A Tale of Two Saddles: Elina Restoration

[Avro]

This will not be to everybodys taste but bear with me.

Over the last few months I have picked up two Elina 4387 saddles in 'rider' condition. I would have kept them thus if I had genuine 'rider' bikes to put them on but I do not, so I decided to have a go at restoring them to something approaching 'smart'. The saddles are for specific builds (a yellow one for my Laserlite and a black one for my Rhino Charge, although this may be reversed as parts are found).

First the yellow saddle, dated April 1981. This looked quite good in the pictures, scrached up in the usual places but not as bad as any saddle I every had as a kid! The seller said that there was no rust, so I thought worth a punt, overdraft be damned. It turned up and was fine although the 'no rust' claim was a bit optimistic. The rails have scars where the guts have been and have rusted (unfortunately the guts are Viscount but no worries). A dip in cirtic acid solution did a good job but scars remain.

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I masked off the decals, they appeared to be og, and set about working on the scratches and gouges. I have restored plastics before on classic motorcycles so tried what I knew. It all came back to me how tedious it can be returning a soft plastic surface to anything approaching new condition! I started with p400 wet and dry, listening for the sound of the paper cutting and listening for when it changed. Then through the grades up to p2500 and then with two grades of paste polish (designed for acrylic headlight lenses). The result was ok but not great. I had started too gingerly so went back to the start (wiping out several hours of work). This time I went hard with p120 dry then onto p240 dry with my palm sander. A more uniform finish was more evident. Then to repeat the labourious process of wet and dry through the grades and then to paste polishes. I would like to say this was the only run I made at it, truth was I made three - hours and hours of sanding down a kids bike saddle!

Due to so many runs at the surface the scratches traversing the decals became very stark, so, and please don't ban me from every posting again, I stripped off the lightning bolts and set about blending in the area beneath the decal to the rest of the sanded surface.

Getting there. I then made several runs with p2500 and several with the two grades of paste polish I have. Then a thorough deep clean and a finish with a high wax polish.....

[Avro]

...nice yellow Elina 7387 saddle:

[griff]

Looks ace 

[monkian]

Nice work 
What type of paste did you use?

[Avro]

So to the black saddle, dated August 1982. In the pictures offered by the seller this saddle looked worse than the yellow one. It had more scratches, rusty rails and grubby guts. It turned out that the guts were correct and, after a citric acid bath, the rails turned out mint - result. The restoration process was as before, just as labourious and tedious. I reckon each saddle owes me 8 hours of my life, that's at least 16 hours fettling kids' bikes saddles!

Before:

[Avro]

...after...

[Avro]

....A Tale of Two Saddles...

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[Avro]

I may have under played the paste polishing phase as I amy have started with Autosol as it is in one of the pictures, it is a handy fine gritty polish to give a base. The two polishes I used do not declare an abrasiveness guide unfortunately, that said they are super fine to the point that you wonder if they are pulling your chain! The brand is called Novus and I bought a set of three (3, 2 and 1 with three the coarse, two the fine and 1 little more than a cleaner for all I could tell), they are supposedly designed for modern car acrylic headlights.

I do not think they were ideal. I may do a test on grittier polishes on nylon plastic to find out what would work better. Maybe someone reading this is better informed and more experienced. Regardless, it is far more work than you ever imagine!

Forgot to mention:
Decals by Delcals as ever, if Delcals do not list what you need just ask. They have far more og designs than they show in their shop front. It's a bit like that wand shop in 'Diagon Alley'?, in Harry Potter, just scratch the surface and you may find dragons or just the decal set you were after or persuade said wand maker to reproduce them. Time is the only factor for custom jobs but they are a labour of love anyway! (ps. I am not Delcals just a customer who has received a superb service every single time despite being a pain in the arse).

[boofy44]

You've done a cracking job there Peter ,how's my old laserlite coming along ?

[Avro]

Hey Boofy,

Laserlite package remains as I received. I am thinking of bringing the frame set built up to MK17 in raw condition, with the exception of parts I have either acquired or restored. The frame remains as was, although I will have to have it re-chromed (as there are areas at the headstock where areas are completely denuded of chrome and many areas where there are bubbles beneath the surface). This will be countered by the handlebars that also need chrome as they are mostly, for the main part, denuded of chrome and down to nickel of something similar. The other parts you included in are near mint condition if not so.

The Laserlite is a great project and you gave me a great deal, ticking lots of boxes on the parts list. Have you seen my pedal restoration, brake caliper restoration and / or the chainwheel rework? No worries if not, but I have been busy. I have many side projects on the go which will result in an untimed climax (you read it) where five bikes will still be half done! But, will one be finished..no chance!

[kalex]

Excellent job and that goes for all your other resto threads

But I think I've worked you out, you've either too much spare time on your hands or you own a time machine as there ain't enough hours in the day to get what you manage to do 

Keep up the good work as these are the type of threads we all enjoy reading 

[Avro]

....I am a bachelor, never married and no children...that helps!