puchfinnland

Here are the pictures of my PUCH mistral Ultima restoration/transformation.

My mom is from GRAZ, and as a boy I visited the city many times-many happy memories there.I got the privilege to visit the bicycle factory and watch them building the road racing frames and it was a lasting memory-I had to have one eventually!


I have 2 Puch bikes, the first one I got from Graz, Austria in 2009.
Puch Mistral EL
I paid 125€ before transport, nice seller.
It has puch 2500 tubes, which is 5% nickel
this was their base model on the Mistral range.
Campy chrome dropouts, campy deraileurs and shifters,weinmann brakes,I think silstar cranks. she weighs in at 11.2kgs, I added the pedals, seatpost,seat, and tried my hand at the leather-my first try-8 hours worth.
I dont have the heart to let it go-some Finn will turn it into a bloody fixie.


my Puch Mistral Ultima

This one I got from Vienna and an interesting story at that,
I was surfing with google for it and found a one day old advert in a vienna newspaper, I contacted the seller and asked for pics
"if I have to clean it and take pics I will just throw it in ebay"
"I offer you 400€ sight unseen, can you please take some pics and dont clean it"
pics arrived
"I held my word and 400€ was transferred"
now how to get it home...I contacted a friend with a girlfriend in the city.
bike was taken to her workplace by seller, She had a fit, I found a bike shop willing to pack it 300meters from her office
"ok I will take it there"
The seller regrets closing the deal after he found out it had TI bottom bracket,pedals,and deraileur parts.
Bike finally arrived in Finland in good condition.

the rear tyre was dead-replaced it, and more or less started riding it.
---bike is complete and in working order, its just inside------
the cinelli 1R stem had a hole drilled through it,the bars are no name but bloody light.



Started finding the little bits to put her back together nicely.
another 1R stem
Cinelli Campione del mondo 66-40 bars
Campy globe lever hoods
the Unicanitor seat had to go-just too heavy and hard
replaced with a Sella turbo replica seat -200g
As the wheels did not match I thought I will correct this.
found 2 NOS Mavic Argent 10 rims
NOS Marchiso IKO Sport 7 speed Alloy freewheel
2 used campy low flange record hubs
DT revoloution spokes are in th email
NOS wolber 290 tyres

she will weigh about 9.2 kilos when done...(now how to loose another 200g???!)







I will paint it Puch PROFI GRUN, she will look like this when I am done,
I got the decals from speedbicycles.ch
A Puch Fanatic in Austria with 42 bikes gave me the colorcode.
If all goes to plan she will look like this in another month.



view all the pics of the green bikes here


Mike in Finland

mikemowbz

Very nice. Neat lugs at the head tube (and crown), nice components, and it sounds like you got the one you were really after!

puchfinnland

well....my bike is slightly older then the one in the pic, I would really want to find a
Puch Mistral Ultima from 1982-4
they had 531SL and panto work on the stem and chainring

(how do we post this pic up?)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/3420705...ream/lightbox/

ScottRyder 

Beautiful as it is now, can't wait to see it when it's done!

Scott

puchfinnland

scott, where did you get your decals from?!?

ScottRyder 

Puch, the ones on the A-D Ultima?

Scott

puchfinnland

I reread it-they are original.
I got a guy in UK making the MISTRAL ULTIMA text as we speak.

check out the cheap AD 70's frame on ebay now 80 dollars, 531 tubes!

kiwigem

Puchs are great bikes. Looks lovely!

puchfinnland

Today I visited the painter, made arrangements and decided to strip down the bike.....
#"%&¤% soon I learned what the peanutbutter wrench subject is about I will have to visit my LBS to use his, and I might as well have him loosen the campy headset and bottom bracket so I dont destroy the finish on the fittings.

mike in finland

puchfinnland

After a visit to the painter I started stripping her down.

