I have started the mightly Audrey clean-up. First to get the once over is the front fender, or mudguard to us europeans. It was easy to take off - a nut on either side of the front wheel and a nut on the frame just above the top of the wheel were holding it in place. As you can see, it is brown with the rust. See in the second picture the rust is actually lumpy like barnacles? Madness. I took it off a few days ago and rubbed it with some pretty harsh sandpaper. So much rust came off! It was all over the floor. Then I washed it with a hose and let it dry. Then i sanded it again and washed it with Mr Muscle bathroom cleaner. Amazing! It's no longer brown but it is black in patches and slightly pock-marked. This evening I plan on painting it with a kind of rust-killing liquid. I'll get a photo of the pack to put up. It claims to kind of melt rust and harden it so it's strong like metal, but it turns the surface black. This is fine for most of the bike as it will then be painted over, but i'm going to have to come up with some better idea for the shiny metal parts. More to report later. Oh, loads of cobwebs and dead crap fell off the frame which had been wedged in by the mudguard. Gross. And i noticed a nice big spider hiding under the saddle too. Eek.
