Frame in progress (two)

That's how it looks after the first layer of paint. I'll wait for it to fully dry  before water-sanding (again...) and spraying the second layer.
As you can see the colour is "verde Bianchi" (with some contrasting parts in white)
This time I've been wise enough not to take a family ballot (the polls showed that only my youngest was supporting dad)

Fork in progress

So now the frame's significant other: the fork.
Same process as for the frame. The fork crown seems to be investment cast (not forged/welded) and the underside finish is rather coarse (but who's going to look down there?)

Please notice the white dropouts. It's a distinctive trait in all my restored frames (well, the white rear bridge too...)

Why? There's no particular reason. I painted this way my first frame and I've kept doing so. A mere eccentricity...

Frame in progress (one)

So this is how the water-sanded frame looks like ( after moderate swearing and lots of sanding).

 

 

Now, applied the first priming in white. I retristcted it to the rust-sensitive spots (i.e. the joints) and to those areas  that will finished in this same colour. In fact this priming is intended as the base layout (requiring just a second and last hand later)

Alter ego

Just by chance I've found a picture of an unknown bike (believed to be a BH from the sixties) that displays the very same lugs, dropouts, fork crown, brake arms & levers and.... quill stem.
Unfortunately the bike was repainted and the decals were lost.

Is TITAN a second brand from BH?

Frame restoration 1

After using a mild degreaser I started removing the original paint. This time I opted for a set of brushes displaying different bristles (steel, cooper and the third one nylon).
First used a paint remover and let it work for some minutes, then attacked the softened surface with the steel brush trying not to scratch too much the tube's surface and finishing off the job with the more gentle cooper and nylon brushes.

The last step is a throrough water-sanding to level off the small imperfections.
That's how it looks like.

Brass brazing, isn't it? There's an ungainly blob clearly visible We'll talk about it later.

That's how it looked the day I purchased it. I had already removed the quill stem with flat bars -and obviuous retrofit-  the cheap straight seat-post -no saddle though- and the wheels. We'll talk later about the wheels
As can easily be seen the paint job is quite damaged (better don't have a look at the other side) and the decals are made from a frail thin sheet clearly unfit for reuse
At first glance it seems rather a forlorn sight but after some restoration work I hope that "la tua (sua) salute rifiorirà". And yes I like Opera.

Quill Stem

I've recently acquired a third-hand rusty bike to restore. It seems to be a mid quality steel frame labelled TITAN assembled with BH original parts. Is TITAN somehow related to BH? Still don't know but what remains of the original drive train is BH and the lugs seem to be BH too
.

Anyway let's start with the quill-stem. As you can see it's a single cast aluminium piece  shaped as those old two-piece lugged steel stems from the fifties and sixties. The quill measures 8 cm, the stem 15 cm and the angle shows a neutral 75º. The bar clamp is 25mm securing the bars by means of a single 11mm hex bolt (with a cunning built in lip-groove  to prevent untightening), the expander  is conic not wedged so, after these considerations, I'd dare to date it as a circa 1960-70 stem. The letters BF (not BH) are clearly stamped in both sides of the quill so it must be of French origin.
It has obviously lived a hard life attending to the many scratches unveiled by the clean up (used a mild degreaser). That's how it looks after some water-sanding.