Blackened (7-21, update)

[Heavy Pedal]

Cool! RRBBO4. I missed the space build-off. Lotta great bikes in that one!
I'm using what I believe to be a Columbia Sterling, because it says Sterling on the chainguard. I posted this bike a while back in the finds section, and someone said it was a Columbia. Any help with the year of this model would be great.
I'm calling it Black Sunshine after a song by White Zombie, plus I have a few cans of black to use. Don't know if I should go gloss or flat. Anyhoo, thats it. Later.

[karfer67]

that seat is awsome good luck

[blacksheep]

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out. BTW, Black Sunshine is an awesome name for a bike. viewtopic.php?f=21&t=13367&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=black+sunshine

[Heavy Pedal]

Gee... I guess I should have paid more attention to the build sites!

[Rustinkerer]

Yep, it's a mid-late 60s Columbia. I have this one, called the Rat-Ster. Been working on it sporadically for about a year. Hoping I can get a 24x3" tire out back. ~Adam

[blacksheep]

Gee... I guess I should have paid more attention to the build sites!

Don't worry about it. I sure don't refer to it by that name. It's just my '62 Typhoon.

[Heavy Pedal]

Blacksheep, thanks for the feedback, but I'm gonna go with my second choice, Blackened, a song off Metallica's 'And Justice For All' album. When you think about it, there are alot of possibilities for the word black for a name. A few off the top of my head, Blackout, Back in Black, Black Plague....
I checked out your '62 Typhoon build. Very cool! Black and chrome!

[blacksheep]

Thanks for the compliment on my bike, but you really didn't have to change the name. I was just pointing out that it was a good one. Blackened, on the other hand, is also a great song and bike name.

[Heavy Pedal]

So I got the whole bike disassembled. Now I start piece by piece. Decided to come up with a different seat. I had a set of seat pans that go together, but the mounting bracket was shot, so I had this older mounting bracket and thought I could combine the two.

First thing I did was sand 'em down and primer them.

Then I had to come up with a seat cover. I've done white vinyl before, so I found this scrap piece of black leather and thought it would go well with the black theme going on.

Next I needed some padding for the seat pan, so I used a big piece of cotton I found in the trash at work.

Then I cut the cotton and leather to give me enough to tuck under for the second part of the seat pan.

I then put the pan in place and bent the joining tabs down to keep it together.

Bolted the older mounting bracket on and called it done.

I apologize for my cell phone pics. Now, on to the fork. Later.

[Skipton]

Seat looks nice!

[kingplinker]

seat it killer. I have not done a seat like this one, but other seats I recovered, I alway use a heavy duty spray adhesive on all layers, it helps to keep things tight and wrinkle free! Cool build!

[Heavy Pedal]

O.K., as far as the fork goes, I wanted something different than the original. So I found an old BMX fork that fits the frame I'm using and cut 'er down.

Then I took a section of leftover chainlink fence pipe, measured the desired length and cut it in two.

I needed spacers to make the 2 pipe pieces fit better, so I cut off some sections from another scrap fork for the original fork.

After the fit, I drilled 2 holes on each side and bolted the sections together.

Then I measured (guesstamated) at the end of the pipe and drilled a hole, and hacksawed a path down for the front wheel to bolt onto.

Finished fork with angle cuts on the lower fork.

And a shot with first coat of primer.

Now that that's done, on to the handlebars.

I'm seeing alot of cool builds so far! I can't believe the number of bikes in this build! Cooool!

[Heavy Pedal]

Got the frame sanded down and painted it flat black primer, which is the color I'm going with. Looked kinda boring, so I thought I'd add a frame insert for a tank look. I wanted it to fit perfectly in the frame, and doing this before was a pain, so I came up with another idea using powder to make my stencil.




Then I cut out my stencil and traced it to a piece of 3/4" board.


After cutting it out, I painted it with the black primer used on the frame.

Then I jazzed it up by screen printing this design on it.


Still much to do in a summer that's filling up! Later.

[yeshoney]

Thats a great idea you came up with to make a stencil! Have to put that one in the memory bank!
Coming out slick!

Thanks, Joe

[ExtraBlaze]

Very good Idea.How did it work out?