Poor man's DMC.

[Midschoolfool]

OK so up next I am going to do a spit and polish job. No painting (I hope).

Last year I bought a Specialized Fatboy project but the paint was toast. Not a problem usually, just strip it down and repaint it. However, a decal set for this bugger costs a ton, or one hundred of your finest English pounds FFS. I will post more about it one day, but basically the main large frame decals are fine. So I need to restore around them, which is going to be fiddly.

So I wanted something else to work on. I am going to nick a few bits I had stashed for the Fatboy, but they are easily gotten parts. Was hovering around on Ebay the other day and finally something sensible came up after an of daft (when Covid happened). Cost me 130 boys, I was happy with that.



Looking closer most of it is there and completely original and untouched.





Even the decals look perfectly good. I hope the other side is the same !





So obviously it is missing the wheels. Then I noticed the decals have a red stroke, then I remembered I have these sitting in the attic.



I will remove the Alienation decals. They are very cheap wheels (45 a set) but they are nicely made and the rims are very good. Ignore the rest, that is for the Fatboy. So then I decided on maintaining the splash of red theme, so I got a BB



I've got a brand new pair of Salt Rookie 19mm cranks up in the loft. The one thing that looks past it is the 1pc arms. The chrome is gone in several places and TBH? I hate 1pc with a passion. I will keep the original chain ring, just hop it up to a sealed 3pc. I will also highly likely buy a 1" threaded sealed headset too !

I bought these the other day to possibly try on the Dirt Bike, but my mind is made up on that.



The original Mongoose seat is there, but it looks kinda manky. So I got another one of these.



And I will scrub off the cack again. For bars I have a NOS pair of 4/4. I did look up what the Villain had on it originally but it was just some odd tiny 2pc.



They were going on the Fatboy, but eww 4pc. The Fatboy needs colour coded 2pc, and I have to repaint the front end of that so I will just grab some sh bars and repaint them red to match the fork on the Fatboy as and when. That is a major project though, and I have done my one of those for this year with the Dirt Bike.

Pedals.



They are on my Metal Kizz ATM. I bought a set of red Ruben graphite pedals for the Fatboy but they are even darker than the pedals on the Metal so I will put the Rubens on that. It's a maroon bike the Kizz, so the darker the better. Tyres.



Again I bought those for the Fat Boy, but I really fancy all black dirt tyres on that.

So yeah, basically the only thing I had to buy that I hadn't already was the BB kit.

[Midschoolfool]

Not doing this one yet.

I finished tidying up my loft tonight and the FatBoy was sitting there staring at me miserably. I feel shit now 

I am going to do that first. Especially since there's one not as good as mine on Ebay for 550 quid BIN 

I am going to order some parts and supplies now, will start a thread later. It's going to be another epic one I think.......

[Mikku]

Those wheels were ?45!?! That's unbelievably cheap! What hubs?

[Midschoolfool]

Those wheels were ?45!?! That's unbelievably cheap! What hubs?

Total rubbish 

That's the catch. However, I can't see them being any worse than other loose ball hubs tbh.

But yeah, RRP on the rims alone is more than that. They have gold nipples too lol, which is kinda nice

[Midschoolfool]

OK it arrived. Drops were sticking out of the box so one is bent. Should be an easy fix. It's totally filthy, but there is hardly any rust on it at all which is unreal. The decals are perfect too, including the creases where they weren't applied properly at the factory 





There isn't a single scratch on them, they are perfect. Even the seat tube one is all there.



Head badge is a bit knackered, but I reckon I can paint that back in.



Stem logo is all there.



And the seat clamp is like new. No rubbing at all.



Oh and the seat? it's pretty mint tbh. It's just absolutely rotten. So I will probably keep that now.

Am going to bung it up in the loft later.

[Midschoolfool]

Well I had to strip it didn't I haha.

Apart from the bent drop (jesus hi ten is soft !) which bent back easily the rest physically is like new. Even the bearing grease is super clean and the bearings are perfect. I know it hasn't been apart too, because the stem was on there. Like, proper on there took some serious force to get it loose.

