The bike looked to have been transported more than actually ridden, but 30 year old grease is still gross. After removing all the components, I cleaned the frame and worked some Turtle Wax into the paint to bring the paint back to life. I cleaned and regreased the bottom bracket and headset, and I put everything back together. I was surprised how much I got done in one evening.
I spent another evening on finishing up. I installed new Cane Creek brake hoods and started the job of installing new blue VO cables. This is where I got into trouble. After severely mangling several cable housings, I called it quits. I had the LBS fix my cable job and finish tightening the bottom bracket, and I picked up a set of cheap (but smoother rolling) closed-bearing wheels to finish things off. For a final touch, I wrapped the bars in Newbaum's "grass green" tape, finished with hemp twine and shellac. Here's the result!
By the way, if you zoom in on the finished product, can you tell that I retouched the seat tube decals with fingernail polish? There were originally about three inches of the stripes rubbed off from a water bottle holder. I managed to find a pack of fingernail polish with both the green and the blue, plus a pink and some acrylic nails that I let the girl at Walgreens keep. I smoothed it over with clear lacquer and haven't had a problem yet.
