Strip that Pre Cursa

I picked up a pre cursa with a columbus road tusk from @nohwolf yesterday to build up as a decently spec'd beater.

Unfortunately the pre cursa logos look gash so I've decided to jump on the raw fad. I took it down to Cycle PS in Battersea today and got to work.

Using nitromors, wire brushes, wire wool, sandpaper and elbow grease its come up a treat. Here's a bit of the process for those interested.

Couple of pre strip pics, stolen from @nohwolf's sale thread.

The first coat of nitromors took the clear coat lacquer off and some of the decals and black paint in areas. A quick hose down and wire brish to roughen everything up ready for the second coat, this one gets left for much longer.

I learned that you need to be generous with the nitromors so I really slathered it on the second time round. Left if for 45 mins or so before scraping at it with a wire brush.

After a few hours of using a wire brush, 80 and 120 grade sandpaper and wire wool I got 99% of the paint off. There is a small amount in some of the welds and joins still.

I'm gunna work on those soon and run through 400, 600, 800, 1200 grade sandpaper to polish up the finish then put a protective clear coat on.

In the mean time I ran over the columbus fork with 400 grade sandpaper. Just enough to remove any raised decals and provide a tackier surface for the paint to stick to. I then put on 2 coats of metalic black enamel. It looks really good, much better than with all the logos imo. This will also get a clear coat at some point soon.

WAAAAAAAAAY better than the original frame and forks.

Someone needs to mop the floor in that workshop though...

Nice work. If you get the balance between black and silver bits exactly right this will look ace! Expect to be copied :)

Fluo bar tape?

this^ fluro tape sounds like a winner, silver omnoms + black chainring?

This looks great so far @danners.

Rawed two frames this year so far and I'm really chuffed with the results.

Here's @MrsP's...

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Couple moar...

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Very nice. The cat in inverted livery works great!

@danners: omniums would probably be nice. Or silver DA/sugino with black chainring? Rim-wise, maybe a slightly shallower black rim. H+son or Ardennes? And fluro, see here.

Feels great virtually spending someone else's money... might keep me from spending my own.

despite the harry potter reference big into this^^

Thanks.
Emily likes it.
So does the cat.

No Potter?

In 1991 Harry Potter received a Nimbus 2000 broomstick from Professor Minerva McGonagall after making the Gryffindor Quidditch team.[1] He rode this broom in all school Quidditch matches until 1993, when, during a match against Hufflepuff, he was attacked by Dementors and fell off his broom. The broom crashed into the Whomping Willow and was broken beyond repair.[2]

not the best namesake for a bike....

#rep for thorough research. Not a lot of dementors on the road these days, I must say.

Building it with parts I've already got which is:

Black Omniums
Thomson X4
Dede Crononeros
Thomson Elite SP
Selle Italia SLR Flow in black

Wheels are Black archetypes which I had built with blue BLB hubs. Some regret there but they look alright actually, matched with blue bar end caps gives it a nice splash of colour. Although going back I wouldn't choose blue again. We all f*** up from time to time.

If you bin the blue bar end caps you'll be allright

Yeah, you're right.
She likes boats too so we're gonna re-name it "Titanic".

I cut the decals myself with a home plotter at a very small expense so it will very likely be changed on the regs.

So i finished stripping the other day at cycle ps and polished through the sandpaper grades. I decided not to go to hard as it would show up imperfections more. Plus its a ballache. I finished it with a light coat of clear lacquer to preserve the finish.

Heres a few pics.

The build is done! Apart from a thomson seatpost collar but thats minor and won't change the looks too much. I don't like the selle italia saddle so it's got my specialized romin evo instead.

I razzed it round at lee valley with some drops on yesterday and it was a pleasure. It even hauled me to a win in a little practice 10 lap scratch race.

Ill get some better pics in daylight tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JfEJq56IwI

really nice build, one of my favourite pre cursas

Very nice!

Nice job dude, can hardly believe the transformation. I think the brutal welds actually look pretty sick in the raw.

Plus you've destroyed some truly hideous typography in the process so +1 for that