GT Zaskar or Pantera ?

jaypee":1i7dlwt9 said:

So come on then... What was the trick with the cranks in the end?? (or did the bike shop take it out the back and it reappeared magically crank free?)

Nice find by the way - I saw it and didn't think much, so many low end GTs out there.

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When I returned the second extractors I broke, the bike shop guy took pity on me and used his tool on it. Obviously I must have already loosened it... :facepalm:

tonedeaf101":1i7dlwt9 said:

I used Nitromors on a 2nd frame I did for a mate. It took ages to strip it off. I literally had to apply 5 coats of stripper and rubbing with wirewool to remove the paint. If you can get it dipped it would save a lot of elbowgrease. Avoid caustic based soloutions too as that will oxidise the frame heavily and make polishing a long affair. Strong solvents are what you need really. MEK maybe or MIBK, just depends on what the paint is. They come up lush when polished though. Worth the effort

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Thanks for that. The more I think about this the less I want to try using the useless modern Nitromors. If this was 15 years ago I would - but it's become such lame stuff in the last couple of years.

paddy311":2g2zgzk1 said:

Obviously I must have already loosened it... :facepalm

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Haha always the way

Found somewhere that I can get the chemical stripping done - I'm just off there now to deliver the frame.

Will add a recommendation on here if they do a good job (I have every faith..... )

Will be interesting what kinda job they do.
for afterwards I Can recommend Peek polish. Bought it on Flebay. Cheaper than autosol and personally I think better on Al.
Get polishing

tonedeaf101":3ghzbmpp said:

Will be interesting what kinda job they do.
for afterwards I Can recommend Peek polish. Bought it on Flebay. Cheaper than autosol and personally I think better on Al.
Get polishing

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I'm pretty sure he will do a good job - he was making all the right noises to make me think he knew exactly what he was doing.

I also took the stem (powdercoated steel with some rust worms under the powder) and seatpost (cromoly and cast ally). He said he will cold strip the steel and cromo bits in acid, and hot strip all the ally bits. I don't know the exact solution he uses for the hot dip but he said 'yes' when I asked if it was methyline chloride based.

I'm hoping that the rust on the stem will get eaten in the acid & leave a decent surface to prep for paint.

Famous last words.... :facepalm:

Well..... I picked up the frame earlier from the strippers.

I'm very pleased with the job they've done. The cost to strip the frame, stem, and seat post was £15 all in, which lets be fair - is a total bargain.

Frame is totally clear of paint, with the exception of some tiny flecks of primer left on some of the welds.



Wanted to see how easy it would be to polish it from the as dipped finish, so I spent ten minutes on a bit of the seat post and top tube with some autosol. Looks like it should come up nicely with a bit of elbow grease.



As promised - I'm more than happy to recommend the guys that did the stripping. They ain't really set up for posting frames etc so only any use if you're relatively local I guess.

Wood Strip
16-18 Commercial Rd
Wolverhampton
West Midlands
WV1 3QS

O19O2 45O88O

Nice project! Good on you to rescue that painted Zaskar!

I would go rigid as well. Period-correct forks of that time, e.g. the Rockshox 1 (see pic), weren't very good.


Scanned my GM...

I saw your WTB for a 3D (1992) or 2x4 fork (1991). Are you sure about the steerer length of minimum 150mm? Your frame looks like 18inch with 10cm head tube. In this case, a fork with 138 mm should be enough. Finding a 3D or 2x4 isn't easy and you should not make it harder by looking for a steerer length longer than you need.

Will you get forks and stem painted black? This would look very nice!

Rahbari":2ydjdaaa said:

Nice project! Good on you to rescue that painted Zaskar!

I would go rigid as well. Period-correct forks of that time, e.g. the Rockshox 1 (see pic), weren't very good.

Scanned my GM...

I saw your WTB for a 3D (1992) or 2x4 fork (1991). Are you sure about the steerer length of minimum 150mm? Your frame looks like 18inch with 10cm head tube. In this case, a fork with 138 mm should be enough. Finding a 3D or 2x4 isn't easy and you should not make it harder by looking for a steerer length longer than you need.

Will you get forks and stem painted black? This would look very nice!

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Cheers - I was just going on the 150mm length because what came off the bike were 148 and I'll need a bit extra because I need to run a cable hanger.

This is the scrap steerer off the old & totally dead Shock Tech forks that were on there:



And this is the frame measurement:



until about 5 minutes ago the bike was going to be running it's original Tioga double locknut headset too - which would add a few MM to the steerer tube in itself. I've just agreed a sale on an NOS deore DX headset though, so that will bring the measurement down again. I can't see it being down to 138mm though.

edit: Forks and stem will be black, yes. I've also sounded out Gil ragarding decals too & will be ordering them pretty soon. I don't have the money at the moment to do the whole bike with this level of detail unfortunately - so I'm concentrating on getting the F&F perfect, and using as much of the original drivetrain etc as possible.

legrandefromage":jncrre86 said:

I had the original RS MAG21 on mine but have had Judy DH, Reynolds and allsorts over the years. I now have something near to the original rigid GT forks instead.

I dont know the axle to crown measurement but I do remember that it needs to be over a certain length otherwise it feels as if the steering is all buggered up.

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Axle-crown looks to be 395mm on the 2x4s on my '91 Zaskar.

kingoffootball":od5dxxe1 said:

Axle-crown looks to be 395mm on the 2x4s on my '91 Zaskar.

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Very useful to know - thanks for confirming.