The "Before And After" Thread
 

Most of the stuff found in thrifts and such are in disrepair, and since we spend so much time bringing them back to life I thought it might be a neat idea to have a "Before and After" thread to show off our transformations of the "Catch Of The Day" bikes we come across.

Most all the bikes I get my hands on are low or mid-level wrecks (or at least severely neglected), but almost all of them clean up to be nicely functioning riders.

Take this low-end Gitane Gran Sport for example. Dirty and rusty, is was dropped at the local thrift a few weekends a go. I glommed onto it, and spent a few hours cleaning the frame and getting the rust off of the steel parts. New tires, tubes, and bar tape followed, as well as all the usual adjustments and some wheel truing. Now, it's ready to serve a useful life again. Take a look:

BEFORE:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/2b7bc08d.jpg

AFTER:
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/5098392c.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/b1ecf7bc.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/28383595.jpg

Beauty! Here's my favorite few.,,,,BD

BEFORE

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...er/Prelude.jpg

AFTER

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...elude-done.jpg


BEFORE

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...er/Veeger1.jpg

AFTER

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n.../Veegernew.jpg

NEWEST AFTER

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...VoyFenders.jpg


BEFORE

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...r/73blueSS.jpg

AFTER It's had the original bars put back on since this pic......

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n...almostdone.jpg

Wow, I like all three of those Schwinn's Bikedued!

Here's my '78 Trek 900. Picked up for $50 on CL, it was leaning against a fence in a backyard.

Here's my Panasonic PT-3500 when I got it home from the pawn shop for $30:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...cPT3500001.jpg


And here it is now:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...ar89/002-3.jpg

This is the only before & after pics I have. My 1971 Super Course stripped & ready to send for paint and then right after I got it back from Acme.

To bad I didn't do before & after pics on some of the bikes I flipped before our recent move. I even resorted to" buy one, get one free" to move the last few! Don

Before:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2..._8839small.jpg

After:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2..._9458small.jpg

Before:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2..._9913small.jpg

After:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...1cop2small.jpg

The only Before shots of my chrome Voyageur 11.8 are from the Craigslist ad and really don't show how bad a shape it was in...

moderator edit: the images in this post were hijacked, so I deleted them.

And yet it still looks 100% better. Beautiful!

not a true "before and after", here's a bike I picked up on craigslist some time ago:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ro/bike007.jpg

I don't know how the previous owner rode it w/ the stem barely in like that. Anyway, the frame (make unknown) was not only too large for me, but had internal rust issues as well. So I stripped and cleaned the parts, got a bottecchia frame on ebay, plus some other parts:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...tecchia012.jpg

And I thought the grind-off-the-extra-bits-and-make-it-a-fixie thread was the before-and-after thread!

Neal

Falcon of England Europa

Before:
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r.../falcon002.jpg

After:
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...r/100_0069.jpg

Since that after pic was taken, the bike has gotten a set of Open Pros, courtesy of my wallet and Cuda2K and a new Selle Trans Am saddle with orange detailing, courtesy of Lotek.

After:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...1cop2small.jpg[/QUOTE]

That is a beautiful bike and I love the picture!!!

Many of you have seen my "after" pictures of Capo #1. I wish I had a "before" picture of the plain dull rusty red (no white head tube, no decals) repaint job it wore when I bought it for $20 at a yard sale.

Thanks! Those are the Suntour derailleurs I bought from you. :D

Before:

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d7...CIMG2233sm.jpg

After Dr.Deltron's magic:

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d7...ameandFork.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d7...CIMG3041sm.jpg

http://uci.net/~brennan/beforegios%20(2).jpg

http://otisrecords.com/gios1.jpg

http://otisrecords.com/gios13.jpg

Here's my wife's Peugeot

Before
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...d/DSC02829.jpg

After
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...d/DSC03703.jpg

Before:

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=279102

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=279103

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=279104

After:

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=279105

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=279106

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=279107

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=279108

Hey, you got the decals on!:D Looks great!

Before:

http://web.mit.edu/nlerner/Public/Bi...meRaleigh1.jpg

After:

http://web.mit.edu/nlerner/Public/Bi...omeSports1.jpg

I wish I had taken some photos of my Ciocc when I had found it, it would have made you guys cry. I can only contribute photos of the Marinoni, which wasn't in really rough shape, just ugly as it hadn't been ridden in ages.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...nchEz/Noni.jpg

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...arinoni006.jpg

Before:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21...e_original.jpg

After:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21...driveside2.jpg


Before:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21...e_original.jpg

After:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21...riveside_2.jpg


Before:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21...e_side_rb2.jpg

After:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21...de_rb2_new.jpg


Before:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21...drive_side.jpg

After:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21...rive_sunny.jpg


Before:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21..._driveside.jpg

After:

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y21...riveside-1.jpg

Here is my Criterium.
Before....
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b4...0/DSC01736.jpg

And after...
Restored to early 80's complete with funky NOS Grab On grips.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b4...0/DSC01777.jpg

Then I ran over it with my Land Cruiser!
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b4...0/DSC01996.jpg

Then it was rebuilt again with an NOS front rim and other bits sourced from this board. Thanks again guys.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b4...0/DSC01994.jpg

What a fun thread. I wish I was in the habit of taking more "before" pictures. I could only find "before" pics for my first project, so here it is...

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u.../950before.jpg

And after:
http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u...950after-1.jpg

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u...50bbbefore.jpg

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u...0bbafter-1.jpg

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u...r/DSC03529.jpg

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u...der/950der.jpg

Another one from me: a 1970s St. Etienne road bike

Before

http://web.mit.edu/nlerner/Public/Bikes/st_etienne.jpg

After

http://web.mit.edu/nlerner/Public/Bikes/Porteur1.jpg