Mon Petit Peugeot Project

philcubed

Hi, having rode the eroica last year on a Chas Roberts I refurbed (another post to follow sometime) I am trying to do up a Peugeot for my brother in law to ride this year. I bought the bike off someone at work for 3 bottles of beer, it had been sitting in the bike sheds for quite a while. Its a 1985 bottom of the range Peugeot so I'm trying not ot spend too much money on it!
Here's some pics from when I bought it:




It's pretty rusty, so I have tried dunking it for several hours in oxalic acid..... (couldn't get the cranks off, any tips anyone)


Then tried rust remover:


But as the paint is pretty knackered from the amount of rust coming through, I am now going to strip the paint. I don't think I'll get it resprayed. Just laquer it to protect it. Thinking about not stripping the areas with the decals to keep some of the original, or maybe just strip the lot and re-decal it.

Anyhow, any tips, tricks, ideas appreciated.

rolf_f

You might find that if you attack the frame with metal polish that a lot of the rust marks will shrink a lot. Often it is a pinhole through to the metal that then gets stained around the hole. I refurbished a friends old Carlton and that had a very badly rust stained head tube but most of that polished away - sadly the before and after was uploaded to photobucket so I can't provide a quick link but the transformation was significant!
I'd be inclined to do that and get the end result gloss lacquered. Then you have a nice rat bicycle!

PS - it can't be that bottom of the range - it has forged dropouts and a stub to hook the chain on!

Matthewfalle

premieres were the coolest - i had one when i wss 11 or so and have another that is mint in the loft.

thats not a normal premiere paint scheme though.

potential cool mobile there.

keef66

I'd want to take the paint off to have a good look for any corrosion. Son did up an 80s Peugeot and there was a dodgy bit on one of the chainstays.

If it's decent, have it powder coated for a hack, or have it properly sprayed / decals / lacquer for a L'eroica restoration.

defever

Salut philcubed!

Nice find for un peu de projet! I wish I had the time and space to do a bit of retro bike restoration!

How much have you got time and effort to put into this bike? If you have some fair amount of time, then maybe you can strip it all back, inspect the metal condition and add decal.

Have a look at this guy for some inspiration: YouTube: BikeIt UK Channel

He shows some amazing bike restorations to tips and tricks on how to restore retro bikes.

Good luck and keep us posted on the development!

philcubed

Thanks for the replies and link, I'll have a go polishing out the rust with autosol before I go nuclear and strip the paint!
Not sure what a stub to hook the chain on is Rolf F!
Looking around t'internet I can find bikes from around 1985 that have the same paint job and colour decals, but usually without the 'premiere' lettering that this one has. This bike also has a label on the chain stay that says P10M on it.
Cheers

Matthewfalle

Attack it with T Cut as well - surprising amount of that rust stuff will come off.

defever

I checked your images again and they all seem to be surface rust? And did you use Krust rust remover gel (the green thing)? That thing is useless if that's what you used.

Second on T-cut for scuffs and blemishes.

Generally speaking, surface rust will go away nicely (there might be some remnants if pitted) if you use a wire brush, or even better Dremel / power tool, to physically remove as much visible rust as you can and then use rust converter (the other Krust or Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 which gets good reviews amongst automotive repairs) and paint it over. If you're simply spraying lacquer over then maybe you may not need rust converter.

RE: removing the chainset. Do you have a crank remover? You'll probably need a crank remover unless you wan't to go a bit red neck and use penetrating oil + chisel & hammer combo to knock them off (mind, it'll leave marks on the inside of the cranks).

I'm sure others will correct me if my advice is inappropriate. Where are you based? I may be able to help if you're near Hampshire?

Hapyp cycling!

rolf_f

philcubed wrote:

Not sure what a stub to hook the chain on is Rolf F!

There's a little braze on on the inside of the chainstay above the chain hanger visible in your last pic. When you remove the rear wheel you can hook the chain onto it which makes it ever so marginally easier to deal with the chain once the wheel is off . It droops down less as well. One of those things that doesn't really matter much and, if you use it, gets scratched easily hence you don't see them often - but Peugeot were pretty keen on them in the 80s at least!
I renovated a Peugeot Triathlon which was I think 531 main tubes so intermediate in quality. I doubt they put them on the cheapo frames.

philcubed

On the cranks, I have a crank puller but haven't got that far! I can't undo the bolts holding the crank arms on. I think the drive side bolt should undo anticlockwise as normal, and the non-drive side clockwise. I'm going to have a go by clamping the socket in a vice and using the bike as a lever to loosen the bolts.

Southwestslacker1

Both crank bolts will undo anti-clockwise, only the left (non-drive) pedal threads and some bottom bracket right threads are reverse.
This should help with identifying the BB although I've done a couple of old peugeots and they've both been English thread.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/cribsheet- ... ckets.html
I really like the old Pugs for some reason, my Sunday best is a 1997 'Competition 3000' with a new Tiagra groupset on it, absolutely love it.

Matthewfalle

Southwestslacker1 wrote:

Both crank bolts will undo anti-clockwise, only the left (non-drive) pedal threads and some bottom bracket right threads are reverse.
This should help with identifying the BB although I've done a couple of old peugeots and they've both been English thread.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/cribsheet- ... ckets.html
I really like the old Pugs for some reason, my Sunday best is a 1997 'Competition 3000' with a new Tiagra groupset on it, absolutely love it.

