Proflex 856 Restoration

[garyoneill]

Paintwork

This has been a labour of love and has taken weeks. The original paintwork was a bit tatty and blistering in a number of places so I stripped off the decals and wire brushed anything that might be loose. I followed this up with plenty of sanding to flatten out any significant chips. In the past I have completely stripped frames back to the bare metal but even with acid etch primers the ‘home done’ finish never seems as resilient as the original factory finish, so where possible I have left the original paint in place so as to get a good key. Anyway, I primed over the original paint and quickly found the areas that needed further preparation.





After this I re-primed a few areas and put on a couple of coats of red primer followed by a couple of enamel top coats. I used Halfords Enamel paints (RAL 3020) which looks as close as I could find to the original colour. Lots of flatting, painting, flatting, swearing etc and I managed to get a consistent flat finish. Decals applied and a couple of coats of lacquer. At each stage the frame was dried using a homemade ‘oven’ consisting of a heater, tin foil and some large boxes.... i am not looking forward to the electricity bill!





Now on start putting it back together.

 

[cmscycle]

Re:

That's a great job you are doing there. Very cool to see the progress!

 

[Muddy paw]

I'm loving your work and commitment to detail as it's really inspiring but what i would like to know is what were all the grades of wet n dry paper that you used for
the polishing mate as i might be giving it a go myself .

 

[garyoneill]

Hi, thanks for the feedback. I am really enjoying the project. For the paintwork I used 600 grit paper followed by 800 to prepare the parts. I then used 800 grit between the various coats of paint followed by 1500 grit between the final colour coat and lacquer. I did not bother sanding between the lacquer coats, instead I let them dry for 15 mins using a heater and then re-sprayed. I wanted to ensure the decals were fully covered before a used the sandpaper again. After the frame dried ( I gave it 2 weeks) I lightly sanded with 2500 grit and then gave it a once over with T-Cut and a wax polish.

With regards to the metal polishing, I used 800 grit if the surfaces were damaged or scratched, then used 1500 grit and autosol. I fitted a buffing pad to my drill which made the job easier, however it is messy. I cleaned the parts up afterwards using alcohol gel ( the stuff you get in hospitals to clean your hands) and a cloth. That said wire wool or Brillo pads do a good job as well. You can get the 1500+ sandpaper from Halfords.

I have read loads of threads about the best way to protect polished aluminium and for now I have waxed them, however the decals seem a bit vulnerable so I am planning to put helicopter tape on the sides of the swingarm and the fork legs to protect them. I will be ordering some spare decals as well in case it all goes wrong!

 

[Muddy paw]

Cheers mate that's alot more info than i was expecting but hugely appreciated all the same as i will be getting my crank arms polished up this week and as for my frame work well i wont be tackling that just yet but i will be painting it when the funds allow but it won't be being done in the original colour scheme and it just might be a multi colour finish as i've a few colours in mind atm but i just can't seem to settle on just one and as far as wet and dry paper goes i've got a local auto factors just a few minutes down the road selling the stuff for 55p a sheet so that's real easy to get hold of .

I assume you'll be getting hold of the helitape off the bay then as their's usually plenty of it up for sale on their mate and i reckon it gives the best protection for the decals so you shouldn't have the worry about damage from stone chips for a good while mate ..

 

[Ollie]

Great job!

 

[garyoneill]

Re: Proflex 856 Restoration... turned into an 855 Resto!

Well the original 856 frame has been sold on eBay, but the 855 is finally finished, off for its inaugural ride this weekend. It’s pretty much all original, the only concessions are:

• Hope Ti Glide Hubs
• Some modern SPDs (Whilst I track down some M737 pedals)
• Charge tyres
• Springs, I may try elastomers in the near future, but I fancy yellow ones so may be obliged to manufacture my own.
• Cheap cantilevers – these will be swapped for XT ones in the near future

The cycling jersey was a present from the wife

 

[Muddy paw]

That looks amazing mate and well worth the wait to see so i'm now really curious to read how she rides especially with the new jersey of the wife helping you become a pro rider .

 

[JASSA]

Hello.

I am restoring a Proflex 856 right now, here in Brazil is very difficult to find parts and when we find a bike of this, we need to embrace and restore it to existing parts and hardly find parts in the common market.
Contrary to what happens outside of Latin America, there are many owners Proflex and it is very rare to see the streets or trails. I began to restore Proflex 856 alone, unaided no, because the professionals here are terrible and pretty much did it all myself, on my blog, I'm posting some restorations for those who enjoy bikes Old School MTB and am still finishing the restoration of the bumper making the final painting of the frame.
His bike was beautiful, I hope I can leave the table to finish equal to his and my congratulations on the bike, was very good indeed.
I searched a lot for restorations of a Proflex on the internet but was well ahead of its posting, I am restoring Proflex been more than a year and intend to finish this before Christmas.
Below I put the address of my blog so you can see my Proflex 856 in catering:

http://www.dinossaurodomtb.blogspot.com.br/

On my Facebook, my bikes are all 90s:

https://www.facebook.com/JassaBiker

Hope you like it here in Brazil is the best you can do.


Thank you.

 

[mk one]

Very nice, I had an 856 when they first came out, from what I can remember it cost around £1200 for the frame, then in 97' it dropped to around £350 :facepalm: taught me a lot about buying brand new bikes!! Can I ask why you got rid of the 856?