Chickie's Swinger Butterfly Hunter

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A little back story...

I've been sitting on a couple of girls 70's banana seat bikes for a while...A light purple Schwinn Lil' Chick and a roached out Penny's Swinger in green and white. I had promised Chickie ( Mojo Girl ), my 11 year old daughter that when I got Mom's Firebolt done I'd get to work on a bike for her. Unfortunately, she wanted the Swinger because it had some green on it and some flowers on the fenders, all of which would make it more suitable for hunting butterflies in the hay field.

A little deeper into the back story...we a lucky enough to live on a big property, and our house sits in a 4 acre hay field. I keep a path mowed, 4/10 of a mile, meandering around the field, for her to have her adventures on. We always know where she is, and she gets the feeling of independence kids desire...a tough thing to manage as her brand of autism messes with her executive function and decision making. She rides bike, picks flowers, and hunts butterflies by day and fireflies at night.

So, all that to say...I'm building a butterfly hunting bike! My assignment is to provide a bike mostly green and white, with pink flowers, a basket for the butterfly cage, and a way for her to carry the net without the pole catching in the dirt and jabbing her in the ribs ( an important consideration!), . She also wants a kick stand...a feature this old mountain biker generally avoids.


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Bearings are soaking in cleaner over night. Bars, stem, sissy bar, and crank have been polished. Still need to scrub down the rims, source some tires and decide about the saddle. I have the pan from the original seat. I'd love to do some heavy canvas with the same paint treatment as the fenders and have the seat done with that, but we might start with a new saddle from the Amazon for now.

Thanks for stopping by, Ken

Edit: just to say this is a legit barn find, lowered out of the hay loft on a hemp rope and purchased for $10
 
Nice job! Fade and lace came out pretty swell! One of my favorite things to spray are fades. I usually end up throwing a splatter on top of the fade, but that might be a bit overboard on this one for your lil' one. Very cool sir :thumbsup:
 
How do you keep the lace from moving a spay adhesive or just lays there?
The videos I watched everybody used painters tape. I wanted to do the whole thing in a day and figured my base coats would peel if I stuck a bunch of tape on there. Instead, I used spring clips and made lace "sleeves" to pull over the pieces. It also let me pull the pattern of the lace into the position so the flowers would line up the way I wanted.

This really is a Cub Scout level craft for the result I got....super easy...which is perfect for me as I have all the patience of a 7 year old. The only consideration that might not be obvious is that the top coat needs to go on in one step, not multiple thin coats, or the lace can saturate and bleed through. Other than that, it's just a guy with a rattle can stuff.
 
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Wow the build thread is hopping!

Got the spinny bits all working the way they should. The saddle is covered with duck canvas. Somehow I managed to misplace the L-bracket for the chainguard, so I'll need to replace that. Tires should arrive tomorrow. The chain is going to soak one more day...it may need to be replaced.
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So very cool! What does the Chickie think of it?
She's thrilled...BUT...she's still on me to get the butterfly cage on and provide some way to carry the butterfly net. Not that her mixed reaction is at all unexpected...she is going to turn into a woman one of these days and there's nothing I can do to stop it.
 
She's thrilled...BUT...she's still on me to get the butterfly cage on and provide some way to carry the butterfly net. Not that her mixed reaction is at all unexpected...she is going to turn into a woman one of these days and there's nothing I can do to stop it.
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