Restoring Seven 1980's Panasonic bikes.

[jamesdak]

I recently picked up seven Panasonics in a group buy. They all seem to be from 1987 except for one. All wore in various states of grubbiness and several looked quite rough. But in testament to the high build quality of these Panasonic bikes they are all coming back to life in great shape. Basically I'm tearing all the bikes down, servicing all bearings and other parts, New cables, tires, housings, etc. The paint on them originally appeared to have a lot of damage but that was a bit deceptive. I went over them all with paint compound, polish, and then glazed and have bee quite successful restoring them to a deep, rich sheen with very little paint damage. What I scored were 2 DX-5000s, a DX-4000 (the only bad one, appears to have been in a front end wreck), a DX-2000, a DX-1000, a 1984 Team, and a PT-3500. The two I want to keep from myself are the Team and the PT-3500. I was going to strip the parts off the DX-4000 and toss the frame but the damages is not very bad to the eye. I am going to ride it and see if it tracks ok before I make a final decision. Any, as I finish them I'll post each one up individually.

Here's what I got, and the photo from the ad I had to go on.

 

[sjcprojects]

Nice. It's lucky you have a big garage! Looking forward to seeing some these cleaned up.

 

[jamesdak]

The first one done was the DX-1000. I also had ridden this one before even working on it and had quite likes it. I find this one very visually appealing.

I will be pulling off the chewed up chain stay protector and replacing it. The needed new ones came in the mail yesterda.

 

[jamesdak]

The second one done was the larger of the two DX-5000s. I was surprised to find 56/45 chainrings on it paired with the original 13-21 six speed freewheel. Both of these DX-5000 are in great shape. I still need to swap the chain on this one in the pictures but that's been taking care of now.

 

[jamesdak]

The third finished one was the DX-2000. Like the DX-1000 it needs a new chainstay protector installed. This one came to me with 27" wheels despite the factory spec being 700c. So for now I swapped on a 700c wheeset. I still want to service the freewheel on this wheelset though and then I'll decide for sure if I'll keep as is or swap on different wheels.

 

[jamesdak]

I should have the 2nd DX-5000 finished today. It came to me with Shimano Sante hubbed wheels and no cogs for the Uniglide Freehub. I had some Uniglide cogs left over from the build of my Krapf bike. So I just had to find enough of those cogs to build a complete setup. That was taken care of yesterday along with a lot of other work on the bike. So I just need to finish brakes today and wrap the handlebars.

 

[grantoury]

Nice collection of Panasonics! They do clean up nicely.

@Guinessisgoodforyou

 

[frkl]

Looks like a bunch of fun and you have done good work for sure

 

[jordic1968]

Nice set. I've just been collecting Suntour Superbe Pro bits from long time ago just in case I find a nice Japanese frame some time....

 

[jamesdak]

Nice set. I've just been collecting Suntour Superbe Pro bits from long time ago just in case I find a nice Japanese frame some time....

My favorite parts too. I've actually got some wheels being built on some Superbe hubs right now. And a whole group of Superbe Pro to go with them. I decided to use them on a build of an 80's Rickert frameset instead of Campagnolo as I just love how the Superbe parts look and feel in use.