More paint!

Just a quick update showing the frame taped up, primed and painted.

Detailing around the steerer.

A slow process!

Steel and Chrome!

I began with chemical paint stripper, following the instructions and safety precautions on the tin. This bubbled and peeled away most of the paint. The loose paint was then scraped off with a stanley knife.

Following this a machine band sander was used (pictured). I cannot recommend highly enough that you mechanise the sanding process as much as you can. This tool easily saved me the most effort in the entire project, but be careful around intricate details and softer/weaker components the sheer rpm of this strips paint and metal alike.

I couldn't get into all the cracks with the belt sander. A combination of a stanley knife, wire brush and good ole' sand paper was used where the machine couldn't reach. Fine sand paper and steel wool were used to smooth out the surface - which in places was heavily pitted with years of rust.

That is one clean frame!

The forks are similarly cleaned, primed (with several layers), painted (two layers) and lacquered (two layers). The frame will be treated in the same way.

Ta-dah!

Chrome!

If you are thoroughly cleaning the rims or doing a new wheel build, I highly recommend purchasing a spoke key. A couple of pounds is all it costs and it saves a lot of time instead of using a spanner. A flat bladed screwdriver is helpful to remove the spoke nipples once loosened.

Here the spokes have been all removed. 

The spokes slip out of the hub, these will be cleaned up and reused, as well as the hub once its bearings have been cleaned and re-oiled.

 You can see a comparison between the polished, unpolished and down-right rusted rims.

The best trick, I found online, was to clean the chrome with aluminium foil and tap water - nothing more. With some moderate scrubbing it removed the rust spots and shined up the metal nicely! It would be interesting to know how it works. Certainly, when the foil has been scrubbed it smells sort of burnt...

I would say this would be extent to what the foil could clean and even then, its only a matter of rain until the rust comes back. I don't have a photo of the "afterwards" but it was definitely an improvement; take my word for it.

Closing photo is a fascinating trike type thing I found during my visit to Finland a couple summers ago - popular with elderly people or the infirm because not much balance nor agility is needed to ride.

Broken Forks and Colour Schemes

Taking photographs so I know where to place the decals on the tubes.

The reproduction decals are not exactly the same as this decal but do still intimate the winnings at the Tour of Britain.

Broken forks.

All that is left is for the forks to come off, easy right? Wrong!

This caused a considerable amount of trouble. The type of stem used on this bike is known as an expander quill stem, an old type of stem, one superseded by threaded stems that we know and love today - and with good reason.

On removing the wedge and bolt, I tried to wiggle the stem out, knowing that there was now nothing keeping it bolted in. Convinced it was moving a few millimetres each time I persisted. I then came to realise that those few millimetres belonged to the forks and I had instead torn a little part of the wheel seats on the ends of the forks - disaster!   

"You idiot!" - Critical remarks from the family dog.

On researching this quandary I discovered that typically with these stems a little rainwater gets in and the aluminium (which this stem consists of) oxidises, forming impregnable bonds with its iron (or steel) steerer tube.

With that knowledge, the regrettable decision to hack the stem off was taken, thus freeing the forks.

The task to remove the remainder of the stem was then undertaken. Initially I tried hacking the inside and then detaching the cut strips with pliers - this resulted in a gash to the arm alarmingly close to the arteries in my forearm.

Back to the drawing board. I knew I had to fix the wheel seats in the fork anyway. With that, a valuable visit to my local sheet metal workers was arranged to repair the tears with sturdy welds. A verbal assurance that the welds will hold the rider weight were complimentary with the service - we will see. While I was there I asked if they could remove the stem. A date with the propane torch later and the aluminium was molten on the floor. This was a really great visit and the work only cost a couple quid - highly recommended way to get rid of the stem.

This cross-sections illustrates the components together, oxidation occurs between the contact on the grey and brown surfaces. 

Colour selection.

I saw someone else's bike with a similar colour scheme and decided it looked attractive. Eventually I think I have decided on the tubes and forks being green and the lugs (where the tubes join) as being bronze. I am still debating whether or not to use the metallic blue I found in the shed to replace where all the orange used to be on the bike - but I think it would add a bit of contrast to an otherwise harmonious scheme.

My closing photo for this entry are these interesting things I found on the streets of Reykjavik, Iceland. They demarcate where a cycling lane begins at the intersection of car traffic - a nice use of old bikes!

