Re: [CR]Conserve or Restore - realtime example - What's your opinion?

(Example: Production Builders)

To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: Re: [CR]Conserve or Restore - realtime example - What's your opinion?
Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:06:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: donald gillies <gillies@ece.ubc.ca>

http://s37.photobucket.com/albums/e77/kerapp/

(pix show a PX-10 with many scratches. Not many bad rust scabs anywhere on the bike, maybe 3, and they could be masked and 'filled in' with little trouble. Importantly, the decals are all in VG condition, except for the French Reynolds 531 decal which has disintegrated ...)

========

If it were mine, I know what I'd do, since the chrome is still good. You can do this to almost any white, black, or silver bike with no clearcoat, but the factory-built high-volume bikes come complete with almost no guilt :

===> If i have old parts, leave it as is.

===> If i have some NOS or almost-new parts, sand out the white areas, mask off the decals with dark modeling clay, and overspray the white areas with more white paint. let dry and cure for 2 weeks or whatnot and then gently remove the modeling clay.

You do this because (a) you don't have a serious rust problem, (b) you don't have a paint discoloration problem, and (c) newer transfers are not very accurate, and original transfers are not available. Oh yeah, and you get to save at least $600 and keep your bike more original !!

For areas that have rust scabs, you can sand them a little more and put down primer, then sand the primer smooth, and then you're ready to spray the bike in white. That's the beauty of an easily-matched color, like white, black, or silver, here's an example :

http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~gillies/raleigh/international/Carlton77.html http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~gillies/raleigh/international/pb260064.jpg

Your total costs should be about $20 for materials !!

The purists will complain that i'm defrocking an old soldier. Well, some old soldiers take retin-A, don't they ?? It's not like we're doing plastic surgery (new chrome, all-new paint, take the bike back to 0 minutes old, with a different 'look' from an original bike ...)

- Don Gillies San Diego, CA, USA

P.S. contact me offlist if you want to obtain a french reynolds 531 decal if you're in need of one...