Here is the late 40's Schwinn DX I picked up off of Craigslist for $100 about a month ago. For the price, I knew I had to make the 1-1/2 hr drive to pick it up.
It had been "cleaned up" by the owner, which basically meant a cheap black paint job over everything: frame, wheels, hubs, spokes, etc. When I got home and flipped the bike over I scuffed the back fender and saw blue underneath. The paint job was so cheap I could scrap it off with my thumbnail. The chain was in bad shape and stretched out pretty badly making it not sit on the skip-tooth crank cleanly which caused a lot of grinding and binding. After stripping the fenders, adding a more comfortable seat (the other was cool but too small...a child's seat), "schwinn approved" grips, a chain guard and used skiptooth chain off ebay it looked like this:
Of course now I was wondering if the frame had any original paint left as well and I had to do something about the front fork which was not original and not quite long enough. Turns out the bike was originally red but the original paint was gone, just some remnants left with a lot of gray primer or paint on top. After some treatment with a 4-1/2" angle grinder I got it down to the bare metal which looked way better.
The wheels were not original s2's either and were bent and egg shaped with the spokes being rusted, missing and bent. The tires are really cool though...not matching but from the late 40's as well: Cornell Clipper on the front and a Belnord Super Service on the back. I ordered some "80's reproduction S2's and stainless steel spokes" off ebay to use with the original New Departure hubs. I took apart the hubs, stripping paint, cleaning and lubing them back up and also added some more parts: a 50's original springer fork, and 9 hole rear rack (still trying to get a better spring seat off the bay). Here's what it looks like now. I was able to clean off more gray primer from the fenders using acetone but had to be careful not to wipe the white paint away.
Let me know what you guys think. I'm on the fence about "restoring" it with new paint....I tend to like the used and original paint look myself but obviously the paint colors on my parts don't all match.
It had been "cleaned up" by the owner, which basically meant a cheap black paint job over everything: frame, wheels, hubs, spokes, etc. When I got home and flipped the bike over I scuffed the back fender and saw blue underneath. The paint job was so cheap I could scrap it off with my thumbnail. The chain was in bad shape and stretched out pretty badly making it not sit on the skip-tooth crank cleanly which caused a lot of grinding and binding. After stripping the fenders, adding a more comfortable seat (the other was cool but too small...a child's seat), "schwinn approved" grips, a chain guard and used skiptooth chain off ebay it looked like this:
Of course now I was wondering if the frame had any original paint left as well and I had to do something about the front fork which was not original and not quite long enough. Turns out the bike was originally red but the original paint was gone, just some remnants left with a lot of gray primer or paint on top. After some treatment with a 4-1/2" angle grinder I got it down to the bare metal which looked way better.
The wheels were not original s2's either and were bent and egg shaped with the spokes being rusted, missing and bent. The tires are really cool though...not matching but from the late 40's as well: Cornell Clipper on the front and a Belnord Super Service on the back. I ordered some "80's reproduction S2's and stainless steel spokes" off ebay to use with the original New Departure hubs. I took apart the hubs, stripping paint, cleaning and lubing them back up and also added some more parts: a 50's original springer fork, and 9 hole rear rack (still trying to get a better spring seat off the bay). Here's what it looks like now. I was able to clean off more gray primer from the fenders using acetone but had to be careful not to wipe the white paint away.
Let me know what you guys think. I'm on the fence about "restoring" it with new paint....I tend to like the used and original paint look myself but obviously the paint colors on my parts don't all match.
