Dia-Compe Nippons

Finished up the Nippons tonight and they turned out great.

Here's how the calipers started out:

The Sharpie paint pen did the trick again. One thing I noticed this time, was when I used the black Sharpie on my white Nippons, only one coat of black paint was needed, but with the white pen, 2-3 coats was needed to give a solid white over the green.

The photo doesn't show how bright the fluro green is!

Green Dia Compe Nippons

The Dia Compe Nippons finally arrived with me today, powdered fluorescent green... They look even better and brighter in reality.

I'm currently doing the inlay work, which will be done in the same way as before but this time using a white Sharpie.

Should have some more photos tomorrow of the inlay work completed.

Front Brake

When I updated the Nippon with the heavy duty Allen-key spindles I could only find rears :(

Which meant the front was too short... arse!

But one solution was to run a rear spindle on the front with a Dia Compe recessed nut. Having that on my Performer  bitd might have spared a pair of Vans :) I think it was normal to have this mid 80's Haros, but I drilled the rear hole of the forks before powdering to accept the recessed bolt.

Front Nippon installed:

...and the rear

Dia Compe Nippon

Well I finally got around to outlining the Dia Compe Nippon text on the calipers using a fine point black Sharpie Oil Paint pen. So it will be nice and permanent :)

A quick reminder of the original state

btw, I guess the Sharpie definition of fine isn't the same as mine...

Half done, Nippon polished out, "Dia Compe" over filled but unfinished...

Turned out ok, but trickier than when they were raw polished.

(Sorry for the dodgy iPhone photos)

Close ups

It's Xmas 1985... again!

Packed up and posted!

Just posted all the bits that I want powdered to SBD... aka PWS Finishing Ltd. in England.

Mostly a mix of GT green and white bits.

GT Green

• GT Performer frame
• GT Performer forks
• GT stem
• GT powerdisk

GT white

• Sugino sprocket
• GT seat clamp
• Dia Compe Nippon brakes
• GT Epoch dustcover
• GT frame standers
• GT fork standers
• Araya Aero rims

Should look very very different when it all comes home again!

Dia Compe Nippon (883) Update

Managed to upgrade the spindles today on my Nippons to the "heavy Duty" allen key spindles:

Still contemplating having them powdered white, but without being able to remove the quick releases it could be tricky to do right.

Dia Compe Nippon (883)

The Dia Compe Nippon brakes were is pretty good condition when then arrived, but needed a bit of a polish and I also prefer them with the indentation coloured black.

Before:

After:

Better shot:

Close up:

Future:
I'll be changing the centre bolt to the heavy duty hex bolt type.