Benotto 3000? Restoration advice

Yes indeed. Well here it is 6 months later - 1978 Benotto 3000. Respray was from Mario Vaz - fantastic job - but by far the biggest thank you has to go my mate stevevw whose expertise and hard work in overcoming the ravages of time and the previous owners' (many) bodges has been essential in getting this completion. Nearly everything was saved from the original bar the chainset which had a bent spider, the front mech and sundries like hoods, bar tape, tyres, cables etc etc. To put it mildly I'm delighted with how its worked out.

benotto2016b.jpg


benottoweb2.jpg
 
Re:

Lovely job. I got one of these from ebay about 5 years ago for £30 with a view to restoring it but on closer inspection the frame and fork were both bent. I put it on my turbo trainer and flogged it to death and eventualy the frame rotted with sweat :facepalm: I got my moneys worth out it and still have the parts I stripped off it but I would have loved to have restored it to this level.
 
Re:

Paul took a massive leap of faith trusting me to give his Benotto 3000 a bit of a spit and polish, he did not know me from Adam. I am delighted he now classes me as a friend, as do I him.

I saw this thread and winced a couple of times at the thought of this classic Italian bike being powder coated or rattle canned.

"Any ideas on best course of action for restoration? Should I strip the paint myself before respraying and will should I go powder coat or diy? Grateful for all and any tips. Ball park figure if I just hand it over to a restorer to do the lot?"

So I PM'd Paul to offer my help, he had a bit of a think and said yes. I arranged to pick the bike up from Paul I think it was on the way back from one of my many trips to Mario Vaz's House of fine paintwork and stinking toilet. We had a chat and got to know each other then Paul told me what he wanted the bike to become. It was then time to put the Benotto in a bike bag and in to the boot of my car, would he ever see it again. Poor Paul.

I have always made things, painted stuff, restored things and would like to think have a fair knowledge of bicycles. When I wanted to go motorcycle racing I built one myself and designed changes to a Japanese engine that even the Japanese got interested in and sent a spy to ask questions and offer to buy my bike from me, 30+ years later we have Moto 3

Anyway I have been restoring/renovating old bikes for myself for a few years now and thought this project may show others what I can do for them. I know I will never make a living out of doing this but I enjoy it and as long as it can feed my addiction of veteran, vintage and classic bikes I will be happy. With Paul's permission I will start a build thread to show you all the pictures I took during this build.

If any of you want a hand getting your old bike back on the road get in touch.
 
Back
Top