This is going to be a looong story..
Some history:
A few years back I bought a bunch of parts from a former MTB shop owner. His shop was in the 90's was one of the few around here where a schoolboy or a poor student would go to drool over the boutique parts and small brand names like AC, Paul, Bontrager, Salsa etc. etc. I even might remember seeing this particular frame in the shop window but with different parts. I had a bit different idea how to restore the frame/bike as it was never offered as a complete bike so you could choose the parts quite freely but still following the line of what brands were available at the shop that time.
The frame is medium, one of the 30-40 made in that size. I recall around 60 El Kaboings were made in Petaluma. Unfortunately I have lost the email from Sean Walling which would confirm the facts so I'll have to ask him again..
The beginning:
At first I gave the frame for a friend of mine to be serviced (shock & bushings) - a BIG mistake :facepalm: which I realized later. That time I wasn't in a hurry so it was ok if doing things took a "little" time. At one point I took the frame back for cleaning & waxing the paint so it looked pretty ok except the rear stays:
The bike had been ridden quite much so the paint on the rear stays wasn't good, bushings were worn so the best way to restore it was a complete overhaul despite I would loose the original paint and decals. My friend had promised to make new bushings but a year had passed already so I contacted Soulcraft bikes about them & decals. A set of new original bushings were sent briefly
, and I was advised to send email to the master himself about the decals. Ross sent me some of them which were still left but I still missed the "El Kaboing" text, "handcrafted in USA" and the "chili popping out of thermometer" -decals. The Columbus tubing decals were easy to get from Ebay.
I got great help from richardpaulbaker who had made new decals/stickers for his white Ala Carte, but I still wanted to find the originals or ones made with the same technique - which seems to be impossible nowadays if you weren't ordering 10 000 pcs. But thanks to the files Richard had made, Gil was able to cut the "Salsa" and "El Kaboing" as they were all black.
Removing the pain(t)
Sand blasting can be hard way to remove the paint so I was recommended a company which does it by acid bath. Nice, but with some bad coincidences it makes you think just why oh why..
I didn't have a car at that time so I gave the frame back to the same friend who gave it to another guy who took it the company. BAD MISTAKE! He didn't knew that the down tube of the Salsa doesn't have air holes, just the usual bottle cage holes, which should have been plugged. Now they weren't so the acid went in to the frame but didn't come out :facepalm: . So a hole had been drilled to save the situation:
The frame was galvanized lightly which was nice though. The next thing to do was to weld the hole and file off the excessive material:
To be continued..
Some history:
A few years back I bought a bunch of parts from a former MTB shop owner. His shop was in the 90's was one of the few around here where a schoolboy or a poor student would go to drool over the boutique parts and small brand names like AC, Paul, Bontrager, Salsa etc. etc. I even might remember seeing this particular frame in the shop window but with different parts. I had a bit different idea how to restore the frame/bike as it was never offered as a complete bike so you could choose the parts quite freely but still following the line of what brands were available at the shop that time.
The frame is medium, one of the 30-40 made in that size. I recall around 60 El Kaboings were made in Petaluma. Unfortunately I have lost the email from Sean Walling which would confirm the facts so I'll have to ask him again..
The beginning:
At first I gave the frame for a friend of mine to be serviced (shock & bushings) - a BIG mistake :facepalm: which I realized later. That time I wasn't in a hurry so it was ok if doing things took a "little" time. At one point I took the frame back for cleaning & waxing the paint so it looked pretty ok except the rear stays:
The bike had been ridden quite much so the paint on the rear stays wasn't good, bushings were worn so the best way to restore it was a complete overhaul despite I would loose the original paint and decals. My friend had promised to make new bushings but a year had passed already so I contacted Soulcraft bikes about them & decals. A set of new original bushings were sent briefly
, and I was advised to send email to the master himself about the decals. Ross sent me some of them which were still left but I still missed the "El Kaboing" text, "handcrafted in USA" and the "chili popping out of thermometer" -decals. The Columbus tubing decals were easy to get from Ebay.I got great help from richardpaulbaker who had made new decals/stickers for his white Ala Carte, but I still wanted to find the originals or ones made with the same technique - which seems to be impossible nowadays if you weren't ordering 10 000 pcs. But thanks to the files Richard had made, Gil was able to cut the "Salsa" and "El Kaboing" as they were all black.
Removing the pain(t)
Sand blasting can be hard way to remove the paint so I was recommended a company which does it by acid bath. Nice, but with some bad coincidences it makes you think just why oh why..
I didn't have a car at that time so I gave the frame back to the same friend who gave it to another guy who took it the company. BAD MISTAKE! He didn't knew that the down tube of the Salsa doesn't have air holes, just the usual bottle cage holes, which should have been plugged. Now they weren't so the acid went in to the frame but didn't come out :facepalm: . So a hole had been drilled to save the situation:
The frame was galvanized lightly which was nice though. The next thing to do was to weld the hole and file off the excessive material:
To be continued..
