Eddy Merckx Professional – 198? - Project

First post here, sorry that it's a long one

First off: this will be a (very) long term project! (as I have zero experience with paint stripping and getting a frame repainted)

The story: in the beginning of the week I saw an ad about a vintage Eddy Merckx bicycle for sale at 10 minutes from where I live. The ad contained 2 bad pictures from the whole bicycle and 1 (bad) detail picture of the pantographed stem. I e-mailed and made an offer of 50 euro. I knew I would at least have a pantographed stem which would be worth the amount of money that I offered.
Flash forward to yesterday. I hadn’t heard anything back, until then. I received an e-mail saying that there has been a lot of interest in the bicycle, but that I was the first to react and that it would be mine. I scheduled to pick it up yesterday evening and it was even better than I could imagine.

I ended up with a Merckx frame (60 cm C-T) with panto Cinelli stem, Cinelli handle bar and a complete Campagnolo Super Record group (panto shifters, front derailleur, back derailleur, crankset, pedals, headset, brake levers, brakes, bottom bracket and seatpost) for 50 euro.
The frame has a hanger for a race number, which makes me think it’s a frame that has been used for racing.

Identifying the frame was a lot harder. The frame has been repainted (not only the frame, also the seat post had been painted black, and the chrome fork…) so all the decals have been removed.
I compared it with a lot of pictures and came to the conclusion that it’s a Merckx Professional frame from the early eighties.
As for the serial number: there is a number on the bottom bracket, but it’s hard/almost impossible to read due to the paint job. The black is very thick, and I hardly can read letters/numbers. This is what I can read: M? E?218 (? = cannot read).

Pictures:














My plan: the paintjob is quite ugly and not very well done. Especially the black hurts my eyes. The fork was obviously chrome, but someone decided to paint the whole thing black. Same goes with the seatpost. I hate it.
My plan is to strip all the paint and get the frame repainted. In the early eighties there were several teams riding Eddy Merckx Professional frames (Capri-Sonne (1982), Europ Decor (1983 & 1984)). As it’s a frame that was produced for racing, I would love to have it painted in one of the colors that were used by one of those teams.

Questions: I have a lot of questions, I hope some people could help me out here

1) Is what I have really an Eddy Merckx Professional bicycle
2) Are the components all Campagnolo Super Record?
3) Anyone has an idea of the tubing? As there are no stickers anymore, I have no idea..
4) How can I get paint from a chromed fork? Can this be done without damaging the chrome?
5) How can I get paint from a frame?

Any hints, tips on how to go further now would be welcome! As stated in the beginning of this post, I have zero experience with paint stripping or getting a frame repainted. I’m located in Belgium, if anyone would know people or addresses.

Thanks for reading/looking!

Wow, I think I need to move to Belgium!

Blimey........ nice find.

From what I can see, Rear mech, front mech, chainring, possible pedals (could be super light) all look like Super record. Brakes are SR if the brake shoes are alloy, brake levers are panto'd and cut out Record.

Shaun

you can get the forks chromed in Belgium here
http://www.mossu.be

If you can read the numbers/letters under the Bottom Bracket this site will assist with the identity and model etc

http://www.cadre.org/Merckx/

Thanks for all the replies!
saarf - I'll mail them to get some info, thanks for the link

Identifying the frame with the serial number did indeed make me think it a Professional. However, the fork is odd. It should have the flat crowns, and not this later Corsa crowns.
But, I did find pictures of similar frames (with all the same details) that have the same fork:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8404/8639913976_e460feffec_o.jpg
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/images/Benelux/Merckx/E2534_K-Kruger/full_RH.JPG
http://forums.roadbikereview.com/at...-merckx-professional-tubeset-professional.jpg

It is striking that those frames also have a hanger for a race number.

One of the upcoming days I'm going to try to get some paint of with some steel wool, to see if there is something underneath.

What a find! Brake levers look very trick

What a find indeed! Even though its pretty to look at as is, it seem like a truly gorgeous bike is just lurking under the surface

Started to remove some paint. There's white underneath the gold/black. No idea if that was the original color or just the base color for the gold/black respray.

Also, does anyone got a tip on how to remove the 2 headset cups that are inside the frame? I don't want to use too much force and damage something.

Some updates with pictures.

- Frame identification: finally it's clear to see the frame number: M-6818-E. I'm not sure about the model anymore, because http://www.cadre.org/Merckx/ lists frames with an M as Strada's, and it's clearly not a Strada.
In the list with serial numbers there's one bicycle with an almost identical number (M-5983-E). Looking at the pictures, the frame is definitely the same. There's no name listed, but it's stated as a 1983 model.



- Cleared up the forks today. The chrome underneath the black paint is still OK, but not perfect. I don't know yet if I will get the fork rechromed.
I did find an Columbus logo on the fork, and a 0 (which indicates it's a fork for a frame size 60?).





- And last, I discovered some more chrome beneath the black paint on the frame. I love chrome.