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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
After |
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| Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB - Bike Before |
This is the third bike in the restoration of the three bikes. Its a Schwinn Paramount PDG 20. I have not figured out the year yet, but I am guessing late 1980's very early 1990's. I am impressed with the little details of the Schwinn Paramount PDG 20, but really should not expect less from the Paramount division, I am not completely up on the exact history of that era, I do not know if it was technically Waterford by then. I will have to do a little research.
It will be a straight restoration for the Parmount PDG 20, really does not need upgrading, everything looks in pretty good shape. There is a lot dirt and grime but I expect it to clean up and polish pretty nice.
I stripped the frame of components and will clean and polish the frame along with the other bicycles.
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| Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB - Bike Before |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Bicycle Before - Crank & Derailleur |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB - Bicycle Before
Bottom Bracket |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Bicycle Before - Rear Derailleur |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB - Bicycle Before
Rear Wheel Hub |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Bicycle Before - Fork & Wheel Hub |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Front View |
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| Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB - Frame Dirty |
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| Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB - Frame Dirty |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Frame Dirty - Rear View |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Frame Dirty - Fork |
That is where the bike is at this point. Things should progress pretty fast from here just like the other two bicycles.
The Schwinn Paramount frame had a lot of tar and staining in the paint. Cleaners like Goo Gone did nothing to remove it. What I had to do is use a rubbing compound and then a very fine rubbing compound to remove the tar and staining. With the frame cleaned I polished the frame a couple of times and now it looks good. It is nice to see the Paramount lettering down the seat stays and fork.
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| Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB - Frame Polished |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB - Frame Polished
Bottom Bracket |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Frame Polished - Seat Stays
Paramount Lettering |
As with the Trek Road Bike and Trek 700 I am working with the bottom bracket and headset components all at the same time. Same as the Trek 700, the chrome and raw steel components went into the crock pot and the black painted components where hand polished and look good.
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Bottom Bracket & Headset Components
Before |
The headset and bottom bracket components cleaned up well and polished nicely. I replaced a couple of the bottom bracket bearings and the bottom bracket now turns smoothly as does the headset.
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Headset Cups Pressed |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Headset Bearings Packed |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Headset Complete |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Bottom Bracket - Fixed Cup - Installed |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Bottom Bracket Bearings Packed |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Bottom Bracket Complete |
With the bottom bracket and headset installed I have gotten to work on the cranks of all three bicycles. The paramount crank is a nice crank. It took a little bit of muscle to break the chain ring bolts free. So far on the crank I have the crank disassembled and the components cleaned. The crank cleaned up nice, next i need to polish it.
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Crank Before |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Crank Disassembled |
The crank polished up pretty nice. The crank arms I polished on the bench top buffer and they look great, the chain rings have a gun metal colored paint that is kind of between paint and anodizing so I had to hand polish the chain rings. The chain rings look good and the crank looks really good over all.
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Crank Polished |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Crank Installed |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Crank Installed |
Next in the process is the stem and handle bars. Below is a photo of the both before. It is a really nice stem and handlebar combination, very light Ritchey combination. They are painted black so the polishing will be done by hand.
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Ritchey Stem & Handlebars - Before |
The stem and handlebars are complete but I lost the photo of the group polished so I will retake it in the morning. I do have photos of the front wheel. The front wheel is complete. It cleaned super nice and the tire looks awesome! I love the old style super knobby tires. The wheel was pretty dirty and greasy, it looked great after cleaning and even better after the hub was polished. The rim is a textured finish so polishing is not an option, polishing in this situation never looks good. But lucky enough there is no marks or anything in the textured finish.
New bearing and grease where packed in the hubs and the axle and components cleaned and polished. The components show surprisingly little wear. A good cleaning of the tire and it looks good. The tire shows now wear and no cracking and is in great shape.
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Front Wheel Hub - Before |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Front Wheel - Before |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Front Wheel Rim - Before |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Front Wheel Hub - Old Grease |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Front Wheel Hub - New Bearings & Grease |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Front Wheel Hub - After Polishing |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Front Wheel & Tire - Installed |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Front Wheel Complete |
Its been the very busy season and restorations being time consuming they are the ones that usually get time taken away from them. That being said I got a lot done on the Schwinn Paramount and baring any unforeseen problems tomorrow it should be finished tomorrow.
The rear wheel was finished up today except for putting the rear tire on, no reason for this other then the tire needs a second cleaning, the first left a dusty film. The rear bearings where is really good shape along with all the bearing components, the bearings and components just needed a good cleaning and a little polishing of the bearing components, the old grease was very dirty and gritty, new grease was packed and now the wheel turns beautifully. At this time the rear freewheel was cleaned and lubricated.
