I recently acquired an incomplete Peugeot which appears to be from the 1930’s or 1940’s.  It is the ladies version, with a very nice mixte frame that needs a lot of cleaning, but is in pretty good shape overall.  I will need to source a number of period parts to make the bike complete: a handlebar, brake levers, stem, wheels, fenders, racks, and probably a few other things that I can’t foresee yet.

The chain guard and crankset are in very nice condition.  The brakes are by Jeay, a precursor to brazed on centerpulls.  The Peugeot serial number is a mystery – probably the only revealing element is the ‘H’ indicating that this is an H model of some kind.  The (possibly) original frame pump is working perfectly, and the Peugeot logos are still very vibrant, although the paint is a bit scratched and faded.  A little bit of cleaning and polishing will probably help to bring out the original colors.  Here is the frame after a day of cleaning:

The frame and fork are now ready to build.  The paint polished up beautifully, and the bottom bracket was undamaged and in good condition.  For cottered cranks, I use a cotterpin press built by bikesmithdesign.com. I love the matching colors still visible on the chain guard, and there is box style pin striping on the fork in a lovely blue color.

I needed handlebars, brake levers, wheels, fenders and racks.  I came across this beautifully polished Pivo stem and bars, with original aluminum levers and wood grips.  I can’t wait to see how this looks when everything is finished.  I found another older French randonneuring bike that I am harvesting for parts, and that’s where I’ll get the wheelset, hammered fenders, and racks.