My winter project

[Wolfie4560]

In a moment of madness, I bought a Carlton Corsa frame in rough condition. My intention is to restore it to it's former glory and take it to L'eroica next year. I'll be doing all the work myself including the respray. I'll post updates occasionally which should keep me motivated

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

Yep,pretty rough.
But my goodness ,do I like it !!!!
Make it pretty again.

 

[Mrs M]

Lovely colour, can't wait to see the finished result

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

Lovely colour, can't wait to see the finished result

Original colour (or as close as ) yes?

 

[Mrs M]

Original colour (or as close as ) yes?

Check out Spokesman, he has some stunning Carlton's
My most lusted after bikes on this forum

 

[MarquisMatsugae]

Check out Spokesman, he has some stunning Carlton's
My most lusted after bikes on this forum

Noted.
The lug welds are sha...weet.

 

[Mrs M]

My favourite Stunning

 

[Wolfie4560]

Original colour (or as close as ) yes?

Yes, as original as possible. I'll probably use Ford Squeeze green which looks pretty close

 

[Wolfie4560]

View attachment 141378 My favourite Stunning

Drool!!!

 

[Wolfie4560]

The forks have bee removed now and cotters are soaking in WD40 because a good whack with a hammer did doodly squat Rubbing down will commence tomorrow and I'll be trawling eBay to find some bits. Anyone know if the seat pin is chromed steel, or alloy? I'm also undecided whether to use the Brooks Colt from my hybrid, or buy a B17.... Decisions, decisions.....

 

[Hugh Manatee]

Check out the vice and socket method for removing the cotter pins on YouTube. It worked for me.

 

[MichaelW2]

Carlton is a brand with some really top class frames that was degraded by Raleigh as their mass market nice bike. The bad ones are good, the good ones are superb. My old 1979 Falcon was a nice ride but not built like the top end Falcons in Reynolds 531.
The marker I use for a quality frame of this era is the rear dropouts. Stamped dropouts mean factory grade, investment-cast ones mean workshop or custom grade. You can see investment-cast dropouts long after the label has faded or the original paintwork replaced.

 

[MichaelW2]

When removing old cottar pins, don't destroy them with a steel hammer. Quality steel cottar pins are almost impossible to buy. New ones are made of cheese.

 

[Wolfie4560]

I've managed to find the frame number after cleaning up the cud and rust. It has WR0 so seems to be a Nov 1980 model.

 

[davidphilips]

The bad ones are good, the good ones are superb. My old 1979 Falcon was a nice ride but not built like the top end Falcons in Reynolds 531.
The marker I use for a quality frame of this era is the rear dropouts. Stamped dropouts mean factory grade, investment-cast ones mean workshop or custom grade. You can see investment-cast dropouts long after the label has faded or the original paintwork replaced.[/QUOTE]

michael you lost me a bit there any chance you could post a picture of both types of drop outs? something i really never took any notice of but must start to look out for.