Dave Yates Diabolo

Here's a fun new project.

This arrived recently, and the forks arrived from elsewhere, but I'm planning to put them together for this build.

A lovey Dave Yats Diabolo, i think its around 1991/1992 but i'm waiting to hear back from Dave once hes checked the serial number against his records.

It's a lovely blue colour with the blown white details, but sadly there is a fair chunk of marking and rusts and that has all been clear coated over.
I'm tempted to give it a full repaint. Maybe a deep gloss black.
What do you think?

Bloody lovely

Very nice! They were well known for the paint jobs so you can't change it.

Mine has signs of wear in exactly the same places.

What are your plans for it?

Just formulating plans in my head at the moment. I love the original paint but it is very tatty and I don’t like that it’s been clear coated over that. To me that seems a bit odd, to preserve the tattiness. I like originality and the chance for a frame to develop battle scars, but some how to preserve those scars behind clear coat seems odd.

So I’m leaning towards painting. Maybe a solid colour, probably dark with the fork legs and a stem to match. Depending on colour I’ll then choose the kit for it.

Just had confirmation from Dave Yates that its a 1992 frame. Good to know.

very nice. I'd leave as it is. Very nice front fork

Thanks, the fork is lovely isnt it.

Nice one, that paint job deserves a second chance.

Clean the frame, take out the rust and buy some bottles of paint to repair it. Go to a model shop and try to find the perfect match, they will give you some support.

You can allways respray it if you don´t like the result.

That was my initial thought, but its been clear coated all over, on top of the rust patches. So i can just clean off the rust and touch it up sadly. Its the choice of leaving it as it is or completely redoing it.

Looks like you are going through the same issues as me - you aren't the only Dave Yates Diablo on this forum currently undergoing a refurb.

Don't get any colour matches from the internet. They're rubbish.

I'm taking a step back & looking exactly where my areas of rubbing / corrosion are & whether they will be covered up by cables / chainset etc. If they are, unless I can get a good colour match this weekend, I'll be using black hammerite.

If I dont get a move on it will be another 20 years until it comes out again.

Good luck and I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on.