Went for a Stumpjumper and came home with a bonus...
 

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=403734Found a nice 1984 Stumpjumper Sport on my local Craigslist and set up an appointment to pick it up this am. Oldest son is needing a bike to take to college and I knew that it would be a good one for him in that I had owned an identical bike in 1984. The bike was in very nice vintage shape, ran like a top, and was very inexpensive to boot. Had a very enjoyable talk with the seller ( a guy just a few years older than I) and we compared notes about old bikes and other interests. Long story short, he says that he has something in the garage for me to see. Out comes his 1971 Peugeot PX 10, admittedly kind of rough-around-the-edges, but cool.
He basically threw it in to the original deal as a freebie after he saw my appreciation for the brand and the fine bike that this had been. It's missing it's original wheelset, derailleurs and pedals and was repainted long ago to make it less attractive to thieves (mission accomplished!:lol:), but is otherwise intact. 1971 with fancy Nervex lugs, Stronglight drillum crank and headset, Mafac brakes, Belri? stem.
The repaint looks pretty funky; might there be any tricks to removing it and preserving the underlying original white paint?
Great, engaging seller, and what a pleasant surprise to have him include this in addition to the Stumpy- http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=403726http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=403727http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=403728which was a real score on its own!

A free 531 frame? that is a real great deal!

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...4&d=1409798202

Nice score. That old Peugeot would restore nicely!

The way that paint is flaking/chipping off... makes me wonder is a pressure washer would remove the "thief deterrent paint job".

Dave - that might be worth a try, however the paint isn't so bad that you can pick it off with a fingernail... The VW in the video almost looked as though it had been painted with house paint! One cool thing the previous owner passed along was his original sales receipt from 1971 - $199 plus tax. He told me he was embarrassed to have spent so much on a bike and that he didn't even tell his friends about the outrageous cost for fear of their ridicule. Funny!

........the wheels that came with it were tubulars, on Normandy Comp hubs. That's why you see a lot of them that were ridden
with a different wheelset. No huge loss if whatever's on there is serviceable. The derailleurs, especially the front, were problematic.

Again, on the bikes that got ridden, they usually got replaced with something more durable. That stem is also an upgrade from the original.

So if the rear derailleur swap was correctly done, someone has already done most of the stuff I usually end up doing to one of these if i want to ride it :thumb:

The original pedals are no great loss, and I usually just rethread the cranks to standard to use standard threaded quills, which are easy to come by.


I would definitely try a pressure washer first, on the stripped frame, and gradually escalate to citrus based cleaner, mineral spirits, and hope that takes
off most of it. If whoever did it was sophisticated enough to use a latex paint, it will peel off in chunks and strips. AIf that's the case, an adjustable heat
*** used judiciously is your friend. I use one a lot on things like reflective tape and metal foil stickers, which are hard to remove.

These are swell, open geometry, smooth riding bicycles, with a very pleasurable ride. I think you'll find it worth some work.

...you might consider just fixing it to the point where it's a rider, so you can see what I mean before you spend money on paint and decals.
Stronglight crank needs a specific, different puller, if you do not know already.

Try lacquer thinner. Enjoy!

Thanks all for the paint removal suggestions. I'll try a few of them out after more clean up. I'd like to redo bearings so that it becomes a competent rider, but don't know how much I'll do with it beyond that. I normally ride a 54/55 cm frame (this is 59cm c to t) and this one gives a new meaning to the term "French fit" for me. Oddly, the original owner was only about 5-9" or 5-10" tall. Was it common practice for shops to sell such seemingly over-large frames to customers back in the day?

But what about the Stumpjumper?

The Stumpjumper is grey (though thankfully not a repaint), 19" frame, and bone stock. The paint is a solid 6.5 out of 10:p, but that's just fine with me. I rode it around a bit and it brought a huge smile to my face. These are great curb-jumpin' cruisers! I'll try to get some photos of this one up soon...

...it was pretty common in 1971 to have only a few of the best bikes in stock,
because, like the guy told you, they were considered an extravagance.

So if someone wanted one, and they had one, and it was "a little off, but doable",
that's what he usually went home with. If you really cannot make the standover
without danger of hurting yourself in an emergency dismount, it might be someone
else's project bike.

That is a really pretty crankset.

Yup. That's the year I bought my PX-10, and it was a 25 inch frame, as I remember. Not that I needed the biggest one they had, at six feet tall but, that what I got, and it worked just fine.

Really nice find. I'm not sure I'd use a pressure washer. Maybe, at a lower output if possible. The white paint on those old Peugeots wasn't the greatest to start with and it might come off with the grey. I think I might try lacquer thinner, as Odd Job suggested. Usually, the old, original paint is aged and cured to the point that it is quite impervious to solvents, but the top layer, not having adhered all that well, might come off without too much trouble.

Do that!

I have an 84 Stumpjumper Sport. It's a cool bike, but it's pretty much a tank compared to my touring bikes.

I have discovered through experience that once you start taking off the respray, you will find out there was a pretty good reason that someone resprayed it in the first place.

I love those fancy lugs on that bike. You definitely had Karma on your side with that buy.

I've taken off over-spray paint jobs with a buffer and polishing compound - it's possible to do by hand as well but you might spend a few hours per bar doing so.

That's been my experience as well. I start with lacquer thinner to try to remove the respray, and if that doesn't do it then acetone usually does. I've had good success stripping off the repaint using acetone with out damaging the original paint by checking often to see if the original paint is starting to soften. If so I stop and/or work on a different area for a couple of hours to let everything firm up before starting again. Acetone will likely destroy the original graphics, however. The nice thing about yours is the original white isn't too hard to match for touch up or respray. Whatever happens you grabbed a great score!

How fortunate! I have a soft spot for PX10's. I would like to find one. I have parts, just need the frame and fork.

Damn. The paint is gone, it needs a respray. Not a big deal, and decals are available, as are the other rebuild parts. Tell you what, if you're losing sleep over it, I'll give you $100 bucks for it.:).