Early Carbon frame. Help identify please.

[Fratello]

I bought an early carbon frame. Came with aluminium fork. Original paint was light metallic green, I think. Seller said it was a Donnay (tennis raquet maker) but it's not a Merckx Donnay.

Seller said it was made for a European pro team and made its way to Ireland in the 1990's.
I'll attach a few photos.

It's quite crude, particularly at rear of seat tube and bottom bracket at back wheel. Very thick profile in places, no frills. Seat stays are flat on the wheel side. Headtube has a funny bulge in mid section.
Seat clamp is a barrel like used on old Aegis frames.
B.B. thread is Italian.

I really want to restore it but would love to know what it is supposed to look like.

 

[zerogravitas]

Interesting one, never seen anything quite like it. As you say, pretty rough around the edges but with some unique features, with some attention and plenty of filling and sanding it could look lovely.
What kind of fork/headset does it take? Threaded or not? I presume the purple is a pretty rough repaint? What are the brown marks?

 

[Fratello]

Thanks for the reply. Fork is aluminium with steel threaded steerer tube. It has a serial no. Suggesting Nov 1993 but......it had 5 paint colours. Crap purple, green, metallic green, dark green and nice purple.The frame seems to have had three, I can't seem to find any mor colours under metallic green so the fork might be from something else but spent a good bit of time with the frame. The brown is just bits of box tape residue. It will be a good 6 months before I get to starting it properly so time to figure it out.

The seat clamp is like an Aegis but the dropouts aren't.

Could you recommend filler that won't damage carbon, or is it an issue?

 

[zerogravitas]

I would try standard car body filler (P38 polyester 2-part type stuff), the cured epoxy will be pretty inert I think.
I found this image on Bikeforums which looks pretty similar?!

Eddy Merckx Carbon 1991 - 2003 - Bike Forums

Classic & Vintage - Eddy Merckx Carbon 1991 - 2003 - 1991 was the peak of EMC's power in its "steel" edition - great frames, materials, accessories, graphics, sponsored teams, everything built in Meise under full control and according to the owner's requirements. It was the last year of EMC's...

www.bikeforums.net

∆ Here is the thread - it's a bit unclear but could yours be an 'Eddy Merckx by Donnay Carbon Monocoque' from the 1991-1993 section?

 

[Fratello]

Tbanks. I have that discussion it's the same frame before it was dismantled. I just bought the frame fork and the seller kindly threw in bars & stem the rest had gone to others.

Before I bought it I thought I was buying one of these.
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-...ckx-eddy-merckx-meise-steel-road-frame-6.html (this is page 6, also see bottom of page 5)

The one I have is less refined. The seller was sure it was a Donnay. Merckx had a brief partnership with Donnay. I wonder is it a protype or some such early version?

Eddy Merckx catalogue / folder 1993 - Bike Forums

Classic & Vintage - Eddy Merckx catalogue / folder 1993 - Sagas continued... Title slightly modified, maybe that's enough ... - The catalog was probably created in September 1992 and shows what you could buy in EMC at the time (as usual - not everything) - The first carbon frame, Donnay...

www.bikeforums.net

First bike in the above catelogue.

The Merckx Donnay is cool looking all the same.

 

[zerogravitas]

Yes it is rough enough that it feels like a prototype, even accounting for 30 years use on the road, the one you link is a world away in finish and presentation, particularly in parts like the dropout details.

 

[Fratello]

Paint removal in progress. Established it's a Donnay. The fork serial no. suggests it was made after the Merckx Donnay. Still looking for a photo of it when it was young to see what decals it had.

 

[Fratello]

I have the fork repainted and got hold of a nice 600 groupset.
I dismantled the levers to get them working again. It was tricky but I did a pair of RSX shifters after and found it easier second time around. Innards are very similar. Then I fitted new repro resin decals from ebay.

Frame was away for carbon repair. Back soon. It will go all purple then I'll have to make up some decals. I'll post more photos when I have them.

 

[zerogravitas]

What are the repairers doing to the frame? Is it going purple as well?

 

[Fratello]

To the best of my knowledge it was all purple when new. There was little trace of tbe purple after several others had painted and repained it over the years. The fork strangly retained all the layers of paint added while the frame seems to have been sanded.
There was a small crack where the two halves of the frame were joined. The crack was at tge top of the seat tube from flexing of the seat post. Back in 1993 the frame had an aluminium liner in the seat tube. This was because back then they were careful with carbon. The end result is that the crack was never going to progress beyond 7mm or so. I wanted it checked to be sure.

For decals I thinking of red and white DONNAY and maybe a "Carbon Technology" on the top tube. I'm still hoping someone will dig out a photo of it when it was new. See the links I included in the first post of this thread.