I Originally bought the f&f off ebay some 2 years ago and after a bit of research found out (not the ebay seller) but the owner before was a forum member called 'Robbo' who had it powdered by SBD....Anyway as I already have a painted Firebird I wanted to go down the route of a Chrome Firebird (I got the original idea off Glynnyboy for a Blue/Chrome design)...
I had the F&F 'copper plated' first underneath as when the green paint was stripped off the frame had many 'pits' in and just wasn't good enough for a straight Chrome plate.So while that was at the chromers I set to work in sourcing the parts I wanted to build it (which wasn't that easy for certain parts anyway).....Majority of the parts were bought off Ebay (the tyres came from the US and the seller was very reluctant to ship to the UK after being ripped off a coulpe of times.So a few emails went back & forth and I managed to persude him to sell them to me
)
The bars I had rechromed as well and they were originally painted.....
This bike has been a very long time in the making so I hope its come up to the standards that you guys expect.Its only the second time that i've 'dipped' my toes into non Raleigh Burner bikes (I've built a fair few Burners in my time)....
Anyway enough chit-chat,settle down and enjoy the show......
Russ...
Firstly the wheels which i refurbed (I've shown these photos before on here but they are a part of this build)
Picked these up off ebay,
Rubbed them down going through various grades of wet/dry and went through the usual process of the Dylon Multipurpose dying,
I tried a Black Comp ST on one just to see what It looked like,
Anyway thats the wheels all sorted all I needed were a nice set of Blue Comp ST's (I knew they were gonna be a prat to source but like I say I came across the set on US Ebay...)
After endless buying (and a very empty wallet) I managed to gather up all the parts I wanted....
What the frame & forks looked like when I bought it,
Seriel number 4943
Here's the finished Bike,
The crank and pedal cages were annodised blue.I did the polishing of these parts proir to annodising.
I were a bit nervous with the cages as I didn't want to 'over polish' them and take off the circular 'Suntour' stamping.The stamping is pretty deep so it worked out ok...I polished up the bodys but not 'overkill' as I wanted to keep the 'cast look' rather than polish them to death for a super smooth look....I used white enamel paint to 'paint in' the stamping on the ends,which look pretty cool imo....
The Kashimax Aero is an original BUT the original gold lettering had worn off so decals were used (the owner of this seat before me applied the decals)
The crank was originally a red one and I did sell it to Glynnyboy a few years ago but he never used it so I eventually bought it back from him and stripped/polished it up ready for annodising....
The Tange 303 headset I already had from my first Firebird (it came with the f&f which was a bonus
)
Parts list....
DP FireBird Frame & Fork
Skyway Gen 1 EZ bars
Suntour XCII Pedals
Renthal layback seat post
Tange SC-2 seatclamp
Sugino 3 piece crank set with silver dust caps
Tioga Comp ST Blue tyres
Kashimax Aero seat in Blue with Allen key fitting seat guts
Izumi Blue/Chrome chain
Dia Compe MX1000 Front and Rear Calipers with centraliser fittings
Dia Compe Tech IV left & right brake levers
Blue Skyway Tuff II wheels front & rear
Blue Skyway Tuff pads front and rear
Pro Neck 44t chainwheel
Ame bubblefont blue grips
Tange 303 Headset
Tange headset lock in Blue
Brian Scuru blue dirt skirt
Dia Compe 85 dated front and rear brake cables
Silver Haro flex fighter
Suntour Power Stem in Blue
Tioga sealed bearing BB
Sugino chainring bolts
Repop DP Pad set
Repop DP Decal set
Repop Skyway EZ bar decal set
Richbrook valve caps
The annodising was done by Jonny B and the copper plating and Chrome work was done by Jonny B...
Russ...
