Here’s a real blast from the past! I have recently acquired a large number of Japan Bicycle Guides from the 1960’s and 70’s. Pictured below is a 1966 Fuji Dandy. It has very nice lines and a very 60’s look. Sure would love to find one of these!
Spent a couple hours this morning on the 83 Fuji Cruiser. First challenge was the seat tube and chain guard decals. These were both removed from the bicycle at some point. I am trying to get the color as close as possible to the current decals, and this has proven to be a real pain and ink waister but, I’m very close now. I used Photoshop and Microsoft Word to create the decals and then manually cut them out with scissors.
I got the sticker paper from Onlinelabels.com; quality stuff. I am finding the OL177WI weatherproof gloss white paper to work the best. The OL177CK (or clear back) seems ok too. Either way, do not touch the printed part with your fingers regardless how long you let it dry; otherwise you will leave finger prints.
The decals I got from Velocals, while a quality print job, were way off in regards to color and the spread between the two vertical “Fuji” texts on the seat-tube decal is too narrow. So, when you wrap them on the seat-tube you can never line them up on each side. Keep in mind I’m trying not strip the current surviving decals even though the frame has many chips and scratches. A survivor is only a survivor once, right? If I did strip them, then I would repaint the frame and likely use the Velocals after requesting a re-size for the seat-tube decal. Then all the decals would match, but not be their original color.
Next, I got to work mounting the chain guard. I forgot I had yet to find a 40t chain wheel and the 44t on there made the chain guard a tad too small. Thankfully I had a 42t and I can make it work with a little tweaking of the mounting hardware. Once I find a 40t gold Sugino chain wheel it should be a perfect fit.
One of the missing parts on my 1983 Fuji Cruiser was the chain-guard. After a few trial and error purchases, I found a perfect fit it. Pictured below is a chain guard and mounting kit available on ebay for $17 plus shipping.
The chain guard on the 1983 cruiser was painted white on the front face. I taped off the face with some blue painters tape and used an exacto knife to cut around the curve. With a primer base and then a couple coats of gloss white you can create yourself a very nice replica. I also worked on recreating the “Cruiser” decal that would have been on there.
I then discovered that VeloCals had created an 83 Fuji Cruiser decal set. I’m a bit confused however regarding the standard and mixte option, as there was no mixte version of the cruiser. I have ordered but not yet received a set, so I’m yet to see how accurate the recreation is.
