FINISHED Plum vainqueur resto a.k.a. Dutch Courage

Got a plum frame from this forum about 4 years ago, built it up as a single speed with cheap parts, it became my daily commuter. Here's how it started:

Since then I've upgraded most parts to campagnolo, but each year the frame looked a little sadder, slowly the decals wore away, gathered plenty of scratches and a dent in the top tube (fell into the corner of some railing), but this winter it took a real beating as I didn't get a chance to service it & most importantly re lacquer the chrome/polished steel forks. Anyway, spring came. Got made redundant & I thought I'd restore it as best I can to keep myself sane between job searching.

Task 1: forks.

Recently read about citric acid baths to remove rust, so cleared wilko's shelves of the stuff and got to work. Worked amazingly (after trial, error and getting citric water everywhere) I then scrubbed it with steel wool, sanded and applied an anti rust primer, sanding and priming till it was almost perfect.


I then started to think about colour, I considered a black gloss, but wanted to have a hint of blue. I settled on BMW Montreal blue (metallic) and nissan midnight blue pearl, and I'd recreate the original decals with sheets of mid yellow vinyl.

Decided I preferred them both with a black undercoat rather than just primer. As they look black till the light catches.


Not sure on the Matt vinyl, so I've ordered gloss so I can trial that too.

Forks look great, What anti rust primer did you use ?

I'd love to say I did lots of research.. but it was halfords own brand lol.

Before starting on the frame, I've used what's left of the decals to make up a complete image of how they should look.

Next step after stripping the frame will be sanding out the many imperfections and filling the dent.

Cooper Black is probably the closest font you'll get to this logo. Bung me a message as I might have it at work. This works but click the green button that looks like the attached and clear your cookies etc afterwards as I know nothing about this site! The graphic savvy can do the shadow bit and stroke in illustrator. https://www.download-free-fonts.com/details/74677/cooper-std-black

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Awesome cheers! I'll give the download a go later.
That saves me creating a vector for the missing head badge!

Couldn't sleep last night, and was lurking on CP's section- thought i'd give it a go for you. PM me if you want me to send the Ai.

EDIT: other photo with the q fix added

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I've just noticed the Q is different, will have a go at matching it

Yeah that's the one thing that bugged me! Nice work looks brilliant.

Ive never heard of plum before, the frame looked wicked in those original shots! the fork crown looks incredible too, you should deffinitely paint the "P"s on it in the same yellow as the decals.

Good luck with the job search!

Awesome!!

Cheers! I did have the 'p' painted yellow when i first got it and plan to again once painted (definitely my favourite part of the frame)

Good! Whats the plan for the rest of the build? Is it getting gears or staying single speed?

Staying single speed, built a geared racer a year ago (same geometry) and barely use it https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/269164/#comment12936794.
Just love how simple, light and fun single speeds are. I would go fixed but I've got the knees of a crypt keeper.

Sorry to say but Plum isn't Dutch, it's Belgian. ;-)

It's a brand from the city of Ghent, the store still exists and behind the counter you can visit the bike museum. It's only a 10 minutes' ride from my place and still one of my favourite shops to visit (not to buy as they're rediculously expensive compared to other local shops...).

Started on the frame yesterday, sanded down the many many scratches and imperfections then filled the dent as best I could, then primed the whole thing. Here's some progress shots.

Darn! I was concerned this might be the case, and hoped I'd get away with it! As I named the bike way prior to research.

Next time I go there (next week I suppose) I'll ask them for a set of decals. :-)

Sorry about the lack of updates, paint is done (won't photograph till finished) here's my handmade vinyl decals. Ignore the rough edges, these were finished off a bit better after taking photos. Pretty pleased considering!!

I'd love to visit that shop!

Those handmade decals look awesome!

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Couple of teasers..

!! Looking very promising :)