After a good 12 months of having the 1981 Bennett 2000 BMX being shuffled all over the garage, I finally completed the rebuild and restoration. The finishing touch is a brand new set of Bennett BMX 2000 decals.
The Bennett 2000 BMX was Australian made – the workmanship on the welds is a bit of a giveaway. Looking beyond the Friday afternoon welding, you’ll notice that the frame itself is dripping with high end Japanese made parts. The Bennett 2000 BMX was the top bike in the Bennett range at the time and was very well spec’ed with Tourney cranks, Tange TX-500 forks, Araya Rims, Sunshine hubs, KKT rat traps, Unstamped WIN bars, Win CR-MO slant stem, OGK grips and full Shimano brake set. This parts list would have made the Bennett 2000 BMX quite desirable back in 1981.
Over the years – as to be expected the white frame had suffered from scratches and rust. A 24 hour bath in citric acid helps to remove the rust from the scratches in the frame, leaving it clean and ready to be sanded and prepped. The classic loop tail frame was then given a fresh new layer of crisp white paint. I had a set of early 80’s chrome Lung Aero forks – these were given a coat of candy blue along with a replacement set of early 80’s straight bars and a chrome chainring.
To keep the original white, blue and gold colour – I cleaned up a set 80’s Fuan 8 Cobra grips in yellow, a set of early chrome hubs were given a candy gold and then laced to chrome Araya rims with gold nipples.
The original seat had two areas where the vinyl was lifting. I wanted the keep the seat as it’s quite unique. After an exhaustive search I finally found a similar piece of blue vinyl and gave it a patch upas best I could.
The last thing to complete on the 1981 Bennett 2000 BMX rebuild was a new decal set. Thankfully the original decals were able to be photographed and measured. This decal set took a good few hours to redraw, the head tube badge was quite intricate, once done the decals were sent off to the printer. The end product is perfect – a brand new set of 1981 Bennett 2000 BMX decals – these decals really do finish the bike.
If you are rebuilding an 1981 Bennett 2000 BMX, you can purchase this decal set in the decal store.
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