1949 Raleigh Clubman - Progress

I purchased this very nice, 1949 Raleigh Clubman from a fellow bike collector a few weeks ago. He decided to downsize his collection a bit, and I could not pass up the chance to clean up and ride a high-quality, old road bike like this one. 

 

As-purchased:

 

This bike appears to have originated from a bike shop in Wisconsin, then traveled to Canada, and finally to the home of Raleigh USA, Boston. The previous owner then sold it to me. This is a well-traveled bike.

As purchased:

I disassembled the bike a few days after buying it. This bike had been gone over by the previous owner, he estimated, about 15 years ago. The bike had already been cared-for and just needed a good cleaning and tune-up, and not going one of those projects that had been sitting 50+ years and needed to be totally taken down to the screws.

I took the bike apart and stored everything in labeled, ziplock bags a few days after buying it. I recommend using ziplock bags for storing assemblies and parts. They help keep things clean and you can label the bags so that parts stay together and do not become lost. 

Once I had done that, I became distracted and ended up rebuilding the 1941 Schwinn New World, which I have discussed previously. 

And so I have returned to the Clubman. 

Here is where the project currently stands: I have taken apart the bike and cleaned up all the parts. For this project, I have used acetone for small, non-painted parts, and I have used an ultrasonic cleaner with Simple Green and hot water for larger parts or parts inappropriate to clean with the acetone.

Progress:

I have cleaned and re-packed the bottom bracket and headset. I have disassembled, cleaned, and greased the brake calipers. In both cases, the calipers are checked for play and, as necessary, M8 red fiber washers are used to take out the play.

The bike came with two sets of fenders, a 1960s-70s era set of Bluemels aluminum, and the original 1940s aluminum Raleigh fenders. The previous owner was using the 1970s set, which was a bit cleaner than the original fenders. I plan to use the originals, so I tapped out any dents in them, cleaned the hardware, and found a riv-screw (a smooth-headed, self-locking type screw) to fill the hole drilled in the front fender top. A leather washer takes up the slack.

 

The paint on these bikes is also notoriously fragile. There is a durable, black undercoat or primer of some sort used, but the topcoat of aluminum-green often just fades or rubs off. In this case, the top coat can be matched carefully using a mixture of Testor's flat aluminum and flat beret green. Disposable eyedroppers are used to control the mixture, which on this bike ended up being about 50/50 green to aluminum. The paint is then applied in a very thin layer to match the original finish. In some spots, just a touch of flat black is added to "age" the touch-up paint.

Touch-up painting is done as sparingly as possible, and it is a gradual process of tweaking until I get what I want. I revisit any last areas I'm unhappy with after the bike is reassembled. The process is an on-going thing, which I will periodically revisit right up until the time the bike is complete.

With old Raleighs come the dreaded, proprietary cables that are fixed-length and double-ended. I reuse and save as many of these old cables as I can, only replacing them when I really need to do so. In this case, I have the required Raleigh cables. The front cable is a somewhat newer one.  

Below is my set up for cleaning and lubricating the cable cores. It is very simple: a nail in the wall stud, where the cable adjusters can hook on and suspend the cables. Then oil or liquid grease can be dripped in from the top. I hang them up overnight and let the grease or oil gradually run down to the bottom. A small glass jar at the bottom catches the excess oil or grease to prevent a mess. I check to make sure the grease or oil is running relatively clean by the end of the process. I repeat the process if the cable cores are still dirty or feel rough moving in the housing.

 

After the cable cores are cleaned and lubricated, I will clean the housings carefully and also patch-up any problem areas on the housings using clear or color-matched heatshrink.

So that is the progress for now. I will try to show the process of cleaning and repairing the cable housings in the next entry.