The frame before the build (bought the frame on this site) and built up.

Boom. What bar tape is that? Looks like a very close overlap.

Here's an early 50s Italian stallion before and after.....(handlebars, fenders, fork, and rims/spokes are replacements as the originals were corroded enough to be unsafe, though the fenders might be salvageable, saddle was a plastic thing!). Colour is matched (as close as I could) to the original found inside the fork on the steerer tube; I have the generator and lights and they work!

Italian Stallion

I don't know the brand. They are leather. This is not the first bike the bar tape has been on.

The 531c on my Kypo was feeling a bit noodly, so I put some 525 decals on and now it’s much better.

A oldie but different kind of before and after: the 1989 Koga-Miyata RoadAce

Before:


After:

Frame sawed in half.


Here is why:

Nice work!

Cleaned up nice

Before

CL listed as mountain bike, good for commuting.

After

Turns out it was/is a 1993 Mongoose IBOC Comp frame with almost no original parts other than the seat post, headset, and maybe the wheels. I think my full resto-mod turned out pretty good! I'll post more pics in the C&V 'Upright/Urban' thread.

We get lots of bikes coming through the Bike Exchange. I have been averaging a restoration a week for some time now. What I look for is a good brand with good paint, usually unrecognizable after a lifetime of neglect, hopefully in a back corner of the garage. I often change out stems and bars and other bits but it is the paint that makes the biggest difference. Black is easy to touch up as there is only one shade. I usually have good results with red as well. Metallic and pearls are mostly impossible to match. After stripping the frame and scrupulously cleaning it and all the shiny bits I touch up then give the frame a clear coat of Rustoleum Automotive grade Clear enamel. This dries pretty fast and since it is only a topcoat over the existing finish it doesn't have much tendency to chip like is often the case when starting with a sand blasted frame with primer, color and clear coats. Then I try to let the frame hang outside in the sun for a few weeks to dry thoroughly.

So here is the bike as received and complete, with a clear coat.

Just a simple front Araya wheel breakdown and cleaning I got from [MENTION=45088]nlerner[/MENTION] to match the 24" on the Peach Centurion. Luckily it was only paint overspray. Cleaned up nicely.

Yeah, 0.1mm to be exact. Feels a lot better now.

Not the top of the Schwinn line in 1977, but who doesn’t like that pearlescent orange paint on these old Le Tours? In the original photo you notice the Brooks B72 and that has been moved onto another ride. Great solid bikes and well worth a little clean up and restore time.

[MENTION=95303]brandenjs[/MENTION], I had a Le Tour III in that color that I gave to my brother-in-law - a size too big for me. What a fantastic color! One of my faves. And those might be the nicest stem shifters I've used.

Nice work freshening that one up.

As found and in the process of being roadsterized. Install a Wald 137 today and hoping to fit fenders before the rain starts up again.

As aquired, 1985 Centurion Ironman, no wheels and hideous non-original forks.

Campy 1994 veloce group works. '88 Centurion aluminum forks courtesy of Robbie Tunes.

My wife loves these old French mixtes. Changed out the rims, stem, bars, shift levers, derailleurs, saddle, and replaced some other odds and ends.. Now her favorite.

Ok so here's my first attempt at painting the flutes on a seatpost. I went with masking the flutes with painters tape. Here we go.

Before



After



Big thanks xiaoman1 for the tips and advice.

Hey Miguel,
Looks great.....now you can do the lug lining on my Paramount.
Best, Ben

Very nice. It looks great. I very much like paint in a fluted seat post.

But there's an easier way. The one time I painted a fluted seat post like that, I didn't bother masking anything. I painted the flutes freehand, being reasonably careful, waited it for it to dry, then used a single-sided razor blade to scrape off anything that wasn't in the flute. Lay the blade across both sides of the flute and scrape gently. That gives a nice, crisp line, and it's then easy to scrape off any other overage. An X-acto knife would work just as well. Heck, a pocket knife would probably work just as well. A credit card might work just as well, Mine came out rather nicely; it certainly passed the five-foot test and probably the one foot test. (I can't check because I no longer have the seat post.)

This technique has limited applicability. It is 100% not recommended for cleaning up pinstriping on a frame. But it works great on a seat post.

bikingshearer I actually did use my box cutter with a fresh blade to clean up the edges on the flutes. Thanks for pointing that out it could help another BF member attempting this. It made the edges cleaner with minimal touch up needed

I was on a painting theme today. Started the morning painting the exterior of my home until it got around 86° where it got too hot to continue. In the meantime went to Michael's for some Testors paint. Im hooked.









And house painting while the wife sipped wine and supervised.