I’ll give you the background to this restoration as accurately as I can. In 1966, Dave bought a new, white, 24″ Schwinn Paramount (serial P605). It was gorgeous and he rode it very little because it didn’t really fit him. I blame the bike shop salesperson for that. Soon after the purchase, the bike was put into storage and didn’t see the light of day for 40+ years. In January of this year, our shop acquired an orange 22″ Schwinn Paramount (serial p631) from our friend Bob. Dave came to our shop with hopes of altering his original frame but then saw the orange Paramount that was his size. It was decided that the orange frame and fork would be restored to be the white Paramount that would fit him like a glove. Some changes needed to be made though: the frame needed chromed head lugs, the seat stay bridge needed to be moved for 700c medium reach brakes, the fork also had to be filled and redrilled for 700c medium reach brakes, and water bottle bosses needed to be added. So after many weeks of waiting for the chrome plater, I was recently able to complete this frame. Special thanks to Bob for aligning the planets for Dave and to Peter Weigle (who recently did a similar restoration/renovation) for tips on lug lining and antiquing the clearcoat. I have another one coming up as well so check back here soon (see the blue Paramount in the last pic).

 
 
 
 
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I was also busy in the shop doing other repaints and repairs including a dropout replacement on a carbon, aluminum and steel Lemond Zurich. Not the easiest of replacements but the operation was a success.

See the full slideshow.

The other paint jobs being done here include a Bianchi touring repaint. Let me just say that I have a love for brown bikes. So what about a bike with three different earthy shades? Well, the bike is almost organic at that point. Here’s Deb’s Bianchi, re-aligned and repainted.

 
 
 
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And finally I did a repaint on a D’Arienzo/Basso. I am told that Basso built the bikes for D’arienzo (which would explain the Basso pantograph on the bottom bracket). So we went with some Basso decals on Armando’s pursuit bike. Armando was the lucky winner of the Circle A paint job raffle prize at last year’s bike swap at Providence Bicycle. I also did some carving and added stainless faces to the dropouts that another builder had replaced. Here’s the finished product.

 
 
 
See the full slideshow.

Still in the hopper is Ralph’s 953 frame and Matt’s single speed. Materials have been shipped and I’ll be trading in the paint gun for a torch and file for awhile. In some sadder news, I recently dropped my Canon digital SLR and broke my favorite lens. Hopefully I can get a new lens before my next blog post. You’ll want to see these next few bikes.

But to end on a happier note, Nathan got his stolen bike back! Props to Andy for spotting it and taking action.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 at 8:25 pm and is filed under Bike Painting, Bike Repairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.