Technical & Reference Section > Tech and Restoration
1983 Raleigh Extra Burner **full resto thread - finished**
BMX1973:
Rare Burner don't see many of them , great build :)
factory pilot:
The pictures don't do it justice .. it's really stunning in the flesh .. so fresh so clean "wantit" :4_17_5:
griff:
Fantastic job on a bike I will admit to admiring in catalogues BITD (before heading to the women's underwear section)
dancetothedrummersbeat:
...part 2
The bike came with Viscount foam grips as stock, but I just couldn't find any. Luckily, Biagio was selling some nos Johar Rad Grips at MK last year in the correct red/black colourway, which are virtually identical.
The levers were a big challenge to get right. The bike had one survivor left lever, but it was scuffed and needed re-finishing. I managed to find a right lever to make a pair, but that one had faded very badly.
The brake calipers were in really good survivor condition, and were far too good to consider re-finishing.
The problem was that I needed to get the levers done in a matching shade to the calipers. The colour needed to be a dark, almost orange shade of gold. I contacted a few anodisers, but they could only do the standard light gold, and not the shade I wanted. One anodiser said they could get the correct shade, and assured me that they would take a maximum of 2 weeks to do them - I helped them out by stripping and polishing the levers to speed up the turnaround time. Despite a few phone calls, they still hadn't been done 8 weeks later, and MK was looming :'( >:(
I finally got the phonecall, and went to pick them up. At first glance the levers looked ok, and I was relieved to finally get them back. On closer inspection at home, they were completely the wrong shade - almost brown :'(
MK was only 10 days away, so I had no choice but to attempt to spray them myself. I'd bought a can of candy fools gold, and a can of metallic gold as a base coat.
base coat on
..then 6 coats of candy fools gold, and a few coats of clear lacquer
Most of the headset, brake hardware, brake blocks, rear reflector and bracket, stem, chainring, crank and seatclamp were in good condition, and just needed a good clean and polish. The 'R' nut for the clamp, Tange bottom bracket and rear chain tensioners were too far gone and needed re-chroming
new end caps for chain tensioners
The stem cap was badly scratched, so I stripped it and re-sprayed it using VHT anodise look spray, which I had used previously on the rims for my Falcon Pro Beta
The pedals still had their original reflectors, but the pedal ends were badly scuffed. I therefore stripped and re-painted them in satin black and re-fitted the reflectors
The seat was another big challenge. It was amazing to have the original Raleigh branded seat, but it had a number of very deep gauges and numerous scuffs.
Although it was a shame to lose the textured finish, I really had no choice, so the seat was sanded down by hand, and then carefully polished up. Care was taken to preserve the Raleigh writing to the sides. The whole process took about 20 hours!
I polished up the existing seat guts, and found a nos seatpost. I then re-riveted the head tube badge and the chain guard to the chainring
Steve sorted me out with a repro padset, and decals came from a few sources, including Del
Building started the day before MK....
..and continued into the night. The bike was finally finished (apart from fitting the chain) at 1.15am on Friday morning.
A quick trip to the bike shop at 9am that morning to get the chain fitted, and the bike was all done and ready for MK :daumenhoch:
The finished build
I'm delighted with the finished result, and the icing on the cake was that it won 1st prize in the old school street category at MK this year :D
As always, there were a few people who really helped to make this build possible. First of all, Joff (Norty40) who kindly let me interrupt his working day and let me use his home spray booth. He also let my frameset stay rent free at his house for months. I'm also grateful for the numerous cups of tea and seemingly endless supply of biscuits. As ever Ant (factory pilot) was there to provide encouragement when it looked as though the build was doomed, for helping to do some light restoration on some parts, and he also let me have the sought after 1.75 tyre for a very reasonable price. I think the levers came from Paul (dp and chopper dude) - thanks. Leigh metal polishers as always did an amazing job on the parts that needed re-chroming, and superbike Dan worked his magic on the white and red powdercoat. Thanks also to Dan for recommending Mark Ralph to do the red fade using an airbrush, and also for clear coating the frame. He did an amazing job, his rates were good, and the turnaround time was fast. Thanks Mark :daumenhoch: As always, Steve worked his magic on the padset, and Del on the decals. Most of the decals came from a guy via one of the Burner forums. For the life of me, I cannot remember his name. Retrodan put me onto him, and the decals are amazing. Thanks Dan.
dancetothedrummersbeat:
**bump**
resto thread now finished.
*After building the bike up, and it winning it's category at MK, I decided to sell it and let somebody else enjoy it. As I have numerous other bikes, I would probably never ride this one which seemed a shame. It's now gone to a good home :)
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