Following hot on the heels of yesterday’s success in removing the seatpost, today I started stripping down Ol’ Paint’s frame. Everything came off today with a single 5mm hex key, a wire cutter and a putty knife.

And like that, in just five minutes, I’d removed everything except the handlebars, fork, crankset and chain. I’ll need to bring special tools (which I have at home) for the crankset and chain. I’ll take off the handlebars and fork, but I’m still thinking about whether to replace the handlebars (which are too wide) and stem (which is weathered). I’ll probably keep the headset bearings unless I find they’re worn.

I may also reuse the handgrips, if they clean up nicely.

Next I picked up a putty knife and set to work removing some of the nameplates and stickers. Most of them came off quite a bit more easily than I had expected.

The nameplates on the downtube were still in fine shape, but less is more. And if I keep them they may begin peeling off at any time, like the others.

It may take a bit more scraping to get off the rest of the glue residue.

Scraping off the nameplates and some of the glue residue took less than 10 minutes. In all the stripping (what’s done so far) took less than 20 minutes.

The next steps are to remove the broken water bottle cage bolts, and to start sanding. I’ve already ordered the necessary tools for this.