Falcon Black Diamond Mid 80's??

[Black Diamond]

Picked this Falcon Black Diamond up from ebay recently & was trying to determine any information on it really as I can't find anything on the web, the year of manufacture i suspect mid 80's - 90's? It has a bit of surface rust here & there on the frame but generally in a sound condition. I was thinking of cleaning it up & generally giving it a bit of a tidy up. Any hints & tips would be appreciated with the paint side of things as there is patchy rust areas I'm not sure whether it would be better to remove all the paint or could I get away with just concentrating on the bad areas. Also anyone know where I would get some replacement decals as the ones on it are in a poor state.

For now I am planning to set it up as a single speed so I can use it while I clean up the parts.

Thanks

Phil

 

[titch__16]

Mid to late 80's I believe, based on the headbadge, rainbow stripes and cranks. You may even find date stamps inside the brake lever bodies or on derailleurs.
As for the paint, you'd be better off getting it acid dipped and new powder coat. A good rust treatment is KuRust (Hammerite). I've used it plenty and it does the job very well.
Decals will be very hard to find. Possible that they could pop up on ebay but chances would be very slim. Reproducing is probably your only option. I have digital copies of the downtube ones if you want to get them made.

 

[Black Diamond]

Re:

Thanks for the reply. I will try kurust and see how it goes. I don't like the idea of removing the decals without replacements so will try to patch up what I have. On closer inspection there is only really three patches of rust and flaky paint so I was thinking of stripping back those areas, priming and painting it may not look really pretty but I like the idea of keeping it as original as I can.

 

[titch__16]

If it's powder coated currently, it will be a lot thicker than paint so using some filler might help it loonk natural. The kurust is easy to use, just paint a thin layer on and let it dry for a while. Try not to let it drip as it sets hard and tends to stain everything (including skin).

 

[Jonny69]

The saddle looks like it might be a Sportex A50.

 

[Bats]

What on earth is reynolds 453????

 

[Black Diamond]

According to Wikipedia it is Iron/Manganese/Titanium alloy. Reynolds produced only the three main tubes in this alloy and they were single butted. They were for Sports/general use I'm not sure whether that's good or bad really.

 

[Black Diamond]

Re:

The saddle is a sportex A70. Again I have no idea about those saddles. To be honest I was thinking of swapping it for a white one.