My First no training wheels bike is now in my garage!! Needs restoration!

[Sweetchi]

Hey everyone,
I finally located my first childhood bike, and now it need some restoration help from those who can....as you can see (Tex), is in some need of major work. I will do as much legs work as I have to, to bring this bike back to its glory when I first got it in '75.

If anyone may have parts for Tex or know of chromers, seat restorers, frame repairers that would be of great help.
here are some pics, and thanks for having this site here, I am an old school BMX collector but I did not know zip until now upon reading a lot of the rat rod/ muscle bike history.

Thanks
Matt

 

[Chad T]

Cool looking bike!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

If you have never removed a cottered crankset, do some research first on how to remove the bolts. They can be very stubborn. Here's a link to Sheldon Browns tips on the subject. There's other info out on the web also.
Another good idea is to soak all of the fasteners with PB Blaster for a day or more before you start removing anything.
Good luck!

 

[Jaxon]

Oh Deere you have some work ahead of you...lol It can all be fixed though. The seat will be the hardest part to find. Keep a eye on Ebay for one. They pop up from time to time. They used the pie tin type of chain guard on some of them. I have seen a John Deere dealer pay over 700 dollars for one of these bikes. Cool Score!!

 

[Sweetchi]

Thanks for the comments, and helping ideas on the removal of parts.

I am soaking fasteners tonight and tomorrow night i will be wrenching with a pot of coffee at my ready!!!

 

[KJV]

Take your time , &...
Enjoy: The Journey.

 

[B607]

Tell us the story on how you found your childhood bike. I wouldn't even know where to start looking for mine. Gary

 

[Sweetchi]

It was by chance Gary, i have been following an ebay search or a couple years, i did not want to purchase a new old stock one or a mint one cause that would have set me back a several hundred bucks. Then this one came up with a big tag on it still, with local pick up on it which was 4 hours away. I had been negotiating the price with the seller for a couple months then finally came to an agreement. So a fellow bmx collector and myself hopped in my truck a took a Saturday and an ... ton of back roads and headed to rural Iowa, and kapow!! He had several Schwinn Stingrays as well, but all girls, so i passed on those and kept my eyes on the prize.
Here we are today, with alot of work to do, but in my opinion, ALL WORTH IT! Maybe it will be my grandsons firs big boy bike as well. (or he can just look at it) and he can have one of my old bmx bikes. Lol

Not much of a story, but its my Unicorn and i own it!

Matt