Orange UFO Restoration Project

Hello

I bought this Orange UFO with my first pay cheque out if University in late 97. Bike means a lot of to me. Since move to California (actually the foot of Mt Tam where Mountain biking was born in Marin County (close to San Francisco)) .



Dragged the bike with me through various houses but not used in over twenty years. The perfect Corona Virus restoration project right ?



Been in touch with Orange bikes who tell me I can no longer get the paint or decals and sadly the frame designer passed away in the Tsunami in Asia a few years ago. All the more reasons to restore it to the original frame, albeit with new parts and modern tech but with a retro feel.

A year ago I had a local bike shop spec out some parts list below.

ROCK SHOX, REBA RL, SUSPENSION FORK, 26'', SOLO AIR, 120MM, 1-1/8'', 9MM QR, BLACK
ROCKSHOX MONARCH XX REAR SHOCK 7.25"X1.75" (184X44) TUNEMIDREB/MIDCOMP, 430 LOCKOUT FORCE, LEFT REMOTE 1250MM C2, BLA
CHROMAG FUBARS OSX HANDLEBAR: 25MM RISE AND 780MM WIDTH, 31.8MM,
BLACK AND TIGHT GREEN THOMSON ELITE X4 MOUNTAIN STEM 120MM +/- 0 DEGREE 31.8 1-1/8" THREADLESS BLACK
Chris King Inset 7 Hdst 44mm Tapered 1 1/8-1.5"
Navy SHIMANO ZEE M640 175MM 36T CRANKSET WITH BOTTOM BRACKET
REAR DER SRAM X4 LONG CAGE BLACK
SHIFT LEVER SRAM X4 TRIGGER 8-SPEED BLACK REAR Assemble Frame Up Build
BRAKE SHIMANO DEORE T610 V-BRAKE BLACK FRONT

So my questions / ask for help

1. Anyone know how I can get my hands on original green paint?
2. Anyone know how I can get decals ? The Orange logo seems doable but UFO one not?

will be watching with interest. You could try Gil at Retrodecals https://www.facebook.com/retrodecals/ or Lucy at Indibike https://www.indibike.co.uk/

Likely a custom job.

rwm1962":2dnce7s1 said:

will be watching with interest. You could try Gil at Retrodecals https://www.facebook.com/retrodecals/ or Lucy at Indibike https://www.indibike.co.uk/

Likely a custom job.

Click to expand...

x2 for this advice. Best of luck

Re:

Mate if you're going to butcher it with those parts then sell it to someone who'll put it back to 97 spec and cherish it

There are plenty of period components out there which work well rather than resto-modding something so rare....

Re:

Boxxer, can you share places to buy retro parts ?

I 'd try here, ebay & loads of Facebook groups.

Re:

About every one of the parts I’ve bought for all the bikes in my signature have come from here or Facebook groups

97 is a killer year for parts

Nice bike, really like the colour. I would have thought Orange would have been able to tell you the paint code for it. Im sure ive seen other Orange frames with the same/similar colour :?

Anyway, wanted to add, its your bike, if you want to put modern components on it then go for it. Whatever gets you out on it and enjoying it really.

Look forward to seeing the build.

Re:

Your paint match on this one is going to be a bit challenging - indeed start with an email to the guys in Halifax UK. But it was a weird green metallic if I recall. I had exactly this colour on a tiny tiny C16R which recently I gave to someone in the village. It has a metallic content which is yellow in hue, with a base green. The thing is, you live in the home of auto customising. Any auto customiser would have a RAL chart with metallic modifiers and could match the paint exactly.