Revell Rapide ?

Hello

I have just acquired this Revell Rapide not sure what year but think its 1984 ?, Looking to restore and ride , would welcome any help on frame sprayers in surrey sussex area and were I can get replacement decals ..Many thanks

Re:

Looks interesting, but we need to see more, cos we do love our pictures. :mrgreen:

Are you certain it needs new paint? Look at some of the other threads here, it is amazing what can be done with some rust killer and a bit of polish, plus a fair bit of the running gear will clean up well, possibly not that headset though, that does look a little past its prime.

Re: Re:

NeilM":3hc439gb said:

Looks interesting, but we need to see more, cos we do love our pictures. :mrgreen:

Are you certain it needs new paint? Look at some of the other threads here, it is amazing what can be done with some rust killer and a bit of polish, plus a fair bit of the running gear will clean up well, possibly not that headset though, that does look a little past its prime.

Click to expand...

Re posted with other photos, any help recommendations would be greatly appreciated

Re:

Hello again - you'll have seen my reply to your query in my rebuild thread. Had I bothered to find your original post I would have seen the pics! Just like the one I attached.

I think what you have is an original and correctly badged Revell Rapide. Well found!

Agree with the above about the paintwork. Some patina is wholly acceptable and you'd be surprised what a bit of elbow grease can achieve. If you're intent on a respray or whatever I think your rapide decals are unavailable "from stock" anywhere. But following what I said earlier it should be possible to get some good copies made.

Re:

If it were mine I would strip and clean and replace only what was absolutely necessary.

I even think the headset is easily saved, but you'd be hard pressed to get it shiny again, so a replacement in good condition would certainly look better.

Thanks for the feedback and yes would rather avoid re-spray , elbow grease I am happy to do. Looking to ride Erioca Brittania next year and to ride as a hobby with friends, has anyone got an idea on age, from what I have been told 1982 ??

grayduff64":3763m0m0 said:

Hello

I have just acquired this Revell Rapide not sure what year but think its 1984 ?, Looking to restore and ride , would welcome any help on frame sprayers in surrey sussex area and were I can get replacement decals ..Many thanks

Click to expand...

That looks very nice, I'd strip it down and paint it a classic light blue and put new decals on, wheels look like Mavic's good wheels.
Good Luck with the build

Mer Garcon":evvqy1xe said:

grayduff64":evvqy1xe said:

Hello

I have just acquired this Revell Rapide not sure what year but think its 1984 ?, Looking to restore and ride , would welcome any help on frame sprayers in surrey sussex area and were I can get replacement decals ..Many thanks

Click to expand...

That looks very nice, I know a bloke called Sean in Dorking he thinks he know everything BUT I'm not sure, he may be able to help.

Click to expand...

Ah that's the bloke that got me started and may get me a divorce, however he does now lots and is very helpful and of course a decent bloke

grayduff64":1fzfr5vu said:

Mer Garcon":1fzfr5vu said:

grayduff64":1fzfr5vu said:

Hello

I have just acquired this Revell Rapide not sure what year but think its 1984 ?, Looking to restore and ride , would welcome any help on frame sprayers in surrey sussex area and were I can get replacement decals ..Many thanks

Click to expand...

That looks very nice, I know a bloke called Sean in Dorking he thinks he know everything BUT I'm not sure, he may be able to help.

Click to expand...

Ah that's the bloke that got me started and may get me a divorce, however he does now lots and is very helpful and of course a decent bloke

Click to expand...

Yer a bit of an A'sh@le

Re:

Age wise - early to late eighties is about right for these. If it's loaded with Shimano bits, as I expect it will be, you can get an idea of their date of manufacture from the date code on each bit. So "bike date" will be within a few months after their dates - usually.

Shimano uses a two digit code to track the date of manufacture. The first letter is the year and the second digit will be the month (EI would be September of 1980). Generally, the code is fairly easy to spot but is usually on the "back side" of the part. See table in the pic.

Some of the Revell frames were actually made by some very good makers - e.g. Mercian, Dave Yates and so on. If there's a frame number (under bottom bracket?) this may help to decide this, if you are interested.