, loosen both bolts, care not to lose that spring |
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| Step 7 - Now the whole things can come out |
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| Step 8 - Note the position of that little piece of metal that stops the barrel falling out |
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| Step 9 - All the parts as they came off, Right to Left, top row is non-drive side, second and third row are drive side |
Next step will be giving these parts a bath in a degreasing solution, buying the adequate lubrication for the hub and putting it all back together.
