It has been just over three month’s since my last installment of As God Intended. Half a dozen non-10-speed projects have been keeping the Columbia sidelined. Finally, I got some time this weekend and I have a small report on my progress.

As you may remember(but not likely), I had a broken spoke on the drive side of the rear wheel—a two week stay at the LBS and $35 later, I have a new spoke and two true wheels. With the wheels repaired, it was time to get rid of the 15 years of rust, barn schmuck and buildup. My trusty steel wool, a can of Nevr-Dull and an hour each was all it took to have them looking better than new.

I decided, against my own advice, to do a partial repaint of the frame. I made this decision based on a couple of factors. 1) The paint was badly chipped—and worse—the chips were badly rusted. 2) The frame color was a very generic Kitchen Appliance Almond, and in a trip to the Wal-Mart paint section I was able to find a near perfect(enough) match.

I started the painting process by roughing up the entire frame and took the rusty sections down to bare metal. I left 95% of the original paint intact for a good base. I then taped off the sticker decals to preserve it’s 1978 heritage. I hit it with a couple coats of primer, did a little wet sanding, then hit it with the first coat of color. I will be finishing up the color sometime this week and then I will start(attempt) to retouch the decals. I may clear coat it for good measure, but I won’t decide that until I see how the color and decals come out.