[Shocker]

I just finished a rebuild of my 2010 Gary Fisher HiFi Pro, and thought you guys might like to see how it came out.
I purchased the bike at the beginning of July off Craigslist. It was in pretty good condition when I bought it, but it could definitely stand some upgrades.

Original bike:
The bike had mostly original parts except the rear mech and shifter was upgraded from SRAM X09 to X0 and the avid brakes had been replaced with Shimano XT M-785s. The Shimano XT front derailleur and two chainrings were removed to make it a 1x9 drivetrain.

I rode it a few times and definitely wanted to upgrade the drivetrain and decided to go with the SRAM GX Eagle 1x12. This was going to require new wheels as well. The forks and rear shock worked great, but the frame pivot bearings needed to be replaced. Since I was taking the bike completely apart I decided to give it a new paint job.

Here's some photos of the original bike, tear down, strip down, prep and paint:

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[Shocker]

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Paint process:
I decided to try painting the bike myself using some great YouTube videos from ETOE (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj-WTJ7Qa2IbTmNComCIZtw).

To prep the frame, I used aluminum paint stripper to get most of the paint off, and then finished it with a sandblaster. For the stripping process, I found that brushing the stripper on and letting it sit 10-15 minutes, then blasting the loose paint off with a pressure washer worked pretty well. What was left came off pretty easily with a sandblaster (I've got a cheap sandblaster I got from Harbor Freight).

Next, I pre-etched the aluminum using white vinegar rubbed on with a scotch bright pad. This etched as well ad removed any loose blast media/dust. I then scrubbed the whole frame with a good degreaser, and followed it up with a rinse of isopropyl alcohol.

I have an outdoor canopy with mesh sides that hang down that I used as a paint clean room (this worked great). I primed the frame with 3 coats of Duracoat self-etching primer. Two light coats and a medium coat, waiting 10 minutes between coats. After letting the last coat try for 2 hours, I lightly sanded the primer with 400 grit sandpaper, then rinsed all the dust off with isopropyl alcohol.

My plan was to have 3 colors and two surface textures on the bike. The main color would be a matte dark grey (Montana Gold, Anthracite) with some parts in a high-gloss yellow accent color as well as the down tube Gary Fisher logo (Duracoat Caliper Paint, Yellow). I used high-gloss black for the seat tube logo, the HiFi Pro logo on the top tube, another 'Fisher' logo on the bottom side of the down tube, and a repaint of the forks. I wanted the bike to look unique with completely different colors, while keeping the general paint and logo design of the original bike.

The logos on the frame are all layer-painted using masks cut on a vinyl cutter, except the logos on the seat stay, which are black vinyl decals (also cut on the vinyl cutter).

The high-gloss parts (black and yellow) were finished with 3 coats of SprayMax 2K Glamour High-Gloss Clear Coat, and the matte part (anthracite) was finished with 3 coats of SprayMax 2K Matte Clear Coat.

Once the paint job was done, I put the bike back together with all the new components I purchased for it:

• Wheels - 29" Mavic XA Elite Aluminum Tubeless
• Rear Derailleur - SRAM GX Eagle B2 Rear Derailleur
• Shifter - SRAM GX Eagle Trigger Shifter
• Cassette - SRAM GX Eagle XG-1275 (10-52T)
• Bottom Bracket - SRAM DUB PressFit Bottom Bracket
• Cranks - Sram GX Eagle DUB (Non-Boost, 175mm, 32T)
• Pedals - RaceFace Chester
• Chain - SRAM GX Eagle
• Chain Guide - e*thirteen TRSr Chain Guide
• Handlebar - KORE OCD (780mm, 20mm Rise)
• Jagwire cable and hose kits
• Frame Pivot Bearing Kit

I'm really happy with how it turned out. The paint looks great, but I'm a little concerned about how it will last over time. If it gets banged up too bad, I'll bring it in and have it professionally powder coated.

Here are a bunch of pictures of the final product. Let me know what you all think, and if you have any questions or suggestions.

 

[Danimal]

That looks awesome, nice work!!!

 

[Shocker]

A few more photos:

 

[MTBeing]

Wow!! What an amazing re-do. Thanks for posting this. It’s incredible.


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[NorCal_In_AZ]

Thats awesome work! Really great attention to detail.

 

[LVLBTY]

Really REALLY nice work !!!

 

[cdalemaniac]

Nice work! I used Duracoat on various projects in the past myself, including bike frames, and it holds up incredibly well!
Just give it sufficient time to fully harden (3-4 weeks) and it will even withstand aggressive solvents.

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[dsciulli19]

Awesome work!! Great looking bike too. I think the HiFi and Rumblefish share some frame parts, so my opinion may be biased.

-DS

 

[Shocker]

Nice work! I used Duracoat on various projects in the past myself, including bike frames, and it holds up incredibly well!
Just give it sufficient time to fully harden (3-4 weeks) and it will even withstand aggressive solvents.

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Thanks! Yeah, the caliper paint seems great so far. The only issue for me was the cure time between layers. Had to wait 7 days! Multiple coats could be put on after 10 mins but all had to be within an hour. After that, it was 7 days. If you don't wait, the next layer gets an antique-paint cracking effect (found out the hard way).

 

[Shocker]

Awesome work!! Great looking bike too. I think the HiFi and Rumblefish share some frame parts, so my opinion may be biased.

-DS

Thanks man! Yeah, I actually found out the chain stay wasn't original, it's from a 2012 Superfly 100. I found out because the bearings in the kit I ordered were the wrong size. The previous owner put white tape over the Superfly logo, so I didn't catch it until the bearings were ordered. I've read about a lot of chain-stay issues with this bike so I'm assuming the original cracked. I'm also assuming the frame is identical between the HiFi and Superfly too because the carbon fiber mud guard I ordered from Rockguardz was for a Superfly. They told me it was the same mold, and it fit perfectly.

 

[nayr497]

Wow, impressive work!

Bike aside though, I'm more envious of your garage/workshop space! Now that is nice

 

[kevine1785]

DAMMIT! This looks so good! Like I now want to strip and paint my old GT Zaskar good. Love the paint scheme, the decals everything! Way to give your bike a new life! I hope you have another project in-the works, i just want to see how the next one turns out!

 

[Shocker]

DAMMIT! This looks so good! Like I now want to strip and paint my old GT Zaskar good. Love the paint scheme, the decals everything! Way to give your bike a new life! I hope you have another project in-the works, i just want to see how the next one turns out!

Thanks man! I had a really fun time doing it. Almost as much fun as riding it!

 

[Shocker]

Wow, impressive work!

Bike aside though, I'm more envious of your garage/workshop space! Now that is nice

That's my fortress of solitude ?

 

[Spudsnks79]

@Shocker. I'm looking at doing something similar with my '10 HiFi. Any clue where I can find a suspension parts list for it? I found one a while back, but can't seem to find it again. Thanks