1991 Marin pine mountain.......finished on page 2......

Right then, after 12 months of tinkering with old projects in an already bulging man cave, I've landed a new one.......off we go again!.....it's another bucket list job, so I have some energy with it!





It's been a commuter for a mate of mine, uncleaned in what appears to be the past 15 years, and some sideways upgrades from a previous owner. Non original parts as it arrived today include a flex stem, Scott bars (bent at the clamp, so hack sawed off and binned!), the dx hubs are built onto some mavic 517 rims which still have the milling marks on the braking surfaces and appear nearly new, a 730 xt rear mech, and a new stx headset.......other than that it is all original dx/Marin spec.

No time to do anything other than strip it down tonight, but I'm tempted to do a full original spec resto, including a possible respray......time to ponder it over initially, but an immediate question is has anyone mastered the zolatone respray yet?.......

Will need new bars and stem......

Bb knackered, but shifters and levers in good nick, turbo a little tatty, but shark fin, cranks, rings and block all good, or will be after a bath and polish up.......

It's a nice frame, first Marin for me, but it's pleasingly chunky......

All help, pointers and comments welcomed......

To be continued!......

Re: 1991 Marin pine mountain.......

Its a great place to start from !

Re: 1991 Marin pine mountain.......

dont lose the seatpost

Re: 1991 Marin pine mountain.......

First things first, nice bike! I have always liked the contrasting colours of early 90's marins.

If you do the bottom-up refurb, I would use your local pwdercoater to match the grey as near as damn it, the bars and forks in that orange too. Flouro is a bugger by amateur hand and takes time and money to get right.

Zolatone is weird. After washing you can see how porous it is by the way is dries in stages, grease seems to soak into it too Well, it was a daft form of innovative framework finishing then and, still is. So much so that it is 'obsolete' and you will learn to fly before obtaining the ingredients for it.

Also, the sandy/1200 grit texture of it caused decals to leave home early, bad idea then and, now. See if coaters have a battleship grey, it can't be far off and, your new decals will stick to it.

Other than that, DX is easy enough to get hold of if you find any dodgy bits. I'm sure gil_m has the decals on file.

Depending on how fast the build moves....When i'm ok to ride again, i will take my '91 eldridge to my powdercoaters and do a match on site, or, as near as damn it. Then i will broadcast the RAL code

enjoy!

Re: 1991 Marin pine mountain.......

Gil_m just sorted me out with decals for my 1991 Pine Mountain. The originals disappeared long before I bought it.

I haven't put the replacements on yet - still debating whether to go for a respray first. I don't have the time or enthusiasm to do it myself so any recommendations for a powder coater in Mid Sussex gratefully received. And tips on the right colours would also be helpful.

The original forks on mine have long gone. The replacements seem to be the original spec, but in grey rather than orange. I've also picked up some Marin Lite bars, but in green rather than orange. All will need coating.

Other than that, it's in pretty original spec. I changed the shifters for more modern ones as the originals were a bit erratic and I didn't think it worth trying to fix them. I'm half tempted to leave it as a rat bike but I was in the New Forest last week and some guy at the place I was staying had a similar old Marin which looked in much better condition, and much more appealing ... which got me thinking

Re: 1991 Marin pine mountain.......

Looking forward to see the final result ! :shock:
Great project !

Re: 1991 Marin pine mountain.......

Three bikes built, two framesets hanging on the wall and now the pine mountain. Looks like my garage!

Loving these early marin's at the mo. Good place to start yours, looks tidy enough.

Re: 1991 Marin pine mountain.......

its not too bad.....its covered in a layer of grime at the minute, but appears generally sound. the decals are faded and tatty, but thats as much to do with the poor adhesion to zolatone over the years as anthing else. the fork has taken some stick, and will need respraying, and i will want a stem and bar to match obviously. pristine fork,bars and stem wont sit well on a tatty frame, so im erring toward a bottom up resto at the minute......my only issue is that a lot of the carachter of these sits in the frying pan finish, which i would lose with powdercoat......hmmmmmm (ponders with forefinger on lip)

Re: 1991 Marin pine mountain.......

doug, your going to read this sooner rather than later.....did you respray your 'team'?.....it looked new at mayhem!

Re: 1991 Marin pine mountain.......

nice one daz, and I bet don was thrilled to see that.and is there any chance of getting that room painted? it,s been like that for the last 2 years