Dismantling (and building up) an early 80's Francesco Moser

picked up this one today. Looks a bit neglected (better: has been neglected for about 25 years) so I will dismantle it, clean it thoroughly and rebuild it again with the same components.

Specs:

Frame: Francesco Moser made from Columbus Tretubi
Fork: Moser
Groupset: Campagnolo Nuovo Gran Sport with pantographed crankarms and chainring
Stem: 3T Pantographed
Bars: 3T Campione del Mondo
Wheels: Mavic Montlerey Pro rims on Campa Gran Sport hubs
Pedals: Campa Gran Sport
Seatpost: Campagnolo pantographed

what a find.

That will polish up nicely I'm sure :)

New tires I do hope? :D

Yep a bit of spit and polish and it'll be good as new. Looks great.

It will need tons of degreaser but I believe there's some potential under that (massive) layer of grease.

Advantage of the over-lubing is that it didn't ask for much effort to dismantle it. Every piece just slipped out of the frame (except from the BB).

Next step done:

Yeah, think front tubular exploded or something.

Spent some hours cleaning frame, forks and (part of) the crankset. Rust-spots on chromed forkcrown and chainstay could easily be removed with some scotchbrite and WD40. After some moistured tinfoil and chrome-polish, they're shiny again. Will post photos later (too dark now) but this one I could take inside. Pantographing still in great condition.

Looks nice already... The whole thread is a good reminder for me not to neglect my bikes but do a complete overhaul come winter. Thanks and give my regards to Marianne (wild guess to do with surname).

"Smolders" sounds Flemish and so am I, but I don't know any Marianne. ;-)

Result of chrome clean-up:

Before:

After:

Rad. This is satisfying

Thanks, can't wait to do some more cleaning (Hope my wife doesn't read this or she will wait for me with bucket and mop)

nearly there...

What a find. Great work!

Nice work, what is the bar tape, cotton with a clear coat over? I am finally continuing work on my restoration, I am looking for some sound advice regarding the clear coat over colored cotton bar tape and setting friction gears!

As far as I know, the bar tape is the "plastic" one from Benotto. It's the original one and because of it's good state, I left it as is. Just cleaned it with some mild soap and warm water.

As I'm coming closer and closer to finishing this one, I more and more regret it isn't my size...

@FredyCro I think the look you're referring to is made by coating cloth tape in shellac. It was all the rage on here a while back, so search for shellac and see what comes up.

Strong work there. That's lush.

how did I miss this!
Lovely stuff! And the pantographed seatpost is amazing.

It definitely looks all original to me...saddle too?

Lovely lovely and great work in putting it back up!

do you plan to sell it on?

Anyway, might I ask where did you find it?

I mounted the saddle today (a Selle Royal) and it has lateral "F Moser" pressed in the leather. It's hardly visible but when you let sunlight fall on it from different sides, you can see "it" has been there. So original saddle, yep, indeed. :-)

And even more: even the pedal straps have a Moser-print.

Don't know if I will sell. Maybe if I get the right price. Or if someone has a AX Leader from the nineties to swap.

I just found it on a marktplaats.nl but the seller seemed to live only 50 km away from my place in Belgium.

Are you a Moser-"aficionado"?

Looking almost as good as the De Rosa built Paris-Roubaix winning bike on which it was modelled.

Actually it's not, I would like to protect the cotton tape without altering its color. The word online is one should use a polyurethane lacquer...

If it were a 56 or 57, I would never sell it. This bike is so amazing. And pretty light (concerning it's age). Some more details of the parts:

and a try to catch the saddle-"print" (what's the English word for it?) in a photo: