shiny things are pretty

I started cleaning up the SSSS (Seventies Schwinn Super Sport – temporary nickname until it earns another.) This will probably be a very long process that I’ll eventually abandon before completion, but I did want to share one breakthrough I learned about from Vintage Life Cycle. Wadded up aluminum foil is great for removing all those little rust spots on the old chrome/aluminum/shiny metal parts. Just crumple it up and start rubbing. It’s really simple. Although it does turn your hands black, and it has a strange smell similar to the exhaust of one of those old Mercedes converted to vegetable oil that seem to be increasingly popular these days. It doesn’t produce a perfect shine, but it does a pretty nice job of cleaning things up. Maybe there’s a polish that can be applied after the clean up that will really make it shine? In the photo, the seat post has been cleaned – it used to look like the seat post clamp still does.

Also, after adding about a quart of oil to her, (I’ve never seen anything soak up so much oil – like a sponge) I noticed that there was some over spill onto the frame. Interestingly, the paint looks a lot better in those oiled sections. It’s like the paint is dehydrated or something. But, rather than poring oil all over the frame, I’m considering some sort of wax, maybe the kind you wax a car with to bring out some of its remaining luster. The paint is pretty scratched up so I don’t want to put too much effort into it, but I think it might help.