19(4,5,6)0's Huffy, First Build

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ibr

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So I mow lawns on the weekend and a guy was tossing an old huffy cruiser. The thing was a bit rusty, but still ride-able and no serious damage to anything that I could see. Basically I'd like to spend a bit of my time learning bike by tearing it down, cleaning it (and replacing what needs replacing if its cheap enough), painting it, and then enjoying it around town just for fun.

8/8/2012 UPDATE: So I thought today would be the day I'd get the rims finished completely....but a wrench got thrown in my spoke when I found ungodly amounts of rust underneath the tires and tubes. They are 26" by 1.25" and I'd like to go bigger than that if they'd fit. Also decided I'm going to custom fabricate a truss fork. Should be fun.

8/7/2012 UPDATE: So I spent last night cleaning the last of the green paint of of every smaller piece, and all day today I used chemical paint stripper to remove the 3 coats prior. I also got rid of the rust that was left on the frame, handlebars. My uncle helped me brass weld the press fitted dropouts so those should last way longer now. I may grind them down tomorrow but I'm not sure. They are pretty clean as-is. Tomorrow I have to finish the rims and I've decided to just clear coat the body. The oldstyle brass welds were just too cool to cover up.

8/2/2012 UPDATE: Cleaned up original post, consolidated images to the first post. Called my Uncle who owns a body shop, he's going to help me strip the paint and get some automotive paint stripper for me. He's pretty busy so I'm not sure when I'll get over there to do it, but will take pics.


Disassembly

dYuBy.jpg


Thing looks rough guys. real rough. Not as bad as some other builds I've seen on here though.

nj5i6.jpg


The fork wouldn't come off, finally got it off with some heat.

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I think it was originally red. Or black. Or green?

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I've got some wheels, though not sure if they were original.

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Crank finally came off ((took me FOREVER to figure out the left side was righty-loosy)

ME0VP.jpg


Cleaning Her Up

Everything cleaned up pretty nicely with some degreaser and a plastic brush. Obviously there's still lots of rust, but I'm going to get all the paint off before I worry too much about that.
7FXLQ.jpg

GumoQ.jpg

2CIxa.jpg

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uYAYl.jpg

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I recommend this PVC gloves because the wires brushes don't catch or pull on them.

Stripping Her Down


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Safety first kids (pvc gloves, eye protection, etc)
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No joke, 5 applications of aircraft paint stripper. Insane amount of work. I guess the chemical composition of the oldest layer of paint just wasn't the same as new stuff because the first two layers came of in one coat of stripper + paper towels. PAPER TOWELS.
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Wire brush is what it came down to, and there was still a couple places missing.
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Dull, and IMHO ugly.
LnoyL.jpg

Polished it up with some super fine sandpaper. Got it shining. I'll do a bit more polishing tomorrow then clearcoat it. Rims are probably gonna get done as well. I'll have time to primer the rims, but probably not paint them (we'll see)

ffzgH.jpg


Clear Coated
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Had my uncle use some brass welds on the rear dropouts. Matches the others and should make it stronger. Serial number 5H339307
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Cool patina

2omlp.jpg

Really shines in the sun
 
Re: Newb Build, Old Crappy Huffy

aka_locojoe said:
Welcome and that's no "crappy" bike. Probably older than you think. Awesome find. Good luck.


A "bike person" friend of mine called it a piece of junk and said Huffy's would "never be collectible"

::rolls eyes::

Anyways thanks for the welcome! Just got the one piece crank off (took me FOREVER to figure out the left side was righty-loosy). Now I'm working on the fork...still can't figure out how to get it off though!

The crank bearings are looking a little dry and dirty, but hopefully with some cleaning they'll be fine to put back in.

xBjaN.jpg


This screw connects the fork to the head right? Well Unfortunately it was just attached with paint. No idea why yet. Hope it was just installed wrong last time someone took it apart (by the looks of it a LONGGG time ago. So far I've seen three layers of paint....Green, Red, and Black.

Any advice on how to get this fork apart would be GREATLY appreciated.
 
Re: Newb Build, Old Crappy Huffy

ibr said:
aka_locojoe said:
Welcome and that's no "crappy" bike. Probably older than you think. Awesome find. Good luck.


A "bike person" friend of mine called it a piece of junk and said Huffy's would "never be collectible"

::rolls eyes::

Anyways thanks for the welcome! Just got the one piece crank off (took me FOREVER to figure out the left side was righty-loosy). Now I'm working on the fork...still can't figure out how to get it off though!

Hit it with some heat AKA torch!! Nice find by the way. 8) 8)
 
Re: Newb Build, Old (not so crappy) Huffy

The wedge from the stem is probably frozen/rusted into the steerer tube of the fork. You can use something like PB Blaster to loosen it up. Then put the headset all back together, sorry :lol: The screw should engage threads in the wedge, turn it in until you only have about 1/8 - 1/4" of the bolt exposed and give it a sharp rap with a hammer. You can protect the bolt head with a block of wood if you care. Here's a diagram, it's the 9th or 10th page down. Good luck and yeah, nice find. I used to be a bike snob, but now I'm all rat, all the time!!
 
