My good friend has pulled his old Mongoose out of his shed and is very interested in restoring it for his personal enjoyment. He is also a MOPAR nut and is in the process of restoring an old Coronet back to stock, so he likes to do things the same way. It's currently blue, which was a repaint when he was a kid, but he'd like to bring it back to as close to original as possible, which was also a close shade of blue. Is there anyone who can nail down a specific color for these bikes?

Here's the serial # CA9 133176

Any info like what model this is, what year, what the color should be, what the stickers should be, etc... would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Built Jan, 79'. It's anyone's guess on the original color, not coded into the serial #.

As it is an early '79 model, it has the coaster brake tab. It should be stickered as a regular mongoose (not team, or super) and should have the motomag decal on the downtube. I don't believe the forks will be the ashtabula variety, but the pinched tange (nickel). I believe it could have motomags, femco rims with bendix rear, mongoose stamped front hub, or Skyway Tuffs with metal flange.

If I have err'd with any of this info, I'm hoping others more knowlegable than I will pick me up.

Idea: look at the museum pics for blue colors.

http://www.vintagebmx.com/museum_002.htm
Open the above page, then on the left hand column find the 7th mongoose w/motomags down, it's a '78, but it looks to be an original color blue.

Thanks guys. The bike is and was blue, but I was thinking someone knows a code for this exact color.

As for the build date, I'm guessing the 9 is for 79, is the next digit for the month?

It does have a coaster brake tab, as well as a slotted brake bridge. The forks are pinched at the bottom, without the dropouts like most forks. He's got Skyway Tuff 1s on it, as that's how it came from the bike shop. As for the stickers, are they the red/yellow ones with the prism backing? Does Rini carry the correct ones, or should he look elsewhere?

Thanks again.

Apparently Bill Curtin, the owner of this site, has brokered a deal with the current owner's of Mongoose to be their officially licensed distributor of the old style mongoose decals that you seek.

If I understand correctly, he has had this project in the works for several months and has gotten back his samples from his art guy, now all that is left is to do a production run.

So if I was a betting man, I'd tell you to hold your horses for a month or two and get the officially licensed product, rather than take a risk with the repops on Rinis (which I heard tell there have been question marks concerning correct size, background, font size etc.. Besides, I don't think they have the motomag decal or the main tubes chrome moly decals included in theirs.. and you need those)

As far as the paint code, I wouldn't trip, because you probably want to have it powdered anyway (do powder coaters use color codes too?) if there is some original paint still on the bike, you could always take it in to the powder coater's shop and ask them to match it.. it's what they do, it's their livlihood. If the color is faded, you could mention that you'd like it a shade darker.

Hope this helps a little. Can't wait to see the finished product.

I have an 80' motomag and before i stripped it, it had a metalic blue paintjob on it. i know they had different shades of blue, but the mongoose metallic was a very cool color, deep like the team red color. as far as the serial number, i always thought the "C" was for chatsworth. the next letter is the month code, A=Jan. and the number is the year, 1979. if it has the coaster brake tab, it is probably a motomag.

So, the frame is chromoly? Did Mongoose have different grades of frames at this time. For example, did they have chomoly frames and steel frames available? Was there a "street" frame and a "race" frame?

The bike isn't mine, and the owner has lots of questions about it, but he mainly wants to restore it correctly, so I appreciate your answers.

The three main tubes were chrome moly (top tube, down tube, seat tube, aka: the front triangle)
The rear was steel.

On the team mongoose, and the supergoose, all the tubes were chrome-moly. The teams were either candy red, or candy blue. The supergoose was first nickel (78?) then always chrome.

Not sure what you mean by "street" and "race". Many people raced the regular mongooses.
His best bet is to refer to the museum. Show him some pics of what they look like.

By street or race, I guess I mean low end vs. high end. Something a begginer would buy vs. what a pro would ride.

Ok, this is complicated.

In early BMX history, Mongoose was not low-end.
But as techniques and technology increased, better bikes became available if you had the money to spend. For example, in 1975, I could see a young BMX'er with his choice for any BMX bike, selecting a mongoose. However, in 1979, I would think someone who could walk in a bike shop and have his pic of any bicycle, would have selected something else (ie: Redline Proline, Robinson, Kuwahara, DG, supergoose, team goose).
That's not to say that as the times changed, and technology increased that Mongoose (BMX Products Inc.) stood still, to the contrary, they introduced a team version of the bike (not sure what year.. '77?) and also a supergoose made of superior quality.

But even still, in 1979 a mongoose was not considered a low end bike, and many people raced them.

However, if by "low end" you mean within the mongoose family of bikes, then yes, it was the lowest end model since the heirarchy was as follows:
1. Team Mongoose
2. Supergoose
3. Mongoose

PS: I think. I'm not really sure if the Team was considered better than the super, but I know the mongoose was the bottom.