Light resto - 1990 Marin Muirwoods

[Tsundere]

I bought this bike a couple of months ago after seeing the link on here and being the only bidder. picking it up was one of my more memorable missions that involved riding without brakes across 5 miles of very scenic countryside, stopping for a couple of pints and managing to get it to the train station without crashing, deployed the old BMX trick of using the sole of the left foot as a rear brake pad.

First impressions were mixed, but once I got it home and cleaned it up it started to look more and more like a nice little bargain. It was obvious by the scarred condition of the chipped and scratched paintwork contrasted against the great condition of the original tyres, chainrings, saddle and the lack of any fluro fade that this bike had a very rough yet relatively short time in service before being stored away out of the sun. My guess is that the original owner screwed up both the brakes and front derailleur cables, attempted to fix it, gave up and that was that, into the shed it went. Sometimes broken bikes can be the best buys for this exact reason, all the delicate perishable bits that are usually the first to be replaced often survive in good order.



So, the tyres, saddle, grips, wheels and drivetrain are all in excellent condition, the frame is OK, as mentioned loads of scuffs and chips but the decals are OK and the colour has retained all of it's fluorescence and there are no dents that I can find. Rust is minimal, just on the pedals and some of the nuts and bolts. The rear brake is very dirty as is the rear derailleur, both are now dismantled and soaking in either evaporust or degreaser along with anything else that requires similar treatment.


The headset looks in reasonable condition, except the lower caged bearing set had disintegrated, this too is now soaking in degreaser, I'll post more pics as the restoration progresses.
Here's the frame, fork and bar looking chipped and scratched, will need to think about what to do about these bits, I want to preserve the original decals and paint but would also like to tidy it up a bit.

 

[brocklanders023]

That's spot on.

 

[Tsundere]

Everything cleaned up nicely and without too much effort.




I'll need to buy a few bits, one brake block, a set of bearings, inner and outer cables, plus I'll need to do what I can with the frame and forks, but that'll be for another day : )

 

[marc two tone]

Like I'm not gonna click on any marin thread! Good on you for saving it. The strip down is the best bit for me, putting it all back together and hunting for new parts. Then I suddenly dont like it anymore.
Nice one.

 

[Tsundere]

Looking for a fluro paint that closely matches this, in the catalogue it's listed as fluro yellow, but as the comparison pic with fluro yellow from Muddy Fox shows, it's more green than yellow.


Maybe the answer is to mix fluro yellow with a touch of green, which I'm happy to attempt but don't want to have to buy multiple greens to find the one that works best. I'm sure someone on here has faced this problem, before so any suggestions much appreciated.

 

[grey-beard]

Looking for a fluro paint that closely matches this, in the catalogue it's listed as fluro yellow, but as the comparison pic with fluro yellow from Muddy Fox shows, it's more green than yellow.
View attachment 560501

Maybe the answer is to mix fluro yellow with a touch of green, which I'm happy to attempt but don't want to have to buy multiple greens to find the one that works best. I'm sure someone on here has faced this problem, before so any suggestions much appreciated.

Aren't therecolour charts/swatches in places that sell paint? Take the forks and have a look? Defo looks more green than yellow to me.

 

[Tsundere]

The thing is I work fairly long hours and was hoping for a solid recommendation from someone who's done similar work on one of these old marins that I could just click and buy, but yeah, I really should try to get to a paint shop at the weekend and find a match or get one made up. .

 

[Tsundere]

Back to working on this. Been experimenting with paints for touching in, found that a blend of Revel enamel paints (neon yellow with a touch of emerald green) just about comes close enough, hopefully I'll be able to get the frame, forks and stem prepped for priming tomorrow, although I lost count of the amount of chips, scratches and scrapes that require attention, they vary from small chips a couple of mm across to a some of more than 6-7cm long.

I finally freed the Bottom bracket today and gave it a thorough clean, as stubborn as it was to remove it looks to be in excellent shape, the races have no pitting, the bearings came up like new and the rubber seals are pristine.

 

[frkl]

hope this project is continuing to go well.

It's really interesting that your bike has a U brake. Other 1990 Muirwoods I've seen have cantis.

But I've also have a canti equipped 1989 but have seen pictures of a 1989 with a chainstay mounted U brake. It seems like Marin was producing a few different versions of their frames in parallel

 

[Tsundere]

hope this project is continuing to go well.

It's really interesting that your bike has a U brake. Other 1990 Muirwoods I've seen have cantis.

But I've also have a canti equipped 1989 but have seen pictures of a 1989 with a chainstay mounted U brake. It seems like Marin was producing a few different versions of their frames in parallel

It took me a while to date it and I'm still not 100% sure 1990 is correct. It's pretty much on the back burner for now, waiting for some warm dry weather so I can touch in the paintwork.

Thinking about giving it a full upgrade, got a lovely mixed 400/500 LX groupset in almost new condition that would be great for this, but of course a catalogue correct resto still favourite.