A RESTORATION PROJECT
HARO GEN 1 FREESTYLER…Serial No TSS 1235F
Legend has it that this resto project started its life on eBay approx 2 yrs ago.
I was outbid on the auction by Dan Harris, who won the bike and left it as a survivor ride, and consequently got 3rd place in the survivor class at mk06.
Life over the woods wasn’t so bad for the haro in the 80’s being jumped through the bomb holes, and abused, as all good freestylers should be.
Here in some of these pics being thrashed by Dave Curry.
Heres the original reciept from faze 7...
£179:95.…yeah…I wish
So after Dans initial clean up of the bike it was just left in its survivor state. Like this…
I personally kept looking at this bike thinking, that one day I will do it the honour of cloaking it in some new bling and restoring its parts.
Soon the bike changed hands once again, not long after the ruler put it through its flatland paces at mk07, the bike was sold on in another auction on rad to raise money for 80’s freestyle legend, stuart ‘pepi’ winder’s funeral.
Rhys ‘lazy chubs’ Maskell was the new owner. But after hearing the pressures of fellow old schoolers not to restore it he sold it on…..
Heres where my part in the story began.
Straight away, as soon as the bike was in the workshop, she was stripped, all the parts were boxed, awaiting a clean/resto
Then work on the frame was started….at some point in its life the poor ol’ thing had been bubblegum welded, badly…I had to put this right…
So, the files, dremmel, grinder and varios hacking tools came out, I ground most of the birds crap welds away, then made a template from cardboard, using one of my other gen 1’s as a guide of the head tube gusset.
The frame now got sent away to have the fabrication/welding work done on it… I left the frame in mark fuzzy nods hands, he would be taking it to oxford to a funny car/drag race car manufacturer called Andy Robinson Race Cars….these guys are mustard…the work took a while, but I gave mark the work at their busiest time….but the work is quality…
I initially only wanted the head tube gusset replaced, but andy suggested I had the seat tube gusset replaced also, as a hairline crack was present, a common fault in haros.
A week or so later and the frame was back at HQ…so I went to work with the polishing, preparing for the chrome plate.
So after 4 hrs and a hand from Steve vinoah, it had had the life polished out of it, getting into all the awkward areas.
Now the bit I had been waiting for since first seeing the bike on eBay…I took the frame up to Lee pkradmans house, and he took it to his chrome guy for me…well, after 12hrs at the platers shop we got the call….it was done…wtf….
In between all the comings and goings of tss1235f I had plenty of work on my hands just in general cleaning, replacing, and restoring the parts removed from the bike.
Now to today….11/3/08, picked up freshly chromed frame and fork set , and banged all the decals and parts on it….
Not brilliant pictures, I will eventually get some good ones in the sunshine, but these will do for now.
Sorry if this has upset any survivor bike lovers, but hey, if you wanted it to stay as a survivor, you should have bought it, I couldn’t see it staying as it was, and hopefully ive done this old gen 1 justice.
Thanks for reading.
Dave