Pictures please!

philcubed

Southwestslacker1 wrote:

Both crank bolts will undo anti-clockwise, only the left (non-drive) pedal threads and some bottom bracket right threads are reverse.
This should help with identifying the BB although I've done a couple of old peugeots and they've both been English thread.
<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">https://www.sheldonbrown.com/cribsheet-bottombrackets.html</span&gt;
I really like the old Pugs for some reason, my Sunday best is a 1997 'Competition 3000' with a new Tiagra groupset on it, absolutely love it.

Thanks, I'm waiting for a 14mm socket to arrive so I can have a go with a long spanner to get the cranks off.
May try stripping some paint off the frame this weekend, as I had a go at polishing the rust off, but got bored, and it didn't look much better on the areas I polished.
I echo the request for pics of your bike!

Matthewfalle

Head up to B&Q - I bought a strip of long neck 3/4” drive sockets from them for a tenner or so for jobs such as the cranks: actually really good quality, do the job perfectly. I’ll try and find a link.

I use there strips of Allen heads in sockets as well. Used them for for a few years on bicycles, really good.

Matthewfalle

https://www.diy.com/departments/magnuss ... 096_BQ.prd

These.

philcubed

Cheers. Have ordered a 14mm socket with hex end on it to give a better grip on it with a long spanner than a round shaft.
Tried stripping the paint on the forks this afternoon (it's blooming cold outside!) with Rustins Strypit. It took the pearlescent finish off after about 45 min, need to have another go to see if the next coat will come off.
Tried a bit of electrical tape wrapped around a part of the fork to see if this would protect the decals from the stripper but wasn't successful. So may have to strip the lot, then re-apply some new decals.

Southwestslacker1

Here she is...

https://flickr.com/photos/157053716@N06 ... 2033138031

cld531c

Nice to see someone else colour coding their valve caps :-)

Matthewfalle

PURPLE

Southwestslacker1

All ready for the Etape this summer...

Southwestslacker1

cld531c wrote:

Nice to see someone else colour coding their valve caps :-)

Always! It's all in the details

keef66

Rolf F wrote:

I renovated a Peugeot Triathlon which was I think 531 main tubes so intermediate in quality. I doubt they put them on the cheapo frames.

My son's "renovation" was an abused Triathlon that apparently came out of a skip. I think it was probably a decent bike in it's day; the engraved Cinelli bars hint at a decent original spec
I use the " " because it was done on a shoestring budget just to get it roadworthy. Virtually all the chrome was missing from the forks. He did a very agricultural stripdown and a very bad paint job with rattle cans. The chainset is Veloce but the non-matching LH crank looks like something off a Russian tractor, the headset is shimmed into the headtube with offcuts of beer can, and the wheels I only managed to true using alarming amounts of brute force coupled with dangerously uneven tension in the few spokes without seized nipples. The hubs were badgers @rse rough so I just repacked with grease and adjusted as well as I could, assuming he'd get bored with it before the wheels finally gave out completely.

I was half right; he rode it quite a lot, but became a bit obsessed with Strava and bought a new bike.

So now I'm trying to decide whether to restore it properly for me, or singlespeed it for his brother as a pub / commute hack in London.

I must admit it's a lovely ride; I'd forgotten what a steel frame felt like, and the downtube friction shifters take me straight back to the days of my youth in the 70s...

It'll only get nicked in London.

Southwestslacker1

Love a bit of steel, only my winter bike isn't ferrous, don't like to see frames die but a restoration always costs a few quid to do it justice.

philcubed

Took the bike down to the lbs on Friday (that was fun, rode my mtb there in the snow, carrying the frame!) and they managed to get the cranks and bottom bracket off. Have requested a quote from a local paint shop for stripping and powder coat to get an idea of how much this would be.

philcubed

Bead blasted to remove the paint and rust. I like the finish so am keeping it like this. I have replica decals to put back on, and need the weather to improve so I can lacquer it.

philcubed

So, now I have applied the decals and it would look really great ( will post pics later), but the decals keep lifting. I have resorted to dabbing superglue under the peeling areas but other parts start lifting. Have lacquered over with Enamel spray lacquer ( looked like the best bet for bare metal frame) hoping this would hold the decals down, but they are still lifting. Is there anything I can put over the decals that will hold them down?

philcubed

Is there a better lacquer, or I'm thinking the 3M protective tape, but not sure how easy this will be to cut to fit so it looks good.

keef66

I have no experience with decals, but I'm assuming your difficulty is that you're not trying to stick them on to a smooth painted surface? Maybe you need to clearcoat it, then apply decals, then clearcoat it again??

philcubed

Cheers. I did a couple of coats of the enamel lacquer then tried the stickers. They started lifting, so (after trying super glue) I put some more lacquer on top, but seems to have made it worse. They are lifting more now. I'm talking to the supplier about it.

philcubed

After a enforced break (my son came back from uni for Easter and wanted his bedroom back, that I had been using as a workshop), I have now managed to get the decals on and lacquered. The decal supplier sent me a second set, and I lacquered the frame several more times, then rubbed down with 1200 grit wet and dry to smooth it off. Decals went on lovely this time. And I have lacquered several times over the top of them.
Feel free to point out the error I have made with some of the decals.
Now I'm polishing up the rest of the parts so I can start rebuilding.

keef66

Wow! That looks amazing. I must try a proper restoration of mine. Well it’s mine now. No. 1 son has just bought himself a carbon bike, and No. 2 doesn’t want a commuter any more.

L’eroica here I come!