English F&F resto - Marlboro Zappa Pro?! Bazinga

[20to26]

An impromtu eBay purchase landed me this F&F - admittedly I was intrigued by the lugs! 
This started with looking for something very early 80's or late 70's to build... the next thing I know...

I hadn't seen a british bmx frame built with lugs, except some of the Scorpions & Halfords. It turns out this is a Marlboro made somewhere in the Midlands in the early 80's - a POS bike like the Halfords bmx's and with dropouts similar to the Turbo. Although I have seen one on the web with a Reynolds 531 decal on the downtube, I'm not certain what these were made of.




Anyway here it is and I'm thinking about what route I can take to make it nice & a bit custom - which looks like it's going to take a fair bit of work - there's little finesse here:





My first thoughts are to strip the paint this weekend and maybe start grinding & smoothing some of those welds with a dremel just cos I can...

As there's virtually no chance of finding decals I might need to get a little creative on this...

[oldschoolace]

I wouldn't touch the welds, they are what make the bike what it is... if that makes sense.
No one likes mutton dressed as lamb. Be proud in your ownership of a little piece of british bmx history even if it is low end

[rollin72]

Quality, I had one bitd, I swapped my DB Pro Star for it because someone told me the star gusset was gay
It was a pos, but I loved it..dib dobs if you ever want to sell it

[mattfx81]

Mig welded... Lovely. A LBS in wales still has a marlboro poster behind the counter or did do earlier in the year.

[oldtired]

like that ,  funny how when these little or unknown bikes turn up they always seem to done with Gold spray or gold hammerite   , i'd leave the welds and do it white or racing green   

[super mat]

was that purchased from the great yarmouth area?if so its the frame i sold to a bloke in that area.i was going to build it but already had too many builds on the go.i didnt know it was a malboro until after i sold it.this has smaller than usual headset cups but the stem size is 22.2.nice to see that tuen up on here.unfortunately ive deleted the photos of the frame when i had it.i didnt paint it gold by the way. .if your doing it as a 70s build,i have some nos motocross style tyres for it if your interested.

[Munnyella]

Loving the weld `spatter' under the paint. (thats the pimples that should have been cleaned off after weld, pre paint) so `made in the UK in the 70/80's'

[nosepickben]

A neighbour had one of these in 84. It was grey/silver with red anno parts and motorbike length brake levers!

[20to26]

Amazing that so many people remember these - that's pretty cool and made this a little more important as a resto project than I had first planned.

With the help of one of my lads I started on stripping the 30 year old paint and decals with some Nitromors:



The stuff is fab - pity I started with a half empty canister but it went pretty well and my boy thought it was pretty cool seeing the paint bubble - he kept asking what would happen if he got some on his skin or in his mouth - and would he die if he swallowed some -  priceless.

It was interesting to see the original colour make an appearance up front - but not out back (apologies for the hazy pics - my son was appointed camera guy while my hands were covered in gloop):





After a few coats we ran out of nitromors but still made some good progress for the afternoon:





You can see where the original chrome based decals were positioned on the DT and ST - they're rock hard and will take some beating to get off, not even the wife's hairdryer could budge these suckers - nevertheless it's virtually stripped and ready for some finishing:



 

[Shiner]

Don't mean to hijack your thread but had this for about a year, love the welds, recognise it?





 

[20to26]

well hey Shiner - your's is shiney!  That's the same model frame by the looks of it but this one didn't have chrome beneath the gold paint - it was, by the looks of things, a red to silver fade from what I could make out. No chrome any where here. Just raw steel now.

Super Mat - sorry I missed your question: Yes, it looks as if the seller was from near Great Yarmouth. Can you recall what the colour scheme was prior to the gold paint?

[theRuler]

These Zappers were early 80's circa 83 - 84.

A couple of my friends had them - one was the very basic model - in chrome, steel wheels, red parts.
His older brother had a model up - 2 tone silver / metallic blue paintjob, Simplex mag wheels.

There used to be an advert in BMX Action bike for them, but back in 1983.

I ended up with both of these bikes, complete except for the wheels.
Me and a mate welded to the 2 frames together, to make a "sidehack" in 1989 in metalwork class.
But the idea was flawed - there was nowhere to fit the crank!!!

Several years later, when I was working for a big electric company down the road (GEC Alsthom) in 1995, I had a work experience kid with me for a week.
He was in the final year of school.  He said my sidehack project was still in the storeroom at the metalwork shop in the school!

But anyway back to Zappers.
They were low end, low budget, heavy beasts.
But at the time (1983) they were "ok" - like a Piranha, or a Raleigh Burner.

[theRuler]

a red to silver fade from what I could make out.

The one I mention with the Simplex mags had a blue to silver fade, and blue components (seat / grips etc)
Seems like the better models had the "custom paint".

All the same frames though.

That tubing configuration at the joints is called "double butted" - was used on road bikes (probably still is) - is that what you mean by "lugs" ?

[dordymush]

i had the same bike as that direct from the factory nr wolverhampton
that mettalic red colour is what they came out with with either gold anno parts or red anno.
3 piece alloy cranks  sr ones and red tyres sr stem weimann brakes and black bars
loved mine 

[20to26]

Wow - you guys have great memories! Thanks for the parts and Colour info. Excellent.

Yes, theruler, that's what I mean by lugs - the same style of construction as old road bikes it appears which it seems this manufacturer did a lot of too. From what I've read online Marlboro bought Holdsworth and made those too around this time.

Please keep your eyes peeled for a head tube badge! I've recreated the graphics as best as I could from various pics but with Del out of action I'm not certain yet where I could get them made up.