The Cleaning Begins...

Eager to get to work restoring the New Hudson to it's former glory as a birthday present for my girlfriend, I got my can of Gunk Engine Degreaser (great stuff!) and some medium steel wool and got to work on the chrome handle bars, and the rear brake caliper. There was quite a lot of surface rust on the components, and I was a little worried that they wouldn't clean up nicely, but it turns out they cleaned up much better than anticipated!

The handlebars had a generous amount of surface rust and the Gunk really worked well in combination with the steel wool. It's not very nice on your hands though...neither is the steel wool...I'll wear gloves next time...

The finished product looks amazing! And this probably only took about 15 min of elbow grease, and $0. So far this project looks like it will be able to be completed rather frugally :)

I will buff the handlebars and other components with polishing compound before I re-assemble the bike. It will give it a shine that will last for a while to come. Of course, being a 48 year old bike, it has it's share of scuffs and scratches that won't get buffed out, but they're not very noticeable and if anything, add to the vintage character of the bike. Next came the rear brake lever and caliper. They look in rough rusty shape, but the surface rust came right off!

And voila! All in an evenings work. I would've cleaned the remaining lever and caliper but my hands were hurting from the steel wool fragments that embedded themselves in my fingertips. Gloves for sure next time.

This is the stuff I used to clean the components and it works as a penetrant to loosen stubborn bolts. There weren't any stubborn bolts on this bike...or maybe that's the penetrant working...?