1990 Grellow Yo Restoration

[Butcher]

I got my frame back from Spectrum Powder Works and took a few pictures for you all to check out.

This is a Large 1990 Yo and it's my first Fat. After many years of abuse it was needing some serious work. The seat tube had a serious rust problem and there was many dents and dings on it from crashes over the years. So this winter I sent it off to Chris Igleheart for the needed frame repairs.

It was originally Grello with the dark metallic blue on the ends of the stays and fork lowers with the pink stickers. I wanted to keep it the iconic Grello but I wanted to make it a one of a kind so I did a fade to metalic blue (like original) but then had it fade into a Bass Boat Blue into a Bass Boat Silver at the drops. I also used the blue up onto the lower seat tube and bottom part of the down tube so there was more room for the fade into Bass Boat - but not going up onto the frame nearly as far as in the aqua fade style. The decals selection on my Yo was different that the later models and I reproduced it exactly as it was on the original D&D paint job. Most notably the signiture decal is not there and instead of Fat City Cyles on the seat tube there is a Yo Eddy team decal. Of course there is clear over the whole thing after the decals were placed.

[mainlyfats]

That is fantastic.

[pkbinder]

Beautiful. How ya gonna build it?

[RobTu]

a bit strange...but I guess that's what you were shooting for

must feel great to have a freshly painted fat...well done.

[settemarche]

i love the bass boat.

could you e-mail me some info on the paint job. who i need to talk to at Spectrum. and an idea on cost.

thanks,

Sette.

[Butcher]

Originally Posted by pkbinder

Beautiful. How ya gonna build it?

The build is going to be a single speed with White Industries ENO hubs in black (eccentric rear), black ENO cranks, campy seat post, white Flite ti saddle, Phil wood ti BB, NOS bontrager stem, 7 cycles ti bars, King dread set, ringle seat collar, salsa rasta front skewer, Pauls brakes and levers. I've been collecting the parts for about 8 months now. I'm looking forward to seeing the whole thing put together.

[DC]

Did you outbid me on that sweet Campy post on ebay last week?!! Enjoy it! The fresh color is beautiful, although the 'Grellow' looks a little extra green, maybe it is just the photos. Whatever the hue, I love it! My Grello Yo! will need to go in for a seattube love session someday and I was thinking of extending the blue a bit also...cool.
DC

[Butcher]

Originally Posted by DC

Did you outbid me on that sweet Campy post on ebay last week?!! Enjoy it! The fresh color is beautiful, although the 'Grellow' looks a little extra green, maybe it is just the photos. Whatever the hue, I love it! My Grello Yo! will need to go in for a seattube love session someday and I was thinking of extending the blue a bit also...cool.
DC

Hey DC, Yea I did end up with the Campy post. I bet we end up bidding against Fat Cogs members all the time on the choice Fat goodies on eBay. I was pretty motivated since this frame was being wraped up about the time that post came up. I was hoping to find a ti syncros or similar but those are always big $$ and rare, I remember bidding on one of those a couple of months ago and threw in the towel at $200.

The Grellow is a tough match since the sun will fade the color over time. There was a stripe on the top tube on my Yo from where the old frame mounted tire pump strap covered the frame. Remember those dang things, those metal Zefel or similar tire pumps we used to haul around on our bikes?

I'm pretty happy with the tubectomy service that Chris did on my frame. The seam where the repair was done is very very hard to see.

[ameybrook]

Not to steal the OP thread, I too, am working on a re-painted grello Yo. Its not exact, but pretty damn close, for a stock powder color.

[Butcher]

Originally Posted by ameybrook

Not to steal the OP thread, I too, am working on a re-painted grello Yo. Its not exact, but pretty damn close, for a stock powder color.

Looks almost like a mint green in that picture - looks good. Who did the powder coat?

I did take a look at a close green color in powder that Spectrum had but side by side with the actual grellow bike it was much more of a green color and did not have the yellow tints or the neon effect. Perhaps if Spectrum did it I was looking at the sample that you did your bike in.

Mark had to go with liquid paint to match the grellow and do the things he did on my Yo. I'm going to use a Bonk paint protection kit on it as I'm going to ride it in several big races this summer. I was intially going to go powder coat for the durability factor.

What's the plan on the build for your Yo and what year is it?

[ameybrook]

@ Butcher. Spectrum messed up my aquafade Wicked. I tried to get past it, but in the end, it just was a poor reproduction. I like your frame though...it is what it is... not grello, but something different.

My 'grello' came from a local powdercoater. I saw the color sample on the wall, and said "hey that looks alot like..." I've compared with the original grello* and its only slightly darker. I'm happy with it. Its a 91 with Full XTII and Syncros.





*obviously there is no original grello, as they were all done by hand and different.

[Butcher]

Originally Posted by ameybrook

@ Butcher. Spectrum messed up my aquafade Wicked. I tried to get past it, but in the end, it just was a poor reproduction. I like your frame though...it is what it is... not grello, but something different.

My 'grello' came from a local powdercoater. I saw the color sample on the wall, and said "hey that looks alot like..." I've compared with the original grello* and its only slightly darker. I'm happy with it. Its a 91 with Full XTII and Syncros.





*obviously there is no original grello, as they were all done by hand and different.

