FROGSKIN's 96/92 GT Zaskar (Finished - p4!).

Hi everybody and welcome at last to this thread dedicated to my GT Zaskar build.
Having raced from 1989 to 1995 in the Youth and Junior classes, I feel privileged to have been part of the very early years of MTBing. My bedroom wall was covered in pics of Tomac, Herbold, Missy, Furtado, Hans, Hemming, JMC and my bikes at the time reflected the trick, ever-evolving technologies of those times. A Chas Roberts Snow Leopard was my first proper race bike followed by a Saracen Killi-Pro and despite riding for a few shops at the time (Cycle Revolution in Newquay and Clive Mitchell in Truro), I still never had enough coppers to buy a Zaskar LE!

Fast forward 18 years and what have I built? Answer; My dream bike and one that I would have wanted to race way back then and want to now!
This bike is not supposed to be a true "Factory" or "stock" build, but rather one that reflects the components my heroes rocked during a time in my bike life I enjoyed the most. Rishi Grewal, Tomac, Herbold, Hans' and Furtado's bikes have inspired this build and I hope you DIG it!

This build started mid-October 2011 and is now nearly finished, except one skewer I have a lead on.
The starting point was a super scratched, oxidized, minging mess of a 20 inch 1996 Zaskar LE frame bought of Ebay. The plan - to build it in an earlier style with 1992 decals, courtesy of Gil M.

Frame prep 1)
Stripped old decals off with a hairdrier. To gauge the real condition of the frame I quickly washed it and polished it using Autosol on a toothbrush and on mutton cloth. This showed up the worst of the scratches, dings and misty white areas.

Frame prep 2) Using 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1600,1800 and 2000 grade wet "n"dry paper I progressively went through the grades, using lots of hot, soapy water. This eradicated all the oxidization and most of the scratches. This procedure took a 1 1/2 days!!

Frame prep 3) Gave the whole thing a real buff for 5 hours with Autosol and finished of with Autoglym Resin polish to seal in the blingo!!

Frame prep 4) After pressing in the Tioga Alchemy headset I used brake cleaner to remove any traces of grease, before installing the awesome new decals from Gil M, as well as the NOS Onza and Shimano ones I found in California. This stage was nerve racking!

Looking loved now...

Its ALIVE! ALIVE!

With the heart of the bike looking a trillion times fresher, it was time to get stuck into some component detailing.

Using good old oven cleaner and Autosol the scabby, black anodizing was removed and the alloy buffed to a mirror shine. this is soo satisfying to do!

All bolts were painfully scrubbed clean and the wells in the teeth of the chainrings were also cleaned one by one.

Looks super nice...

Sweet!

Very nice job taking a somewhat dingy frame and bringing it back to near perfection... Well done!

Do you already have the rest of the build? What are you going with parts wise?

Stem time! Scored this Syncros 140mm Aheadstem from Ebay! I gave it a good dose of black two-pack paint, colour polished it and freshly garnished it with new bolts. Decals, again from the sticker dude, Gil M were applied and it looks AMAZING!

Wheel time! As I work in a bike shop, I managed to find some good as NOS Tioga Psycho K tyres which were promptly scrubbed up to the max and fitted to the freshly re-built hubs and re-dished rims.

Oh yeah!!