1997 GT Palomar - Can you vintage-ify a mountain bike?

SantaHul

Retro Guru

PA270292 by SantaHul, on Flickr

Hey guys I have an old 1997 GT Palomar that I'm kind of attached to. My Dad bought it for me when I was 13, I still remember choosing it, where it was in the shop etc. It's been seriously abused over it's life, spent years locked at the back of sheds, chucked around places/over walls etc, and even spent a night in the bottom of a river when I threw it off a bridge for a laugh. Today it's my commuter but is really showing it's age and I've decided to give it the second lease of life it deserves with a full respray and a bunch of new parts.

I was originally going to make it just a practical commuter with modern parts all over but then I saw the most beautiful bike I've ever seen and started thinking bigger. I couldn't own a bike like that as I cycle way too fast and often on bad roads or no roads at all. I had a 1978 Raleigh Transit (in the for sale section at the moment) and I kept bending it.

My question is would it be possible to style my GT in a similar fashion. Obviously not into such a dedicated road bike but lower profile tyres (I've got some 1.75 marathon's on order), silver mudguards, cream respray, chrome riser handlebars and stem, vintage chainset, brooks saddle etc. I've ordered quite a few parts already but I'm worried it will look a bit weird, especially with the triple triangle frame. Anybody got photos of similar projects by other people?

I've already ordered some polished silver v-brakes, stem and handlebars. Not sure what I'm going to do about the shifters yet.
 
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