Holdsworth Mistral build

[anidel]

Just picked the frame.

Pictures are on my Flickr album:

http://flickr.com/#/photos/anidel/13994091712/

The picture is crap, but shows the good job done by Mario:

It really DOES NOT give justice to the color. At all.

 

[anidel]

Only two issues I noticed whilst on the train are that the "Mistral" decal on the top tube is missing, I was hoping he'd put it that one too and the HOLDSWORTH decals have bubbles of air underneath

For the Mistral decals, fine, i can put it on top of the lacquer, but the air bubbles I hope won't be an issue (you can see them up close, but not from distance)

Also, just noticed, missing is also the Reynolds sticker on the forks.

I guess that's what you pay for when you go to Mercian, I suppose. All in all a great job though.

 

[jules_b]

Re:

I took my Super Mistral to him and he is good! I did follow the instructions i read online and made sure i explained everything i wanted and he wrote it down on his pad. he does have loads of frames there so you can imagine he may forget one or two things otherwise.

Good colour by the way. Look very nice

 

[anidel]

Re:

Yeah I should have mentioned the Mistral one but we had agreed on a full set of decals and he even put the Holdsworthy one.

The air bubble are a bit of concern, but they are between the decals and the paint. Should be fine...

Thanks for the choice of color, it really shines in sunlight

 

[Diamant_Don]

How many bubbles are we talking about? The paintwork looks lovely, but leaving bubbles is a bit lame... hope they don't show too much?

 

[anidel]

Re:

Under all the four Holdsworth decals you see them up close. Will post pictures this Sunday when back home...

 

[Diamant_Don]

Bummer... sorry to hear that on what otherwise is a gorgeous thing

 

[jules_b]

Re:

To be honest I think if they are that bad then Mario would have no issues replacing them for you. He seems to be very accommodating so may be worth asking. I had one tiny bubble on one of the letters of the Holdsworth and managed to arrange it myself which worked ok. I think, comparing it to my other two unrestored Holdsworths is either the stickers are thicker than they used to be or maybe he should lacquer on top of them. I think he gets the decals from H Lloyd (as does everyone else) so you can order your Reynolds sticker and mistral sticker (as I did). It is fun…make sure you get the right era stickers which you should be able to do using a bit of common sense. How old is your bike by the way? If you do not know what is your serial number?

 

[anidel]

Re:

Will ask him, but I think it's a big job as he put lacquer on top of them.

The bike is around 80-85, I think more 84 as Mario himself is mostly convinced too (the frame might well have been handled by him when he was working with them)

 

[jules_b]

I was not convinced that he lacquered over my stickers but I may be wrong (maybe it’s the thickness of the decals that throws me off). If you knew the serial number I could give you a rough date as I have had many Holdsworths from 50s,60s, 70s and 80s (have three now). My understanding is that Vaz was the paint shop foreman at Holdsworth during the 80s and I imagine he does alright nowadays with his little business as he deserves to – fills a nice gap in the market for the price he charges. Other quotes I got at the time were double the amount but probably better quality although twice as good? Not sure!