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Rear Wheel Before |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Before - Old Grease |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Rear Wheel Components |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Rear Wheel - Complete |
I need to take a better photo of the rear wheel, it can be seen now in the overall photo of the bike below.
The derailleurs where next. The derailleurs where very dirty and very gritty in their movements. It took a good deal of cleaning and flushing of the pivot points to get everything moving smoothly. I had to use a razor knife to remove the grease from the jockey wheels on the rear derailleur. For where the derailleurs started I am very pleased with the results, everything polished nicely and the derailleurs function very smoothly.
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Derailleurs - Before |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Front Derailleur - Before |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Rear Derailleur - Before - Disassembled |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Derailleurs - After |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Front Derailleur - Installed |
Next came the brake calipers. The brake calipers are interesting, they come from a time when cantilever brake calipers where not as refined as they are today. It took me a minute to figure out the way the calipers are adjusted. I disassembled the calipers and cleaned and polished the components. The calipers where dirty, tarnished and somewhat corroded, I am very pleased with the way they came out. I also installed the new brake pads at this time. Tomorrow the brake cables will be run.
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Brake Caliper Before - Exploded View |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Brake Caliper Polished - New Brake Pads Installed |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Rear Brake Caliper Installed |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Front Brake Caliper Installed |
Below is a photo of the Paramount to this point, tomorrow I hope to have the bicycle complete baring no problems.
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Bicycle to this Point |
I was able to finish the Paramount Mountain Bike today. I started the morning working on the shift levers and brake levers. The shift levers are really nice Sun Tour thumb shift levers. The front is a friction shift and the rear is indexed. I just had to flush the shift levers with oil and work some lubrication into the levers, I also cleaned the levers.
I first cleaned the brake levers and then placed them in the sonic cleaner, a little hand polishing of the black paint and a treatment of the rubber coated parts and the levers look great. I also used black touch up paint to fill a few paint ships on the brake levers.
With the levers installed it was time to run new cables and cable housings, the new cables and the shiny new cable housings really make a difference in the looks.
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Shift Levers - Before |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Brake Levers - Before |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Cables & Cable Housings Installed |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Cables & Cable Housings - Installed |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Rear Brake cable - Installed |
Next is the seat post. The seat post is in pretty good shape, took a lot of cleaning and scrapping of a crusty substance off of it. New grease and the seat post moves freely up and down.
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Seat Post Before - White Crusty Stuff Can be Seen Half
Way Down |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Seat Post - Installed |
Next came the pedals, the pedals cosmetically started pretty rough, which they are mountain bike pedals, they are suppose to be rough after use. I disassembled the toe clips and cleaned and scraped rust off the pedals. I also cleaned the straps, treated the plastic cage and scraped rust off the buckles. The pedals look a lot better, not perfect at all but a lot better. And the pedals function perfectly.
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Pedals - Before |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Pedal After - Installed |
Last came some bits and pieces like installing the water bottle cage and the front and rear reflectors. The reflector brackets where in really rough shape, a lot of rust and corrosion. I used a wire brush wheel in a drill to remove most of the rust and corrosion and then polished out the brackets on the polishing wheel. The brackets look a lot better now, again not perfect, but a lot better.
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Front Reflector Installed |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Rear Reflector - Installed |
One of the last things to install is the chain and to tune the bike. I oiled the chain and then started to adjust the gearing. I am absolutely shocked at how smooth and quiet the shifting is. I gave the bike a test ride just to check and it rides and shifts wonderful.
I was also lucky enough to mix up a few different colors of touch up paint to match the yellowing white paint almost perfectly. The frame paint is in rough shape, but again it is a mountain bike, it is expected. With the touch up paint the frame looks a lot better, I also touched up the black paint chips.
After restoration the bike is not perfect cosmetically. Paint shows heavy trail use and age. I would love to have the frame powder coated white and either make and match the decals or find new, but the important thing is the ride, the bike rides beautifully, and I love the older style knobby tires, its like a monster truck going down the street. I did not try it on the trail, Brenden can do that and get it dirty.
Below are final photos, I think i will take another set of photos in the morning with better light.
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Bicycle Finished - Side View |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Bicycle Finished - Angle View |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Bicycle Finished - Front Wheel View |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Bicycle Finished - Handlebar View |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Bike Finished - Drive Train View |
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Brenden's Schwinn Paramount PDG 20 MTB
Bicycle Finished - Rear View |
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