1988 Schwinn Circuit Project - Update - Touch up, Cranks, Brakes

The last week or so I've just been touch-up painting the frame and getting down to cleaning up some of the components.
I've been loathe to do touch up painting on my frames until now for several reasons. I didn't feel like the other frames really needed it and I was afraid to screw up the overall look of the frame with mismatched paint splotches. However, the Circuit was in below-average shape (re: the frame already looks beat-up so a few mismatched paint splotches ain't gonna make that big of a difference) and the frame itself doesn't seem to be worth much anyway so I figured I didn't have anything to lose and decided to get my feet wet.
As I've said before, it's painstaking and tedious work. It took me the better part of an hour to mix my first few batches of paint, trying to get the perfect shade of red. Yes, batches, plural. Apparently the 'perfect shade' while wet dries into a not-so-perfect darker shade later. So a lot of trial and error with mixing up a slightly lighter shade and hopefully having it match up later. I am literally watching paint dry. In addition, the Testor's paint I'm using gets really tacky and gummy after maybe 15 minutes and is pretty much unusable after that. 15 minutes is just enough time for, say, one side of the top tube before I have to mix a fresh batch.
I've got most of the frame touched-up now and the results aren't as hideous as I thought. The next thing I have to do is to lightly sand down all the touch up spots so the built-up paint is smooth with the existing paint. For this task, I'm using an LMG Enterprises polishing kit that I originally bought to use for model car finishes. It contains a number of cloths with varying grits, like super-fine sandpaper. After the bumps are smoothed out, I'm gonna hit it with the rubbing compound, polishing compound, and finally the Zymol.
Cranks: Aside from a huge scrape that looks to be from the chain falling off, the cranks are in decent shape. There's some heinous dried grease stains on both sides that absolutely nothing would remove. Nothing, that is, until I tried some rubbing compound. Then I polished and waxed 'em with a generous amount of elbow grease, after which, I felt like my elbow joint was going to lock up permanently. Hit up the front and backsides of the crank bolts with some Nev'r dull to clean off the rust and Simichrome after to shine 'em up. I really dig the laser-etching on the big chainring, and even though everyone's heard knee-pain horror stories about Biopace, I can't wait to go out and hammer on 'em. I think Biopace may have just exacerbated positioning and fit problems that were there to begin with.
Brakes - The 80's were a big time for using white on parts of a bike that were in contact with the grubbiest parts of a human - your butt and your hands. Even though I love the look of a white saddle, white handlebar tape, and white brake hoods, the clean-freak in me is going into convulsions. White brake hoods seem to get grimey just be looking at them. Well, thank goodness for Simple Green. A little spritz on a scotch-brite pad and decades of grime and grit are erased. They'll never be as white as when they were new, but they look a lot better.
I've also disassembled the entire front brake caliper so I can polish all the painted surfaces more easily. These are turning out quite good and aside from a couple chips look almost NOS.
The levers, however, are a different story. Levers seem to be a magnet for scrapes and scratches from falls and innocently leaning the bike somewhere, and these are no different.

1988 Schwinn Circuit Project - Part IV - Thoughts on Schwinn

I guess Schwinn collecting and especially Paramount collecting is a hobby all unto itself. Even though the Circuit isn't particularly collectible as a Schwinn, except to maybe the most hardcore diehard, I guess owning an older Schwinn kinda makes you feel like you're in a 'club' now, especially considering the bikes that carry the Schwinn name these days. This is actually my second Schwinn bike, the first being a 1985 Schwinn Traveler that was my first 'real' bike. Lugged 4130 frame, Suntour AR derailleurs, Sugino crankset, stem shifters, safety brake levers, big thick black foam sponge grips... I loved and hated that bike. I loved it because it was my first geared bike and I rode it like crazy. I hated it because the more interested I got in biking, the less the Schwinn was to what I wanted in a bike - and that was, naturally, something along the lines of all those Italian steeds featured in the mags like so much pr0n. No amount of kickstand and reflector removal was going to make anyone mistake my Schwinn for a racing machine. So I finally got that Allez I'd been dreaming about and the Traveler became a childhood castoff in the corner with all the GI Joes and Lego sets.
Anyway, I researched the Schwinn company through various articles on the web and was fascinated by the rise and rapid downfall of the once-great company. Kinda ironic considering what Chrysler's going through right now, eh?

Right now, I'm cleaning up the frame, applying touchup paint, polishing the chrome and basically giving the frame a good once-over. What I do want point out in this blog is a few things I've noticed:
1) The paint job on the frame is probably the worst I've seen in a bike of this vintage. I've worked on bikes made in the US, Taiwan, Japan, and even Italy from the mid to late 80's and haven't come across paint that looked this bad. Maybe just bad maintenance of the bike? Maybe shoddy materials or application at the factory? There a couple fine creases/wrinkles in the paint on the top and down tubes that were worrisome at first. Crash damage? The area around the lugs look fine, I can't tell of any actual damage to the tubes where the paint is crinkled, and the fork seems straight as well. In addition, there's small patches of 'rough' paint from gosh knows what. Looks like the paint melted and then dried into a rough, pitty patch.
2) The decals on the main tubes are a class act all the way. Water-slide(?) and then clear coated. No discernable edges. Nice! All three Allez's I have sport better paint jobs, but they all use cheap stickers for the decals. In the right lighting the edges are clearly visible and detract from the overall look of the bike. The "Schwinn" logos on the seatstays are just vinyl stickers and have seen better days. The fork decals may have been water-slide too - as I was buffing the chrome and cleaning up some rusty bits, I found a "WI" imprint on my hand. I think I invented a few good curse words when this happened.
3) I decided to touch up the numerous chips/scrapes/flaws by mixing some Testors enamel. I typically don't bother with touch-ups for fear of ruining the overall look of the bike. However, I decided to try it out for the first time on this one. So far the results have been decent, but it takes a lot of time and patience. Mixing to the right shade of red can be tedious, and then sanding, rubbing, and waxing the area afterward is painstaking work, but I enjoy it. It takes my mind off of things for a bit and although I wouldn't call it relaxing, I would say working with one's hands can be very satisfying.