Update on the Hiawatha:
1. I found out the bike has not been ridden since the early 1970's. In about 1974 it was taken to Illinois, where the original owner, my father in law was from, and put in storage at his in laws place, my mother in laws parents, because they moved from Michigan to Des Moines. My in laws did not have room to store in their new home in Des Moines at the time. My mother in laws parents moved to a new house in 1984 at which time the bike was finally taken to Des Moines where it sat in storage until it was moved to Sioux City, Iowa in 2015.
2. The headset, bottom bracket and hubs have all been taken apart, cleaned and repacked with the original bearings and reassembled. There is no damage, pits or scoring in the races or cups. I believe my father in law had repacked these and took good care of them before. Which explains why the originals can still be used.
3. I have the frame, rims, and tank back at my house so I can clean it up before I have the bike shop reassemble the bike. The wheels are off the bike and so is the tank.
4. The bike is not going to have any restoration done on the frame, body, etc. It is going to be cleaned up so the bike can be reassembled. It does have surface rust and the chrome parts are pretty pitted with corrosion. There is also still a lot of caked on dirt and even cob webs stuck to the underside of the fenders. The rear sprocket area even has caked on grease on the outside of the rear dropouts.
How to clean the grease, dirt, and cobwebs is pretty self explanatory. Clean rags, mild degreaser and soap and water will do so very efficiently.
But how do I clean the corrosion and rust off? What would you recommend? WIll the right grade of steel wool combined with CLR work well on the painted surfaces? On the parts that were chrome or not painted should I take a powered wire wheel to it, such as the one that attaches to my power drill or bench motor?
Please advise. Thank you.