1990's Olmo Super Light build thread

[otherself]

I acquired this frame recently to build into something of a dream bike. Its an NOS (new old stock) Olmo super light from the mid to late 90's. Unpainted Columbus Genius tubes 55cm c-t. No forks but I'll use a carbon 1" one. Bought from a seller in Torino, Italy, it had balls of italian newspaper printed in early 1998 within its box so I assume that's when it was made (1997 perhaps??).

Having been inspired by youtuber "monkeyshred"' home spraying, I'd thought I'd too give it a go with the 'Montana' paint range. I ordered 2 cans of primer, 2 cans of silver and 1 each of purple and green, plus 1 can of gloss varnish. An online shop called fatbuddahstore was the source of the paint cans. I think I'll keep 3/4 of the rear triangle chromed which will require masking.

It'll be mostly silver with purple and green fades mid tube. Period correct decals sourced from eBay in white. I have a black carbon seatpost, black oval concepts stem & bars, black planet X rims/wheels, white SLR saddle, white bar tape and white jagwire cables. Groupset will be a mix of modern Tiagra 4700 and a slightly older (2006?) Ultegra 6650 sl crankset.

Frame is light at 1704g so I estimate 8.8 to 8.9kg total bike weight. I hope fine weather in early May will be the window of opportunity to get it sprayed in my garden.

 

[chickendrumsticks]

Wow! What an ambitious project. Looking forward to seeing your spraying results. Super frame.

 

[Nob]

Interesting project & I’d start doing some serious weeding in your garden also

 

[otherself]

Now painted. It's not perfect but no home respray is. I painted directly over the chrome but I think it would've been better to sand the chrome down. I used two coats of primer, two coats of silver and one coat of green & purple fade. The fade wasn't easy and took a few practice go's on some discarded drain pipe. I hung it from my washing line using a coat hanger and wire to spray. Lots of masking of rear triangle which is kept chromed.

Gonna start building it up.

So far I have

- 1" carbon fork from AliExpress.
- FSA orbit X aheadset 1" inch
- 3TT forma handlebars from the late 90's in ice grey
- Oval concepts stem with shim (circa 2007)
- unbranded carbon post from AliExpress (very light ~ 110g)
- Selle Italia SLR saddle
- Tiagra 4700 brakes and rear mech (new) in ice grey
- Ultegra SL ice grey 6601 cranks and front mech (circa 2007)
- Token outer bearing bottom bracket Italian threads
- Microshift R10 10 speed gear/brake levers (good price off eBay)
- Michelin pro 3 tyres in grey (been hoarding 'um since about 2006)
- low mileage Planet X wheels with sealed bearing hubs (circa 2007)
- jagwire outer cables in white
- cheap white cork bar tape for £3.00 (eBay)
- Shimano pd-m520 pedals in white

 

[rikster]

How did you get on with the Montana cans? I've been looking for some better alternatives to the usual Halfords rattle cans and noticed ETOE uses them sometimes on his Youtube channel so that got me thinking they must be fairly decent quality paint cans and the fact you can get different nozzles to fit as well.

 

[poshertotty]

That looks a great finish. I can’t tell if you’ve lacquered it but if you haven’t and you want to, I’ve used this on a Team Telekom replica I did and I’m impressed with how it went on and how hard the finish is. It’s basically ‘2-pac’ in a can.

 

[otherself]

How did you get on with the Montana cans? I've been looking for some better alternatives to the usual Halfords rattle cans and noticed ETOE uses them sometimes on his Youtube channel so that got me thinking they must be fairly decent quality paint cans and the fact you can get different nozzles to fit as well.

I got on quite well with them. The silver is a matte finish but is lacquered over.

Montana is £5 to £6 per can where as spray.bike is £10 per can. The spray.bike is a bit of a rip off in my opinion as YouTubers say Montana is better. They are both acrylic based, I think your just paying extra for brand hype.

Another option I heard good is Kobra: https://kobrapaint.co.uk/

The key is to get a good primer. Montana do several primers; universal, wood, metal, aluminium and a primer for carbon & plastics. I should of sanded the chrome off the frame as I didn't get a good 'key' for the primer. And I bought the universal primer instead of the metal one (didn't search throughly enough!). But I'll think it'll hold up for a couple years.

 

[otherself]

That looks a great finish. I can’t tell if you’ve lacquered it but if you haven’t and you want to, I’ve used this on a Team Telekom replica I did and I’m impressed with how it went on and how hard the finish is. It’s basically ‘2-pac’ in a can. View attachment 544892

Some lacqueres can cause 'bubbling'. Lacquer contains a lot of solvents that have to evaporate. Some have more potent solvent content than others - it is not a curing process like varnish. If the surface hardens before the lower layer finishes evaporation, you get bubbles. You get more bubbling in hot weather.

I used Montana's own varnish spray to keep it synchronized but thanks for that. Graff city also do a good 2-pac lacquer.

 

[poshertotty]

Some lacqueres can cause 'bubbling'. Lacquer contains a lot of solvents that have to evaporate. Some have more potent solvent content than others - it is not a curing process like varnish. If the surface hardens before the lower layer finishes evaporation, you get bubbles. You get more bubbling in hot weather.

I used Montana's own varnish spray to keep it synchronized but thanks for that. Graff city also do a good 2-pac lacquer.

Yes there is definitely a technique to avoid bubbling or ‘orange peel’. I was lucky that I had use of a spray booth to do mine.

 

[poshertotty]

Yes there is definitely a technique to avoid bubbling or ‘orange peel’. I was lucky that I had use of a spray booth to do mine.