My 1976 Raleigh Grifter Mk1 in Steel Blue

[cddavid]

So,

I bought this bike for £26 on Ebay, seemed like a good idea as a family resto. Little did i realise how bad the chrome had rusted, the wheels apart from the hubs were useless.

The frame, bars, seat and mudguards needed stripping and painting/powder coating.








It turned out to be an early Mk1 with a separate brake and mudguard bridge.

First was the easy bit, stripping




Off to powdercoat for the frame and hand sand and clean everything else.












Frame back




Start to assemble




Then bought a donor bike for wheels, then it got put in the garage for Christmas, that was 2 years ago..............

Then last weekend;




Then more assembly, crank, cranks, gear cable, stand, just ordered the gear cable adjuster then its out for a ride

[griftershaun]

That as cleaned up really well have you cleaned the chrome bits yourself or used bits of the other bike.Looks great

[nudge]

wow looks great mate credit to ya ;D

[gingerrich76]

Excellent work. Top marks considering what you had

[gavla]

Wow, what a great job! I'm useless with my hands & have never so much tightened a bolt.... & sadly I ain't joking!
If I needed any inspiration to get cracking on my own Grifter this is it!
Won't be able to match this quality though!
Well done!

[Stokesy]

Top job, and built in the only place a Grifter should be - on the kitchen table!!

[mike1066]

can I ask a question for the rebuilds

who does the powder coating and the spray jobs and how much is it .

new to this grafter forum just need direction

[griftershaun]

Cost me £45 for powder coating frame/forks/mudguards a guy local where i live.

Fantastic looking bike now considering state it was in well done

[cddavid]

Sorry for the late reply.

Thanks for the comments, I've really enjoyed doing this bike, the chrome was a nightmare, rear wheel is off the donor bike as the rim was un usable in its current state and needs re chroming, the front surprisingly cleaned up quite well with acid.
The rest of the chrome cleared up with a combination of acid, autosol and elbow grease.
The powder coating and bead blast cost me about 45+vat about 2 years ago. A place local to me called Bettablast, located in New York (north Tyneside) not stateside
Cheers
Dave