1993 ish YETI Pro FRO restoration with a shit ton of images for eye candy!
Alright, so today I kind of felt like finally posting another project I have been recently working on. One of many actually that will follow eventually. Very pretty things like a 1992 KLEIN "Adroit", a 1991 KLEIN "Attitude" a 1998 KLEIN "Quantum Pro" road bike, a 1993 MARIN "Titanium FRS" and so on and so on are still waiting in line!
But here is the Yeti. Yes, you see right! Its the one from ebay some time ago. The damaged one. I was the silly guy who won it and took on the project. What arrived from the UK (to Germany) was a beautiful old battered 1993 ish PRO FRO frame in my perfect size with quite some extra parts (that are not needed). Like the PACE forks, some HOPE titanium hubs, the rims, the yellow CODA grips etc. etc.
After the initial inspection, the problem was obvious. An attempt had been made to remove a seized seatpost using a chisel, which resulted in a fairly nasty cut to the thin-walled seat tube. Besides that, the frame and the original Answer A-Tac stem was in a fairly good condition for its age! No problem at all! . Right on, a perfect project! And that is exactly my cup of tea and what I do here in my workshop.
I found a 12mm chisel for comparison and it literally fit perfectly into the cut like a sheath. Nasty. Some guy obviously simply tried to hammer out the stuck aluminium from the seat tube. A real genius and a pro bike tinker!
The plan with the bike is: Only a partial restoration with paint "repair" instead of a full re-paint (or re-powder). The head tube sticker will also be kept. No matter the conditon! In my eyes a slightly battered and used Yeti is always 2 times better than a fully re-coated one with (very often) sloppy repro decals. Especially the head tube decals are never really right.
Stay tuned, I will add the next post to this in only a few minutes! Spolier alert: The bike is almost finished already. This was in the middle of last summer already.
fguki Senior Retro Guru- I tried out several tools and see how far I get. Some work with the Dremel, some cutting with a metal blade and in the end a 25mm metal hole saw did the job pretty good
- The last leftovers of the post, I removed with a reamer and cleaned the inner tube very well.
Now after dealing with the stuck seat post leftovers, I cut out the cancer part of the tube and brazed in a fresh piece of steel since removing a bigger part of the tube or make a bigger deal out of that area as needed was quite unnecessary here in my eyes.
fguki Senior Retro GuruAfter brazing the long cut and replacing a ca. 30x30mm part using flux and some silver-rod, the frame was basically good again for some paintwork!
Stay tuned, I will add the next post to this in only a few minutes! Spolier alert: The bike is almost finished already. This was in later last summer already:
fguki Senior Retro GuruThe frame is repaired, partially re-painted and clear coated. After that, I took some fine sanding-fleece and soap-water to make the surface a little matte again, matching the rest of the frame and the original powder coating.
I was super fortunate to meet a very very nice guy from Florida, USA that wanted one of my repro FUNK fat forks and offered me the perfect matching 1 1/4" inches Answer Accu-Trax for this frame. A quick re-paint of the fork and one rare missing part could be added pretty quickly
I am currently in the process of adding the last decals and gathering some parts I want for that bike and then its finished I guess
JCS Senior Retro GuruThankyou for posting all the photos - it is great to see the resurrection of this frame, and your skills are impressive!
Wow, someone really gave that frame a beating. Great to see it getting some love.
pwebb Senior Retro GuruI love it when neglected but great frames fall into the right hands - keep us posted on this one when it is on the road again - heroic resto
Elev12k Moderator BoTM Winner Gold Trader rBotM WinnerVery neat. Top job. Are you a kind of engineer? Is this hobby or are you making a living working with metal or restorations?
If it were my frame I would fit a seatpost that extends beyond the repaired section to be sure.
I've owned several Yetis in the past. Judging by what they are going for nowadays I should have kept them a little longer.
fguki Senior Retro GuruI am nothing. Just a MTB enthusiast for 35 years now and a hobbyist that slowly became a international well renown seller and reproducer and restorator. With a pretty professional workshop that I paid and built-up over the past 10 years. Nothing more, nothing less.
Yes I will. The longer the better so to say. The seat clamp is also well inspected without any damage or cracks in the welds and the slightly bent corners are also like new again.
jimmy-s3 Senior Retro Guru Well done Falko! Very impressive work fguki Senior Retro GuruCurrently I am in the process of sorting out parts or trying out colorways for the bike.
Since I got it, I was pretty sure I will slap on tons of nice turquoise parts like Ferrules, a 1 1/4" Grip King, an Answer Hyperlite and Grafton Cantilevers or Bullseye hubs on it. All in turquoise of course!
Now, I am not too sure, if it really looks rat of if I should change my concept completely. We will see! For now, I will just finish it with the initial plan and then maybe swop some parts or colors over the spring and summer.
BY THE WAY: If you are in need of literally any Bullseye spare-parts like decals, axles of different lengths, hub sides, middle parts, ball bearings, spacers or lock-rings just PM me! I do have all those.
Here are some more images of the stuff I did with it over the past weeks:
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