Re: Newb Build, Old Crappy Huffy

Bigdaddy772 said:
Hit it with some heat AKA torch!! Nice find by the way. 8) 8)

Worked like a charm and came right off ....unfortunately to reveal that a bunch of bearings for the fork are missing. How impossible would it be to source a replacement?

nGp8C.jpg


Bummer.

The second issue is the wedge (I believe it's called) that keeps the seat in has rusted and broken. The long rod that secures the seat tube to the inner seat tube (again, improper name I'm sure) is also bent on the end. I'm doubting this is intentional lol....


Anyways, for such an old bike the problem list could be worse. This thing is built like a tank!
 
Re: Newb Build, Old (not so crappy) Huffy

Nice save, definitely not junk. The frame is Huffman (Which turned into Huffy) Serial number should be on the bottom bracket (Where you took the crank out of) It can be decoded if you post it. Should be a number followed by an H. I'm guessing late 40's. The sprocket is a coaster/3 speed Schwinn mag sprocket.
 
Re: Newb Build, Old (not so crappy) Huffy

You can buy the bb's for those bearing cages they look fine just clean them up put the new bb's in regrease an whala
 
Re: Newb Build, Old (not so crappy) Huffy

NIce find, would love to have it.
 
Re: Newb Build, Old (not so crappy) Huffy

ratina said:
Nice save, definitely not junk. The frame is Huffman (Which turned into Huffy) Serial number should be on the bottom bracket (Where you took the crank out of) It can be decoded if you post it. Should be a number followed by an H. I'm guessing late 40's. The sprocket is a coaster/3 speed Schwinn mag sprocket.
Is it on top or on the bottom of the bottom bracket?

EDIT: ANd I'm thinking it's a 60's huffy based on the logo thats on the front of the bike. Its a vertical HUFFY print
 
Re: Newb Build, Old (not so crappy) Huffy

big kountry said:
You can buy the bb's for those bearing cages they look fine just clean them up put the new bb's in regrease an whala
The bearing cage is only okay on half of the ring, on the other half the cage has rusted away.
 
Re: Newb Build, Old (not so crappy) Huffy

So after soaking the parts all night in WD40 I thouoght it would be time to get to work cleaning up some rust...but then I realized that every time I touched anything my hands were getting messy and it was slowing down my ability to grab tools and the what not. Being that I've never done this before it hadn't occurred to me that first real step I should take is to remove the old dirt and grease.

So here's my gameplan:

This week:
Step 1. Clean all the old dirt and grease off so I can see what all these parts look like completely dry.
Step 2. Remove all the rust that I can.

Next weekend:
Step 3. Remove all the old paint.

Next Week:
Step 4. Repaint or clear-coat silver, haven't decided yet.
Step 5. Regrease the old parts/acquire the new parts that I need

The rest of the summer:
Step 6. Enjoy
 
Re: Newb Build, Old (not so crappy) Huffy

Got around to cleaning it today with degreaser and a plastic brush. Next stop is rust removal (where possible). I think I need to get to Home Depot and get some metal brush attachments for my cordless drill if I'm going to get ride of the rust in any decent amount of time.

GumoQ.jpg


Looks pretty good

2CIxa.jpg


still some tarnish and rust, but I'll get to that sometime this week.
 
Re: Newb Build, Old (not so crappy) Huffy

ibr said:
ratina said:
Nice save, definitely not junk. The frame is Huffman (Which turned into Huffy) Serial number should be on the bottom bracket (Where you took the crank out of) It can be decoded if you post it. Should be a number followed by an H. I'm guessing late 40's. The sprocket is a coaster/3 speed Schwinn mag sprocket.
Is it on top or on the bottom of the bottom bracket?

EDIT: ANd I'm thinking it's a 60's huffy based on the logo thats on the front of the bike. Its a vertical HUFFY print

Just flip the bike upside and you'll see it. It could be buried under the paint since its been repainted.
 
Re: Newb Build, Old (not so crappy) Huffy

I'll let you know when I get the paint stripped Ratina, I'm planning on doing that tomorrow and I'll try and find the serial number.
 
Re: Newb Build, Old (not so crappy) Huffy

not 60s probably early to mid 50s? cool bike...far from junk..whoever told you that has no idea what they are saying...any bike is a good bike...and that happens to be a cool bike.
 
Re: Newb Build, Old (not so crappy) Huffy

id say its for sure not junk ....did they have axle adjuster screws up into thr 50s? im sure u will make it look good again whatever u decide 2 do to it !!
 
Re: Newb Build, Old (not so crappy) Huffy

mikesbikes36 said:
id say its for sure not junk ....did they have axle adjuster screws up into thr 50s? im sure u will make it look good again whatever u decide 2 do to it !!
Could you explain what the purpose of the axle adjuster screws are? Was it to make up for inconsistencies in the axle of the wheel or what?
 
Re: Newb Build, Old (not so crappy) Huffy

theres these nits and bolts that push the rear wheel and axle backward to tension the chain and make sure the wheel is sitting straight. yours is missing the bolts. they go in the drop outs where the holes are cut
horizontal-drop.jpg

similar to that
 
Re: Newb Build, Old (not so crappy) Huffy

Ohh, so they're for tighting the chain. I actually have the bolts, just soaking in some WD40 right now. Lots of rust on em'
 

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