Dry your eyes and ‘specialise’ as they say!
This will be a slow build however I used to be a fan of all things Specialized back in the day and had a red and white 2003 M5 S -Works frame which was probably my favourite bike of all time!
Anyhow, this is a 1996 stock bike which I’m thoroughly looking forward to fettling.
Plans are:
Nut and bolt strip down.
New chain,cassette and BB.
New pedals
Service hubs
New seatpost (Thompson) and saddle.
8 speed LX shifters
XT V brakes and levers
Schwalbe Table Top skinwalls.
My predicament however is what to do re the paint!
There are no dents to frame but there is surface rust coming through and couple of the decals are damaged. Gil M has the exact set.
I have 3 options really...
1. Polish and clean frame as best as I can. Touch in the rust with closest match to the indigo paint as I can find. Don’t worry too much about the patina and complete the build.
2. Powdercoat in as close as possible or in a nice french blue or similar or even in red which was other colour option that year. Downside will be that new decals Will not be laquered over like standard but finish of PC will be pretty awesome and durable.
3. My mate has his own motorcycle paint shop with spray booth etc.
He recon’s he can paint match. This would entail a full paint strip, paint match, I’ll apply new decals and he’ll laquer over them so will be as close to factory as possible... only thing with this tho is that I find that paint is never as durable as PC.
Decisions decisions decisions....
This will be a slow build however I used to be a fan of all things Specialized back in the day and had a red and white 2003 M5 S -Works frame which was probably my favourite bike of all time!
Anyhow, this is a 1996 stock bike which I’m thoroughly looking forward to fettling.
Plans are:
Nut and bolt strip down.
New chain,cassette and BB.
New pedals
Service hubs
New seatpost (Thompson) and saddle.
8 speed LX shifters
XT V brakes and levers
Schwalbe Table Top skinwalls.
My predicament however is what to do re the paint!
There are no dents to frame but there is surface rust coming through and couple of the decals are damaged. Gil M has the exact set.
I have 3 options really...
1. Polish and clean frame as best as I can. Touch in the rust with closest match to the indigo paint as I can find. Don’t worry too much about the patina and complete the build.
2. Powdercoat in as close as possible or in a nice french blue or similar or even in red which was other colour option that year. Downside will be that new decals Will not be laquered over like standard but finish of PC will be pretty awesome and durable.
3. My mate has his own motorcycle paint shop with spray booth etc.
He recon’s he can paint match. This would entail a full paint strip, paint match, I’ll apply new decals and he’ll laquer over them so will be as close to factory as possible... only thing with this tho is that I find that paint is never as durable as PC.
Decisions decisions decisions....
