Dan Burkhart 

A couple of years ago, one of my neighbors left a bike out for collection. It was a smallish frame, old steel mountain bike that had been uglified in the extreme with gold spray paint, obviously as a theft deterrent. I picked it up, knowing that at some point, one of my grandkids would grow into it, and it would become a good project bike.
I didn't look at it too closely at the time, other than to identify that it was a decent frame with forged dropouts. and what would have been decent components for the era, Shimano 200SG.
The paint was too thick to make out any decals under it, and I thought no more about it, hanging it in a back corner to await the day it would be brought out to be restored.
well, today was the day. My older grandson has grown to the point that the bike will be suitable for him by the time spring rolls around again, so we dug it out, and he and I went to work stripping the parts off.







Once we had it down to the frame, we shone the light on it to see if we could make out the decals beneath all that paint, and there it was, MARIN. I think we might have something kind of special here.

bane

Cool project, good luck with it. I'm sure your grandson will love it, especially working on it with you.

I believe Marin made bikes in all ranges and I don't think the 200GS stuff was very high end. I think in the end you're going to have a great indestructible bike for your grandson.

Bicycle Addict

Hey Dan, Paul here, I have a couple of Marin Muirwoods frames from 92/93 and a couple of others from later years, they are all good frames, let us know what colours there are under the gold . . taking the protective tape off of the rear stay may help too.
I think Marins of this area are incredibly under rated, a good solid nice riding frame with some nice welding for the most part, with a good middle of the road componentry base they are a good get around with a good bit of longevity to them.

Dan Burkhart 

From what I can tell, the frame was white. The frame is definitely quality work, light weight with nice welds.
I know the components aren't high end, but they are decent, and don't appear to be badly worn.
It has a U brake on the rear and cantis on the front. Not sure yet if I'm going to clean them up or replace. The rest of the drive train will be cleaned and re installed.

Narhay

I've got a Team Marin and it's the bike that always seems to be ready to go.

Bill Kapaun

U Brakes pretty were pretty much used 87-89.

m_sasso

My Team Marin on a tour across North America. It's a keeper!

auchencrow

@Dan Burkhart - A very nice surprise indeed finding a Marin under that paint! My winter ride is a '95 Marin Pine Mountain, and it's a wonderful bike. I am sure your grandson will enjoy it immensely.

Dan Burkhart 

The paint stripping has begun. The grandson and I have spent a couple of sessions stripping the paint off the fork and polishing out the surface imperfections in preperation for powder coating.
The only thing uglier than the rattle can gold somebody sprayed on it is the original purple on white splatter paint. He wants a red bike, so that is what he shall have.
He and I will spend many hours together over the winter working on this.

plodderslusk

I suspect this to be a Muirwoods from ca 1990. Fun project

Dan Burkhart 

UPDATE:
I have not been very good about boring you all with the progress reports, so I'll just jump right to the finish.
Assembled and tested. Works beautifully.





My grandson and I had a great time with the whole process. Assembly day was Monday, as he had the day off school.

fender1

Nice work!

Bicycle Addict

I think the smile on his face is great, not only happy to have a great bike, also contemplative hopefully thinking "Wow how great my Grand dad and did I this, we built a bike!"

Do you have a potential bike builder on your hands