The mechanical build was finished towards the end of 2021. I had repaired and replaced most items on the bike to a standard suitable for it to be mechanically sound. To sail through an MOT. In most cases to be as good as or better than new.
but I had largely ignored the cosmetics of the bike, reusing old items such as bodywork, and merely blowing over frame and brackets with black enamel, having removed the worst of the rust.
Now the whole bike was to come apart again, and all of those parts are to be refurbished and fettled.
The initial stripdown took place over a couple of days in early March…
…with all of the items in the last photo to be sent off for powder coating.
I had intended to clean and paint the wheels myself, but after repeated washing and degreasing, I could not get it all clean enough, and resigned myself to going over the wheel, centimetre by centimetre with cotton buds and brake cleaner.
While on the phone with Microblast regarding the powder coating, Sam claimed to be able to blast and powder coat to the original pattern.
So I sent the wheels as well!
This is how it all came back.
I’m very pleased with the quality of the work.
The wheels are not perfect, but will pass inspection from a few feet away.
The spokes have lost the factory “striations” in the blasting process.
Spokes and rims will need to be polished up with wet’n’dry and Autosol.
But it has saved me hours of micro-cleaning, masking and rattlecan spraying.