I'm typically a muscle bike guy but after screwing around on here for a while now, I've become infected with the sickness[emoji12] . I mentioned on Facebook a few weeks back that I was looking for a prewar bike for my next project and within a few days, a buddy contacted me about one he knew about that was somewhat local. He sent me this pic and a price and I bought it right then and there
I brought it home January 9th and went to work.
I started breaking the bike down and sanding with some fine steel wool with no expectations of what was underneath the surface rust. I was pleasantly surprised to find a light coat of green but after I got through that, I found the original red.
Luckily, the green didn't put up much of a fight and with lots of elbow grease, I got down to the original patina. The bike had no fork, handlebars, nor stem, just the front wheel and what you see in the above pics so the parts hunt was on. More sanding, we're getting somewhere.
After I was happy with the overall paint, I clear coated the frame, turned out great in my opinion. I had a Hop Up waterslide decal laying around, thought it would be as cool as a headbadge so on it went.
Every race bike needs a number right? A guy on eBay sells round number plates but for $20 for what looks like a paint can lid, figured I can come up with something cheaper and easier to work with. Sure enough, I stopped by Walmart and in the craft section they sold thin, wooden round plates for a dollar, 7" round...perfect. One dollar worth of paint and a bit of stain to "dirty" it up, here was the end result. My buddy is a pinstriper, he cleaned up my edges with a black pinstripe.
Bought my pedals, handlebars, stem, and fork off of here, the rest I found on eBay. The fork was .... near a perfect color match, Yatzee! I shortened the rear fender by about twelve inches, reversed the seat post, flipped the bars and mounted the tires (after giving the wheels a light sanding, then a clear coat over the remaining surface rust.). Here is the end result, hope to get some cool outside pics this week. Still needs some tweaking but I'm beyond happy with how it turned out.
I brought it home January 9th and went to work.
I started breaking the bike down and sanding with some fine steel wool with no expectations of what was underneath the surface rust. I was pleasantly surprised to find a light coat of green but after I got through that, I found the original red.
Luckily, the green didn't put up much of a fight and with lots of elbow grease, I got down to the original patina. The bike had no fork, handlebars, nor stem, just the front wheel and what you see in the above pics so the parts hunt was on. More sanding, we're getting somewhere.
After I was happy with the overall paint, I clear coated the frame, turned out great in my opinion. I had a Hop Up waterslide decal laying around, thought it would be as cool as a headbadge so on it went.
Every race bike needs a number right? A guy on eBay sells round number plates but for $20 for what looks like a paint can lid, figured I can come up with something cheaper and easier to work with. Sure enough, I stopped by Walmart and in the craft section they sold thin, wooden round plates for a dollar, 7" round...perfect. One dollar worth of paint and a bit of stain to "dirty" it up, here was the end result. My buddy is a pinstriper, he cleaned up my edges with a black pinstripe.
Bought my pedals, handlebars, stem, and fork off of here, the rest I found on eBay. The fork was .... near a perfect color match, Yatzee! I shortened the rear fender by about twelve inches, reversed the seat post, flipped the bars and mounted the tires (after giving the wheels a light sanding, then a clear coat over the remaining surface rust.). Here is the end result, hope to get some cool outside pics this week. Still needs some tweaking but I'm beyond happy with how it turned out.
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