Wayne Luyt’s Early Alpina

I have a passion for Alpina due to having owned one as a youngster. This was my second Alpina restoration

Some enthusiasts first question is “Has it bee resprayed?”, when the answer is yes they act like you desecrated a vintage bike.

Well as you can see from the photos the bike was in a sorry state, surprisingly there was very little rust under the paint, most of the rust marks was very minor rust staining the paint.

My take on it is this, I would rather see a fully restored classic sports car than one with scratches and rust patches, scratches and rust is for Rat Rods. Same goes for classic road bikes in my books.

The finish is certainly a new type of paint finish, some may not like it.

I have also discovered that you can get metal parts re-plated silver (called galvanized clear) for next to nothing. If you have the patience and want to spend more you can get them re-chromed.

Anodised parts can be a bit tricky, some very fine wire wool is about as harsh as one can go and one has to be carefull what chemicals you put on anodizing as some rust converters strip the anodizing off.

I had the Columbus tubing decal reprinted and new vinyl decals cut to finish it off.