Rollfast Refresh

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I recently picked this late 50’s big tire Rollfast bike mainly because I’ve always wanted a green and white bike and because I’ve always wanted a Rollfast. One of the things I’ve always loved about a lot of the old Rollfasts is the crazy tank, guard, and fender graphics. While the majority of most other bike manufacturers were putting pretty similar stripes, blisters, etc on their bikes, Rollfast had some cool looking stuff. I’ve decided since this is not a sought after, valuable bike that I can do pretty much whatever I want to do without hurting it. I’m riding this bike more than others currently because it rides so great, so I’m going to make tweaks and upgrades as I ride it. I located a tank for it, so when it gets here and I’m going to go get the green matched and paint it and I will put an older Rollfast guard on it.

I want to do the graphics on the tank, guard, and fenders to look some of the older 40’s and 50’s Rollfasts. I’m not sure exactly which one I’ll pick, but it will probably be one that I think I can tape up and do a good job! :)

Here is the bike currently:
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Mods/parts:

Modified Snyder built Hawthorne tank. Removed bug eye headlights.
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Added early 50’s era Rollfast Deluxe chainguard:

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Added Truss rods:
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Added repainted bullseye style headbadge:
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Added Rollfast decals:
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Future finished bike:
 
These are the kinds of things I’m taking about on the older Rollfasts. I will probably be adding some old Rollfast water slide decals and an older head badge as well.
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Playing with the tank. I’m not sure if I want to keep the bug eye lights or fill the tank and delete them. I have found a match to the green and plan on doing the chevron style stripe on the tank.
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Now y’all don’t be making fun of my mad iPhone paint editing skills!:) but I’m trying to figure out which tank color I like the best.

I’m leaning towards green, but it does kind of get lost in the frame.
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I pin striped the fenders today. The black around the edges really makes the white pop, and gives an older look.
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I’m thinking I’m going to do the rear of the front fender in white like these bikes have also.
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I sprayed one tank of the tank green to check the color match, and it matches very well. I love the frame shape of these Snyder frames.

I’ve got a few dents to fix in the tank and I’m going to get painted and try to replicate the chevron pattern on the tank.
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Before I strip the tank for final paint, I decided to try my hand at creating the chevron pattern on it. I did the right side first, and it looked good, but maybe a little square and blocky for the shape of the tank. I went with 45 degree angles on the “V”’s on it. I tried again on the left and slimmed it up and curved it more to match the lines of the tank. I did the “V”‘s at 30 degrees this time.
I like it better. If I change anything I might widen it at the beginning just a little to make it an equal amount of white above and below when the Delta Rocket tank lights go - IF I keep them.

Here was my first go:
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And this was my second try:
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So I put the bugeye lights in, and I’m stumped on whether I want to keep them or not.
Help me decide!! o_O :)

I will definitely have to tweak the chevron stripe a little if stay with them. I would probably start the stripe right after the Delta light instead of wrapping around the front of it.

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I like the second more curved chevrons. Don't care for "bug eye" tank lights tho.

I am really conflicted on them. They have a cool/oddball factor and I like them, but they really don’t go with the look of what I want this bike to look like.
 
This bike was smited with one of the ugliest chain guards ever, so I found a proper 50’s era Rollfast guard. I also repainted the head badge for that little pop of red in there
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You ever do something you like, but the more you look at it, the less you like it?

That’s what happened with my rear fender paint. I saw something similar on another Rollfast bike, but the majority of them had the little devil’s tail points on the fenders. I wanted to do the white on the rear of the front fender, and I went with the devil’s tail design. It looked so good that I redid the rear fender to match and added a Rollfast decal on the bottom of the fender where they used to put them. I like the look of it much better.
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