Well I got as far as when I needed the peanutbutter wrench and as it was friday afternoon I strted playing with the stripper.

slow going.....

puchfinnland

I was so happy I waited untill monday to visit my LBS "www.chebicci.fi"
He knew i went to talk to the painter and when I walked in the door with the frame with cranks still on he asked If I came for Peanut Butter?
He said one clamp is free so go put the frame up,
with the PB wrench I opened the crank nut,
then he handed me the sweetest crank puller, far better then a park tool.
then he handed me his campy bottom bracket wrench
and the one with 6 pins, and finally the special right cup remover-this one had a second part that threads on from inside to make sure you cant ruin the paint.

all this was free of charge-I left 5€ on the workbench.

then the special headset tools and my frame was fully stripped.
We threw it on his scale.
(reynolds 531)
frame 57cm I think 2010 g
fork 760 g












After the second day of fighting with stripper I started using emerycloth and heat, and again stripper.

any part that had chrome under worked fine with just stripper.

the last part was the BB, it took an entire afternoon by itself

next step is a bath in acetone and start taping the chrome parts, hope to take it up for sealer before the weekend.

rootboy 

Oh, what a shame you're not going to re-paint it that beautiful, original color. Nice bike.

puchfinnland

And no about that color problem.
Puch "Profigrün" the color my bike is to be,
;y new austrian forumite friend "chrome" was willing to send me his beloved dried out 1982 touchup paint.
with this i can get a a color made from my Painter, he uses Spies-Heker paints.

please visit this "all puch racing bike" thread-lots of good info and pictures

https://nyx.at/bikeboard/Board/showth...-von-1979-1987

puchfinnland

its name was "pearl metalic", aka champagne,

call it what you like but it is still and always be

METTALIC PINK!!!!!

rootboy 

I like Motobecane's take on the color; "Silver Lilac"

puchfinnland

Now the DT REVO spokes arrived from USA,
On tuesday I have an appointment at my LBS to build them.
www.chibici.fi
so on the menu is:

36H Mavic argent 10 rims = 325.5 g x 2 = 651g
Campy record hubs w/ skewers = 530g
DT Revolution 2.0/1.5 spokes = 390g
Marchisio alloy freewheel = 265g
WOLBER 290 tyres = 580g
total = 2416g

If I would have done it again I would have went with 32H, and lighter tyres-might have shaved off 100g
the skewers alone weigh 170g

irvri

Wonderful bike, I'm glad you're getting it done the way you want and \I can't wait to see the finished product.

I was wondering why you care about the weight so much? I did when I was into carbon race bikes and such but with vintage bikes I didn't think there were significant weight saving options and didn't really find it necessary haha

-Irv

puchfinnland

It is my first bicycle restoration, and having fun at it.
she weighed 9,6 when i got her, I shaved at least 400g allready with new seat,and freewheel.

I restored lots of other vehicles before, I would like to get her to 9 kilos.

puchfinnland

UPDATE- off to the painter.

all taped up and read to go!

puchfinnland

please take note you can see the 531 in this pick on the upper part of the fork tubes!

puchfinnland

this was taped and delivered on MONDAY....

puchfinnland

WEDNESDAY morning I got the call- it is ready!
it pays to prep it yourself.

here is the original touchup stick- I remember having these on my schwinn in the 70's
original paint was a candy, silver base.

the new paint is a mettalic with a clear over it- a very close match and really smooth.

puchfinnland

unfortunatly today it was a partial overcast, this was the best shot!
more to come in the following days-got the white paint marker and a sablebrush.

I will note this is waterborne technology, my first experence with it-WOW!I am impressed with the moderntimes!

WNG

What a great bike! Love the new color. Looking forward to seeing this project completed.

puchfinnland

Today was a fine sunny day for detailing the frame,

all sharp paint to chrome edges were shaved with a razor,

white paint to fill the lugs and repaint the pinstripe chrome on the chainstay,
then i used a white paint marker for the lug striping

here we are today!