ProFlex 1996 856 Rebuild - ON HOLD !!!

Here are the pictures of the frame prepped for powder coating :















Other than cleaning this frame up and flatting out scratches etc the only little mod was to round of all the sharp edges, particularly to the bottom of the seat tube :



And to de burr the seat gussets. The lump of weld in the seat tube has now gone. Also note that like the rear strut, all the inserts in the frame are stainless steel :



(On the above pic you can just see the weld penetration on the inside of the left gusset)



The rebuild kits have turned up from the states (fork seals / bushes and swing arm seals / bushes). There are two bikes worth here :



I have bought a 1” 135mm zero rise Ringle stem (still waiting for it to arrive), but it didn’t come with a top cap :-( As I think I am going with carbon bars and post I thought a carbon top cap would look nice and found the following on eBay :



I took a bit of a gamble as the quality was unknown and I didn’t like the logo – I was hoping that it was on top of the lacquer and not under it. As it turned out the carbon was OK, the lacquer a bit lumpy but the logo was on top A quick flat down and buff up gave the results I was looking for :





I also found a bit more bling on the bay :



They are the wrong shade of blue but I will get them re-anodized with the other stuff. I know I could have sent plain silver ones to be done but as not all grades of ally ano up nicely at least I know these are made from a grade that will

WD

Just a quick update (or should that be not much to update )

Couldn’t resist an old Specialized bottle cage from development_cycle, these were my fave from BITD (got my original one on the Marin build) :





I will only use it if the colour matches so it has been cleaned up (using wet n dry) to get rid of the scuffs and 'dry' bits :





It's now covered in Megs plastic restorer and stored in a sealed plastic bag ready for use.

The stem came (via eBay) :



This will be re-anodised to match the other bits but after leaving feedback I then found out the face plate has a hairline crack currently in the process of sourcing another ...

Out with the old (these had actually survived quite well :shock :



and in with the new :



These came from Rapid Descent and are a nice bit of kit. As I picked these up from the sorting office before work they had already been messed about with before the pic was taken. The ally bits have been spun up in the lathe to give a nice base for the ano and the bump stops have been shortened slightly and tapered to give a more progressive response

WD

I am loving this build.

I am seriously jealous though. Where I ride we have a bit of trail called ProFlex Alley. This is because back in the day, when we all rode fully rigid (remember?), this particularly bumpy trail made us all crave the comfort of a ProFlex.

None of us ever got one but you never know...

Thanks for the comment

Well ‘elite504’ came up trumps with a new faceplate for the Ringle he also supplied a new clamp assembly (as I found a crack in the old when cleaning it up ) and a set of instructions so I have the correct tightening torques for the rebuild. All cleaned and ready for ano :



I was looking around for some bar ends and came across these RooX items from ‘Jamis Diablo’ :



I know nothing about RooX (are they any good ?) but they caught my eye as their appearance / construction suggested they were made from billet and machined to shape (rather than having any bonded or welded joints etc). I figured any company that went to that extent must be making a quality product ? :?

Anyhow, once the paint came off there was good news and bad. Good = one piece CNC’d construction Bad = corrosion due to no surface prep / bonding of the original paint …



A bit of patience, elbow grease, wet n dry and NXT came to the rescue though quite nicely Added a polished Ti bolt :



Old v new :



Both finished :



The end plugs will be some blingy carbon jobbies I have spotted on eBay to match the stem top cap The problem is, I am not sure what to do with these, leave polished or ano with the other stuff … ?

A couple of arty farty shots now, I should title these “WD’s Workshop – View From A RooX”





WD

Dang, I am seriously impressed! :shock: :shock:

Not much of an update but a few pictures, been quite busy with family stuff over the past few weekends

I managed to scoop a few parts cheap from the for sale forum (thanks jimjim2012), £21 for the following ‘spares’, including the quite rare mech hanger :



All in pretty good condition apart from a ‘bit’ of cable rub :shock: :



To be fair the worn stickers and paint make it look a lot worse than it really is, it’s still bad, but now they are stripped back to bare ally they don’t look quite as bad ...

Ready for the strip down with the new oil and seals :



The oil from the front one was quite clean but the rears were very black / burnt, the dirt separates out if you leave the oil to stand for a while. All the bits are stripped / cleaned now, the only thing I can’t remove is the pistons off the end of the shaft but as it’s a non serviceable item there is no reason to take them off anyway



The ally bits just need a bit of a clean up / buff and then they will be put in the box to go off for fresh ano

WD

I love this thread, you have a knack for getting these retro parts looking brand new, you appear to have much more patience with these things than me! They're only a simple item, but those bar ends look superb! :shock:

i wish my polishing turned out like that....you must be a LOT more patient than me!!!

Looking very impressive dude. Currently following your tips on polishing for my manitou. Soon i'll be able to shave using it as a mirror

No new pictures sorry ...

I have been asked (via pm) about removing the logos that were printed onto the carbon top cap and polishing it back up again.







I have posted my response up here as it may be useful to other forum users

OK, first things first – check the logo is definitely on top of the lacquer and not under it

Other than that I treated it exactly as I would a scratch in car paint (yes I am quite anal with the four wheeled things to ). Start with wet n dry (2000’s – from a car paint suppliers), you only need a small piece (30mm x 30mm), round the corners off and leave it soaking in a mild soap solution before use.

Rub over the logo very lightly, if its defo on top you will see the water take on the main colour of the logo very quickly. Although 2000’s almost feels as smooth as paper you will be surprised how quickly it will remove logos / marks etc, even if used on ally :shock:

Try and work in a motion that flows with the shape you are working on i.e. circular for the top cap (see below), straight on frame tubes etc and if you’re working on a car, horizontal or following the flow of air. If you are working on a scratch try and work along its length, rather than across it. You are trying to round over the edges of the scratch (to stop the light / your eye catching it ) rather than removing it completely (loosing precious lacquer / top coat ).

For round things I try were possible to mount them in either a drill or a lathe to save me work. The top cap was mounted in a drill using a csk bolt and then the drill was held in the workbench.

Once the logo / scratch has gone you should be left with an even / smooth / matt finish with no visible sanding marks. Then it’s a simple job of polishing up the finish back to a gloss. NOTE : The carbon actually looked really good like this (similar to the USE posts) and I may actually end up flatting my stuff off again.

Without spending too much money or shopping around for specialist products I would recommend Meguiars ‘Scratch X’ which I believe is now available from most good car shops and some of the larger Halfrauds. You don’t need loads, polish in the same direction that you sanded and work the product until it has all gone i.e. your cloth or pad that you are using to apply it is virtually dry. Repeat the scratch X if necessary (depending on how hard the paint / lacquer is), maybe two or three times. The gloss level should be very good at the end of this stage and then it will only need protecting with a good car wax.

It goes without saying that if you decide to have a go at your car door or similar, try a small area first, be very careful on edges / swage lines and don’t blame me if it all goes wrong

I picked up some NOS carbon bars for the ProFlex and the logo on those was slightly damaged so I decided to remove that to. Tip – try white spirit first, you might not even need to get the wet n dry out ...

Hope that helps,

WD