Update and a question.
I've gone full bore these past few days and done quite a lot on three or four projects.
One of them is of course this old Gentleman.
It is now completely disassembled except for the crank and BB. The whole bike came apart with ease. All except the crank. There was only two replacement nuts that Ive found and one missing. All others are originals.
The BB has been apart before, and the last monkey used a sledge for the crank pins. Not only are they roughed up real good, they are also in so tight I can't get them out.
In the past, right or wrong, when it came to removing crank pins, I have threaded the nut back on to the pin till it was flush with the top of the bolt/pin threads and used a center punch placed in the center of the pin, and hammer to tap the pin out. The nut being on so as to keep from mushrooming the bolt/pin. In leu of that, I would do the same with the nut except then use a wooden hammer handle on the nut (being flush with the pin/bolt) held vertically and smack the top of the hammer with a 2lb sledge.
Either of those have always worked.
Not this time. And they've been soaking in oil for two days.
First, are these pins in standard sizes to be replaced? I would want to do that anyway considering they were smacked in with a hammer last time and the heads are mangled. They are both also slightly bent. If I will have to re-use these, I will also have to re-shape the heads and have them re-plated with the rest. But first I will need to get them out without totally destroying them.
If they are easily replaceable, I willl take out a little negative energy on them.
Any recommendations along these lines?
The arms have obvious puller recesses so that should be easier.
and....
All bearings are micro... and loose, dozens of them. The headset has a BF load in it. I thought that everything might all be loose bearings so it was disassembled inside a plastic tote pan to keep everything together. Good thing too, they are no bigger than the head of a pin.
The frame and fork are very light. The fork rivals the lightness of modern ChroMo forks I have. The frame is not quite 8lbs right now and it still has the crank on it.
When researching dates, Ive noticed that the Armstrong bikes in the 36' catalog were touting Reynolds 531 steel. It cant be seen in the catalog pics, but if there were decals indicating that on the frame as there probably were, The first year for Reynolds 531 was 1935. H. Llloyds has Reynolds pre-531 decals which indicate high manganese steel.
Considering this bike has a "Made with the highest quality British Steel" decal on the seat tube, I am going to say this is at least a 33' or 34. It may
actually be a 31' but I cant figure out how anyone would know.
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE
This paint laughs at stripper. And it is VERY thick. A couple applications later this showed up on the dropouts. To start with, you couldn't even see the nut scrapes
If that's a Jullian date serial Number, its May 3 1938. 123 seems a little convenient though. But who knows.
I can see pins on the stays going through the dropouts.
This frame is going to need to be blasted.