Depaint project | 1988 Stumpjumper

After yesterday’s success with the brakes and chainrings I was keen to crack-on with a couple of other bits this evening.

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The stem seemed like it would be pretty straightforward. The component parts cleaned up quite easily and again were in good condition.

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It’s was the body of the stem itself that proved to be trickier than expected. Simply because it was difficult to know what was paint and what was the original stem coating. In preparation I had done nothing more than put the stem in an old pan of boiling/soapy water for 20 minutes, hoping it would have the same effect as the hot water of the ultrasonic cleaner had on the paint on the chainrings yesterday.

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However, it didn’t really have the same effect and after taking a bit of the original stem coating off I decided to put it to one side and rethink my approach here.

p.s. if anyone knows what stem this is I would be grateful. I don’t think this is the stem that was spec’d on the 88 Stumpy but does seem to be period-correct.

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While I had the big jam pot of boiling soapy water on the go I thought I’d see what it would do to the paint on the forks.

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Pleasingly, it softened the paint enough that it came off fairly easily with a toothbrush and rag. The pan, even when full, still only covered about half of the fork legs. But the lower half of the forks are now almost free from black paint.

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But it did reveal a few pretty deep chips and scratches on the driveside leg.

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I guess I’ll get all the black paint off before assessing the condition of the original paint and deciding what to do with it after that.
 
While I was in the cold workshop I had a quick look at the bars. There wasn’t much spraypaint on them to begin with; they probably didn’t bother cos they were already black.

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The bars were rather cold and what paint was on them scraped off easily. Perhaps this could be a new tactic for paint removal. No need to find space in the freezer; we’re coming into a Scottish winter and outside is the biggest freezer there is.

Next up I’ll be taking the wheels apart to get stuck into the solid axle HB-MN72 hubs.

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No, they’re not the rare black version of the original XT Deerhead hubs, they’re just caked in paint.

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They feel super smooth and both still have the original Sealed Mechanism stickers. However, I don’t think these wheels are original to the Stumpjumper as they’re a little early for this bike. Although I’d be happy to be corrected.
 
Have you thought about finding someone with a dry ice blasting machine? That could defenitely be it to save you hours on hard labour on this one.
 
While I was in the cold workshop I had a quick look at the bars. There wasn’t much spraypaint on them to begin with; they probably didn’t bother cos they were already black.

View attachment 789478

The bars were rather cold and what paint was on them scraped off easily. Perhaps this could be a new tactic for paint removal. No need to find space in the freezer; we’re coming into a Scottish winter and outside is the biggest freezer there is.

Next up I’ll be taking the wheels apart to get stuck into the solid axle HB-MN72 hubs.

View attachment 789479
No, they’re not the rare black version of the original XT Deerhead hubs, they’re just caked in paint.

View attachment 789480

They feel super smooth and both still have the original Sealed Mechanism stickers. However, I don’t think these wheels are original to the Stumpjumper as they’re a little early for this bike. Although I’d be happy to be corrected.
Large flange hubs! 😍 very cool. Not much of an expert on pre 88 Shimano, but can’t ever recall Shimano having large flange hubs around 1988, unless they were tandem specific? (designed to make stronger wheels) @Tootyred might be able to give you more info on these hubs...
 

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