1981 Fuji Professional ... in chrome
 

I just finished rebuilding a Fuji Professional that I had purchased off the Seattle Craig's List, a long way from Boston. I love finding the history of a bicycle, this one was no exception.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...me/file-27.jpg

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...me/file-15.jpg

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...me/file-21.jpg

Interestingly enough, the previous owner turned out to be living less than thirty miles away. The whole story and more photos on my blog:

http://vintagefuji.posterous.com/198...-professional#

Thanks for looking!

Scott

Wow! Trully beautiful! Don't you have another unusual chrome Japanese bike waiting to be built up? :)

I sure do, just waiting for the picture taking!

Scott

stunner!

ridiculously cool

I'm really digging the unfinished chrome and the blue panels. It oozes elegance.

scott, i like your collection as much as anyone's. really great stuff.

I love that you decided to keep the blue panels. It truly makes that bike unique and something special. Nice job overall on the restore. I bet it turns heads like mad.

can't think of any word but *beautiful*. love the super detailed blue accents here and there.
thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the compliments everybody!!

Scott

Super jealous, that is gorgeous.

Great work, Scott. Just a real work of art.
About the frame, did you media blast it to remove the paint or use another technique? As Eippo mentions above, I also like that you kept the blue panels on the head tube and on the seat tube. Nice touch.

WOWZAS... that is beautiful!

Thin Man, the raspberry colored paint that was on there was an Imron product. I used a spray on product that's known as aircraft stripper. Not sure if I still have the can .. I'll check, I bought it at an auto parts store. I masked off the panels with light weigh cardboard, then covered that with duct tape. The decals were in such nice shape and the blue was lovely, so I decided it was worth the effort. I test sprayed under the bottom bracket, it instantly curled up into flakes. There was no goop left, just the dried up and falling off paint. I sprayed the whole frame, waited 10 minutes and then blew off all the residue with my compressed air. It came off like pastry crust! After that, I washed it all down with soapy water .... the whole process took no more that a half hour.

I'm not sure why it was so easy, perhaps the type of paint or maybe the aircraft stripper. Or perhaps because the paint was over chrome?

Thanks again,

Scott

Awesome Scott, well done!

I have heard of using aircraft stripper before. Wow. That is a true testament but like you mention, it may have been due to the paint being on the chrome. Either way, extremely cost efficient, painless and effective DIY solution!

I'm guessing that you had to get new, top tube "Professional" stickers?

Thanks for posting the process. If you remember, I'd love to know what product you used.

Holy cow Scotty! You went right over the top on this one..I hope you have some nice photos on the blog, see you guys later..

http://www.farmandfleet.com/uploads/...ull/455125.jpg

i've used this on 2 bikes. it is crazy how well it works.

That.
Is.
Stunning.

Amazing, dude. Where did your excitement rank 1-10 when you were washing away the pastry paint and goop?

Thin Man, I already had a set of Professional decals that JR at VeloCals made for me a few years back for another project that never got completed. I used the "Professional" decal on the top tube, the striped bands on the seat tube and the tubing ID decal. Here's what I used, I had bought it at my local AutoZone:

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...d_Glassy/4.jpg

Thanks Frank, hope to get together again soon.

:)


My co-workers were amazed, I walked into the spray room with a painted bike, twenty minutes later came out with a chrome one. Excitement level of 10+. However, this makes up for the time I stripped my Fuji Finest, also on chrome, with the same stripper. That was a dog fight the whole time, took me hours. Whatever that paint was it didn't want to come off.

Scott

Thanks Devinfan!

Scott

Great Fuji and even better story.

FANTASTIC Fuji !
It has to be one of the most beautiful ever. Great job Scott, and quite an interesting anecdote.

Now that is a great bit of information! Beautiful bike. If there is a holy trinity of bicycle color motifs, blue and silver is definitely in there.