Your so right about the grellow being a moving mark - as they are all different. If you try to compare a fresh grellow paint job with one that's aged for 19 years the fresh one is going to be different as the color is very sensitive to UV light. I disagree with you that the color on my bike is not grellow. Let it age a bit and it will start looking more like the aged paint you're considering the correct shade (or heck it could be my camera). Do you match to the sun faded color or the fresh one?

I've seen your BOTM entries so I'm sure what ever you come up for this Yo will be pretty dang nice, well thought out and period correct.

You are so right in that my Yo's paint job is something different. I wanted to do a one of a kind for sure.

I remember your Wicked - I liked it a lot. Heck, if it was a large size it might be in my garage right now as I watched the auction. It was not a good reproduction of an original "aqua fade" in transition - but it was sweet. The other thing about the wicked is your decals were not under the clear coat so they damaged easily (if I'm remembering the right frame).

[Butcher]

The last few parts I've been waiting for are here! The build up has started.

One thing I'm going to try is a product called "Bonk" that will protect the paint in key areas. Has anyone tried that product? If it sucks I'll just run it without it but this bike is going to be raced so i'd like to give it a little extra protection from the chips and rubs.

[Butcher]

Here you go. It's been pointed out that my Grello is a tad green. I'm of the opinion that my repaint is in fact Grello and that the more Yellow tint we see is the result of sun (UV) fading, however I've arrived at that conclusion based on my own 19 year old Grellow yo that did have a more yellow tint to it, but I know that was sunfaded as there was a band of darker/greener tinted paint on the top tube where the strap for the old frame pump covered the paint.

I've compared the pictures that I took of the repaint and they are good examples of the hue. I've attached several pictures of other Grello Yo's here to compare. One is an Aqua Fade (1994), one is a 1991 Yo that looks a lot like my old 1990 pre repaint from last summer (also attached) as well as an original Grello wicked (also older original paint). The head badge shot has been used as a Avitar by many on this site. I'll have to rummage through my old pictures (pre digital) as I know I've got to have a picture or two of the Yo when it was new.

I'll also try and remember it's Grello and not "Grellow"...

Opinions?

[Doug Carter]

Grello is several coats of 1-part fluorescent green plus 3-parts fluorescent yellow sprayed over a white base coat (mandatory for proper fluorescent "glow"). Keep in mind that all fluorescent paints and powedercoats are not light fast and will fade drastically over time in sunlight. Our old Formula Continental race car was painted fluorescent yellow in parts, and where there were numbers or decals, the color was far more intense when they were removed.

Variance in color on old bikes all depends on how long they sat in the sun over the course of their lives.


I'd be pretty sure that the formula as mixed (as it came from Wendyl) is pretty accurate. I'm actually planning on using a similar mix of this color on my race car for next season.

[Butcher]

Originally Posted by Doug Carter

Grello is several coats of 1-part fluorescent green plus 3-parts fluorescent yellow sprayed over a white base coat (mandatory for proper fluorescent "glow"). Keep in mind that all fluorescent paints and powedercoats are not light fast and will fade drastically over time in sunlight. Our old Formula Continental race car was painted fluorescent yellow in parts, and where there were numbers or decals, the color was far more intense when they were removed.

Variance in color on old bikes all depends on how long they sat in the sun over the course of their lives.


I'd be pretty sure that the formula as mixed (as it came from Wendyl) is pretty accurate. I'm actually planning on using a similar mix of this color on my race car for next season.

Thanks so much for your feed back on the color. I'm pretty sure we got it right then and yes your description of the fluorescent "glow" is dead on. A Grello or similar color on a race car would be impressive, good luck with that.

One of the reasons Mark at Spectrum wanted to do the larger transition area on my Yo is that the base coat from the grello is white and the base coat for the bass boat is black, so he needed a straight blue with no metal flake effect to switch the base coat color. I got the idea for the bass boat because I had several of the original bass boat blue Schwinns back in 1997-98 as we had a grass roots sponsorship going with them. Mark at Spectrum Powder Works is the shop that did those bass boat paint jobs for Schwinn back in the day.

[bdavis999]

Hey -- that looks super! I dig the bass boat paint.

Just a question about how the dents and dings were fixed... I've heard it is possible to "roll" the tubes, but I've never seen it done. I know other people have used brass/silver brazing rod or even bondo as filler.

How did Igleheart di it?, and if you don't mind me asking what was the cost?

Thanks!
Braden

[Butcher]

Originally Posted by bdavis999

Just a question about how the dents and dings were fixed... I've heard it is possible to "roll" the tubes, but I've never seen it done. I know other people have used brass/silver brazing rod or even bondo as filler.

How did Igleheart di it?, and if you don't mind me asking what was the cost?

Thanks!

As far as the repair goes here is what I know. There was a larger dent on the top tube from bashing/sliding over a rock and he did roll that one out. The smaller imperfections I seem to remember him saying he used silver on those.

Costs were based on hours except for the tubectomy (replacing lower section of rusted out seat tube) which was flat rate $175 if I'm remembering correctly. I had a slight crack at the down tube gusset, chainstay repair, cable guide replacement & realignment, the large top tube dent he rolled out and several smaller dents. The whole mess including shipping was about $360.

[Butcher]

It took me a while as my free time seems to be in high demand these days. Here is how it turned out.

[Butcher]

Well I found the time to get this baby put together! It's certainly an eye catcher, no doubt about that.

Now I just need to work out a few bugs and it will be ready for prime time.

- Now I see where that post I started to load these pictures went to

Enjoy

[smittylube]

Nice. I love the clean look of SS as well

Steve