Thank you. This is my kitchen table. I manage to do the picture before my wife arrived from work

Some more pics before/after:




















Thomas

https://thomasbikesblog.wordpress.com/

NICE cleanup work. Especially the hub and QR. I also love the photo of all the parts laid out. Very cool.

1977 Varsity found on CL



I tried to smooth out the sloppy welds and remove all the nasty slag the factory left all over the place.





I decided that I wanted to sit upright and never shift gears. Converted it to 700c and all modern/retro components to create an "old" look and shed a few pounds. But I kept the original stem because it was the perfect reach and it has elegant lines.








Here it is with it's cousin the 1977 Speedster

I was equally impressed... then even more impressed that it all went back together again without losing anything!!

The system is to pack groups of items in small ikea plastic bags and document everything on pictures

before



After

Impressive!

Great job with the Motobecane! I admire your attention to detail. That combo of off-white/creme and dark brown is just classy. I'll also join the others in admiring the parts shot. It's like looking at a map (and I could spend hours looking at maps...). I know it must have taken a bit of time to get that shot; I appreaciate it.

Did you paint the frame yourself or is that a powdercoat? I assume you did the bar wrap and the saddle yourself - any tips on the process/type of leather you used? Thanks!

just got this one- here is the pic from the CL advert for before (wrong side but its what i have)



and this is 2 weeks later. still got some plans but it cleaned up nice!

Hi Maurice,

thanks for kind words. The paint I did in car paintshop. I chose standard paint then powder coating, even if is more expensive but result is more deep and more traditional. The text on the frame i did myself, vectorizing pictures, then cutting plotter, airbrush and clear coat... Took me two days

Handlebars and saddle i made from old leather jacket.

saddle:
Renovation of vintage Mundialita saddle | Årgangssykler og -deler | [terrengsykkel.no] Arena

to make handlebars you need first to give someone to saw the leather edges then is just nice manual work.

The tip is that the leather should be around 1mm thick and need to be wet then is easier to force it to new shape.



Regards

Thomas

here's an '84 schwinn letour luxe respray project. it turned out ok. and i saved a bike from the scrap heap. but i would not recommend anyone do this ... at least with this particular bike.

Thanks Thomas! Well, the work you put in shows.
I like the bar wrap; the stitching looks much cleaner than some I've seen online (like the VO's elk hide wrap). Maybe the difference is the thickness of the leather. Thanks for the tips!

That cleaned up really nicely. Wish something like this would come up on CL in my size here in LA.

Saving from the scrap heap's good. Plus it looks nice! I like the choice of bar tape. Is that paint or powder?

^ yeah, that's "brown" fizik tape from ebay. or, that's the way it was listed. thought i scored a deal on honey brown fizik, which is always at least $10 more. turned out to be dark red. whatever. this way, it matched the headbadge.

i used "chevy blue" engine enamel. man, what a chore. i never want to paint a bike again.

Is that the "tacky" bar tape or the regular? It looks good on that color of frame.
Nice old 414 you got in the Trek thread, by the way.

^ not sure about the fizik. it seemed really old, like it had been in a basement for ten years. it actually ripped a bit when wrapping it. i don't think they make dark red anymore.

yeah, i hope to get another early '80s trek 400 series. that was really nicely balanced bicycle.

Thomas. Just spent some time reviewing your saddle restoration thread. Very impressive work indeed. Especially recreating the logo!

hahah... great all!

As someone who is sizing up the prospect of repainting a bike, do you want to talk me out of it or let me know what you wish you had known?

Your finished refurbish looks great to me.

^ i'll just say this: don't paint a bike that's marginally worth the effort. and if it's worth the effort, put all you got into it.

As I bought it:


After I cleaned it and replaced the stem. Wanted to do a quick flip, turned out to ride much nicer than my then current (alu) road bike.


Therefore, i replaced the wornout RSX-stuff for Ultegra


But I wanted more.. as in Dura Ace and shiny wheels...


The first picture is taken almost a year ago, the last one just a week ago...

[MENTION=415605]ingenior[/MENTION] What did you use to polish the parts so well?

Good question, was asking myself the same. Looks really awesome!