On to stripping (the paint :P), sanding, priming and spraying the frame... polishing chrome will feature as a cameo.

 Let's get to it!

Fast-forward to August 2015, work begins! A quick going over with the wire brush on the bottom bracket shell reveals the serial number 135443. All Viking vintage cycles were stamped like this. Older model ranges generally had a alphabetical suffix followed by numerical. It was entirely numerical from the 1960s onwards.

There is another serial number which I didn't spot until the sanding phase, not too sure what it is but it is made up of a series of numbers and letters.

You can see quite nicely here that there are two curved lugs on the top of the bracket, these would guide the gear wire from the gear levers on the cross-tube - an interesting anatomy of the bike but useless in this build nonetheless.

Wheels and all peripherals removed. Most of these things are easily removed with a standard socket set - for older British/US bikes I recommend using an imperial socket set - you could probably manage with a metric set however.

Parts of the crankset mostly. I will try to clean the bearings off and re-use them provided they aren't worn/cracked etc. I found that sitting the parts in a bucket of degreaser with detergent worked best overnight. This way you simply wipe off the grubbiness once you take them out.

When I purchased the bike, a spare wheel came with it. I plan on using the spare wheel and binning the one currently with the cassette fitting - the chrome finish has so totally rusted that I doubt I can save it. The remaining good rims, spokes, spoke nipples, hubs and cassette will be cleaned, polished, protected with some wax and ultimately saved from the scrapheap!

The chain will similarly be saved, albeit with some links removed to accommodate a single speed configuration. To do this you will need to remove a segment of the chain by removing two pins holding the links together. The easiest way to do this is to get a link removal tool - you can buy these for a few pounds and it will save you a world of struggle.

The chainring will similarly be cleaned and used for now, however it's teeth are terribly worn and ultimately will be replaced at some point - if for nothing else other than a 2 speed chainring is redundant for this build. You can tell if your chainring is worn by the shape of it's teeth - if they look like the axiomatic teeth of a shark, then it's time to replace it!  

I was at one point convinced I had a Tour of Britain, partly because the decal designs of both the Tour of Britain and the Hosteller are rather similar. On observation, located on the top tube, one can clearly make out "THE Hosteller MODEL". This gave me confidence that it was a Hosteller model, and consequently it will be reproduction Hosteller decals that will be applied. The badge design also indicated that this bike was too late in production to be a Tour of Britain.

The next major step is to remove the forks - which was incredibly difficult actually - and strip the bike of its paint! Here is a closing picture of a fish riding a bike, taken from my visit to the Guinness storehouse in Dublin, Ireland.

In the Beginning...

Here it is, a vintage Viking Hosteller, built in 1961 I think. I've estimated that this is the production year by comparing it to an enthusiast register of serial numbers. The serial number is stamped on the bottom bracket shell. My number is comparably larger than those in the register, and the steerer tube badge design corresponds with when Viking changed it's design in 1960/1961.

The bike was really in a bad state when I bought it from a man in Portlethan, near Aberdeen. Rusted, seized, chipped paint - you name it. Unbelievably it did just run and I rode it from Portlethan to Aberdeen with no brakes. Even the rear derailleur wire snapped! 

Virtually everything needed replacing, however I was aiming to spend as little as possible, so a lot of cleaning and maintenance was instead preferred. The bike was missing its front derailleur and unfortunately when I came to remove the rear one, it's anchor bolt sheared in half - probably simply due to its age and corrosion over time. I since haven't been able to find a replacement anchor bolt so the decision was made to at first convert this into a single speed bike.

I do still have the rear derailleur and shifter lever, so if you would like to buy them, leave a comment. They are manufactured by Huret and Benelux respectively, presumably original with the bike. 

When I have a little more funds I am looking to install an internally geared hub, simply because you don't see many of them in the UK, compared to the rest of of the European continent. They are clean, tidy, and inconspicuously stowed away. I haven't decided yet if I will install an automatic 2 speed internal or go for more range of gears, with the trade-off of having unsightly gear wires. I am also considering integrating a coaster brake with the rear hub, for aesthetics, but also because the traditional brakes on the bike are failing somewhat.

The crank came off easily enough, it used an old set of threaded-wedge splines to keep the pedal arms in place. A word of warning, try soak them in oil before hammering them out, I managed to buckle a stubborn one, but it still fits back ok.

Now for disassembly, plenty of degreaser, polishing, cleaning, wire brushing, and sanding!