Last October I posted a set of photographs of what I consider a a dream project, three Fuji Professionals that needed rebuilding.
http://vintagefuji.posterous.com/three-fuji-professionals-1977-1981-a-dream-pr
I acquired this Professional off the Seattle Craig's List, thousands of miles west of me. I found the colors interesting, it wasn't the stock two tone ruby red, it was more of a rasperry with light blue seat tube panels and head tube. All the lugwork and the bottom bracket matched an early eighties Professional so there wasn't any doubt it was truly a Pro. Another oddity was the serial number, it wasn't the correct format. Normally it would have been two letters, followed by 6 digits, for example FD156015. This serial number was 81J5I. Perhaps this frame had been ordered custom from Fuji? Maybe someone high up in the Fuji chain?
The paint was rough, no rust but it was bare in spots. Usually I wouldn't make changes on a frame of this caliber but I decided to strip it to bare chrome and then, if I learned more of it's history, repaint it in the raspberry and blue livery. I left the blue panels, they were in excellant condition, as were the decals.
Much to my surprise I was contacted by a gentleman named Michael, who commented on the Oct. 15th. post. "I think that's my frame". WOW! Sure enough, it was, he had worked at Life Cycles in Cambridge, MA in the early '80's and this Professional had hung in the shop. He decided to have it repainted, rode it and eventually sold it. How it ended up on the west coast I'll never know. Michael actually lives less than thirty miles from me and has become a good friend and valuable resource for all things Fuji and Life Cycles. He even supplied me with some images that were taken during the re-painting process, absolutely fascinating!
