Wearwell restoration

rampax

Hi
I was looking through my dads shed the other day and found his old Wearwell racer, from the mid 1950s, it's in quite a sorry state now:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/475200198155383169
I have looked on the web and have found catalogues which contain small drawings, but I have not seen any photos of a Wearwell from this era, or one that has been restored.
Gears and brakes still work, even though they have not been used in at least 20 years.
The tubing is 531, and it's quite light. Unfortunately the frame is very rusted, seems like surface rust rather than pitted.
So, my questions are:
1. How would i know if this frame is still structurally sound on the inside?
2. Is this worth a restoration?
3. Does anyone have any photos of Wearwell's from this era, or restored?

Cheers.

rolf_f

I had a modern steel MTB. After not so long the paint started blistering on the chainstays and around the BB. I took it back to the manufacturer and they bead blasted it. They found quite a few holes! The frame was replaced but it didn't feel wrong before I stopped riding it and I think it could have handled a fair bit more corrosion before any catastrophic failure.

So, if there aren't blisters under the undamaged paint (indicating something coming through from the inside) then it's probably OK. You could take the BB out and have a look at the state of things there (loose flakey rust bits in my MTB) but if the BB shell looks dry and sound you are probably OK. Reynolds tubing isn't too bad for corrosion resistance.

Worth the restoration? Probably cheaper and quicker to buy one already restored but that's not the point! Besides, you could do a purely mechanical restoration on that possibly for pennies if it just needs regreasing, cleaning and oiling.

For more info on the bike I'd go to Retrobike forums.

PS - I like the bike!