1993 Kona Explosif New Project

[konacarl]

I had a 320 mile round trip yesterday to collect my latest eBay purchase. It’s a 93 Kona Explosif 19 inch. I sold my last Explosif a few months back and needed a, a new project and b, a new Kona so it sort of ticks the boxes.
It’s been someone’s pride and joy at sometime and had some decent parts over time.
The good:
Got it home last night and thankfully the seatpost (Controltech) moves freely. Xt front mech. It’s got an Xtr rear mech but the jockey wheels have no teeth. The casette is either xt mm737 or an m900 xtr but I’ve not had chance to check it. It also seems to have some titanium bars which I’ll investigate further when I get chance. Also has some Tange forks.
The bad:
The paint and a very shallow dent in the top tube. A broken bottle cage bolt in situ.
It’s got some gripshift which do not look great.
Needs correct forks, stem(on the way) headset, chainset and brakes.
The ugly:
The paint job!
It has plenty of Shimano lx m570 parts in the form of brakes, levers, rear hub and an lx chainset.

 

[mk one]

Nice project, been after an 18" one of these for a while now.

 

[Splatter Paint]

Re:

The forks are 395mm a/c, for a 19" frame you'll need just under 170mm of steerer tube if using the Control Center headset. I know because I just measured mine...

 

[Paul R]

Im watching

 

[moonlite]

Nice buy -- lots of potential there!

 

[romanrinos]

Re:

Looking forward to seeing the results

 

[konacarl]

Bit of an update.
I’ve managed to drill out the broken bottle cage bolt and tapped it out so it’s all good.
The handlebars have turned out to be titanium X-lites.
The rear mech was in a bad state and has needed a lot of work. Anything other than XTR and I’d have binned it. The rear adjuster was an alloy upgrade which had welded itself in the lthread. Again I’ve drilled and tapped it and it’s ok now. I’ve stripped the pivot bolt out and it’s titanium too. I’ve had to steal a part from another rear mech as the tension screw holder had snapped. Just waiting for some jockey wheels and it’ll be good to go.
Finally, the bottom bracket is stuck to the point that part of threaded cup has snapped off when I used a lot of force and leverage. I’ll probably end up attacking it with a drill and possibly a hammer and bolster to get it out in pieces.

 

[Paul R]

Its fighting you hard then grrr

 

[konacarl]

Re:

There’s been an ongoing battle with the bottom bracket which
I hope will end with a victory for me shortly.
The cups are so welded in that the teeth sheared when I took a 2ft bar To them with the extraction tool. I’ve soaked them for a few days in penetrating oil, had a hammer and bolster to them and used a blow torch with no success.
I’m off to get a titanium drill bit to open it up. Hopefully I can get the bearings out, then remove the spindle and then cut and peel the cups.
Here’s a couple of photos showing the state of them.

 

[mk one]

Anymore luck with this?