The decision is made. I am going with the black Ukai rims and black Sunshine hubs.
1980 Feather Professional BMX Part 3
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1980 Feather Professional BMX Part 2
I’ve got the majority of the parts laid out with a few decisions to make along the way.
One of the very distinct parts on the Fuji Feather Professional BMX bikes is the Tange Meriter headset. These are semi-sealed and were a very high-end part in the mid and late 1970’s.
When acquiring a Tange Meriter headset one of the most often damaged parts is the top-nut. I must have 10 headsets and probably 5 good top-nuts, 2 bad top-nuts, and 1 unusable. If you ever find these top-nuts at a swap, buy them!
Another very distinct part to the Feather Professional BMX is the curved Ishiwata fork.
Bar Keepers Friend really works!
I had heard about oxalic acid and its power to remove rust from bicycle as well as many metal parts. In my research I also found out the active ingredient in Bar Keepers Friend is oxalic acid. It just so happens that I had just received a rather rusty Fuji Feather Professional Ishiwata BMX fork and have a bottle of Bar Keepers Friend under the kitchen sink.
So, here’s what I did. I got a large plastic bin I had purchased at Costco some time ago. I put one cup of Bar Keepers Friend in the bin and then filled it with hot water until the fork was completely covered. I carried the bin outside to let it sit for a few hours. Before walking away, I couldn’t help but pull the fork out to see if any thing was happening. Sure enough, with the wipe of my finger rust was already coming off! I was looking forward to the result!
3 hours later I began to lightly scrub away the rust with a Scotch Brite blue non-scratch sponge. Below are the results.
After and Before
After/Before
Final Challenges on the 83 Fuji Cruiser
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.
Chain guard for the 83 Fuji Cruiser
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.
The little guy score Fuji 250x
About 1 year ago I picked up this 16” all original survivor down to the tubes and tires. The serial number has a manufacturing year of 1983; however based on the plastic MX seat and type of stem, I’m quite certain it is a 1984 model.
It was quite the rust bucket; likely left outside in the rain, and a little one had decided to take a nice black permanent marker and trace around almost the entire bike. I disassembled and cleaned everything and was able to remove almost all the rust with some still remaining on the chain, yes that’s OG too. I was also able to get the 25+ year old black marker off.
Fuji 250x before photo showing marker writing
Fuji 250x before photo showing some of the rust