Very pleased. The decals are exceptional. Some idiot has tried to polish it with what looks like Oven Pride but the chrome is still perfect. The brake pads are cracked too, so again I think they have been on there since it was new.

I even managed to salvage both gyro cables. Cut the front one off it was crusty and cracked. I will get some pics tomorrow of it in bits. Kinda hard these days with just a phone and greasy hands hah.

[Midschoolfool]

Teeny weeny update. Ordered some new brake blocks. Push the boat out !



Polish is coming today, but I have some painting to do on other parts so I will start that Sunday maybe.

[Midschoolfool]

Let me teach you some of my secrets. The first one is this.



99p from a local store. It's to tie up bin bags etc. It's cheap and great for hanging things when you paint. But wait, you gotta tie it on right?



Climbing hooks. TBH? I would't trust one to climb the stairs, but they are ace for painting. You can paint out of the wind etc, then move it into the hot sun

Degrease, brillo pad (to see if it's salvagable) it isn't. Lots of pitting and missing chrome. So get out the silver base coat that looks almost exactly like silver ano.



I had a good look at the arms.



But they are shot.



I know not to even waste my time on that. I am not polishing out steel. Thing is the cranks were the cheapest part of the bike tbh. The disc is steel for example. So I won't lose any sleep putting them back in the loft as they are.

The only other thing I need to paint on this bike is the headset cups. They are rubbed off and worn and rusting. So I will sort that out Sunday.

This should be coming today.

[Midschoolfool]

Gyro tab thing is in a bit of a two and eight. Will paint that base silver.



Chain wheel looks good tho.



Any idea what this threaded lug is for? very odd !

[Renegade]

That lug could be for a bashgaurd or a least its the only thing that makes scene.

[Midschoolfool]

That's what the seller listed it as but tbh? if you rode a bash guard on this it would collapse lol. It's very, um, light !

[Midschoolfool]

Wow, you were correctamundo !



I went back to Ebay and read the listing over again. Seller indeed listed it as a Villain Bashguard. I just thought he was talking poo tbh. Turns out there are honest people out there.

I bet that guard is like rocking horse shit 

Yup they are indeed rocking horse cack.



More than I paid for the whole bike 

[Midschoolfool]

Fork and post cleaned up nice. Sadly the chrome is pretty badly peppered, but, only on the backs of the fork legs. So the bit you see is really nice.

[Midschoolfool]

Been a while. Kinda shows how patient I am these days 

Obviously this one went on the back burner. Not quite sure what I am going to do with it yet, but it will be something. The chrome is wrecked, so it will probably get painted. No ideas on colour right now, but maybe green or orange (some sort of fake DMC? IDK).

This popped up on fleabay for 9 quid delivered.



I don't have a single lay back on any of my bikes, so it may as well be on one I won't ride. However, it wasn't the post that I wanted. No. It was actually the seat.



It's a brand new example of the seat that came on it. Only difference? this.



What I will do about that? again, no idea. It's just nice to grab these things super cheap really.  One other thing that was kinda getting me down was the head badge. Usually I wouldn't give a crap on a bike like this, but IMO it is one of the defining things about it. Mine has been ruined. In the same way the whole frame and fork finish has - with very rough steel wool. The badge has no definition left on it at all, and used ones in the USA go for USA prices (about 35 bucks).



12 quid. That I can live with.



See what I mean?



There you can see the manky old original seat, so those were good grabs.

Must be Mongoose month or something. PMed Del about some DMC decals but 35 quid. Not really sure I want to pay more than it will cost to refinish the parts tbh. Might knock up something custom when I get some more ink for the printer.

[Midschoolfool]

Grabbed some cheap decals. Cost me ?11.



Will probably paint the bike leaving the back end chrome. Whoever attacked it with a harsh abrasive basically ruined any chance of it staying chrome. So I may as well do something custom, given I'm in no mood to spend 35 quid on decals.