Jayne - 1954 Schwinn Hornet

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This is going to be a slow build, but I got the itch to work on something, and started in.

This is a 1954 Schwinn Hornet that I picked up along with Skirt Chaser a few years back. The bike is 100% original, with the tank, fenders, rack, light, chain guard, etc. The chain guard and pedal are in a box, but I have them.

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The sheet metal on the fenders and rack is in remarkably good shape - usually these are rusted and mangled.

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The big problem with this bike is the paint on the frame. The black gunk on the frame simply will not come off. Not sure what it is, but anything that may strip it will certainly strip the paint off, which means the whole thing needs to be painted.

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I tore apart the front end, and the first thing I looked at was the light. I'm going to try naval jelly and a wire brush to try and clean it up. If that fails, I may have to fabricate a couple parts. I *may* retrofit this with an LED, but we'll see...
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On a positive note, the lens was in good shape. I'll be able to reuse this, for sure.

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Since she has to be repainted, I sat down with the wife and looked at some of the authentic Schwinn colors, and decided that Holiday Rose and white looked good, but a bit conservative. A brighter pink will give her a bit more pop.

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That led me to look at other colors from the era - and I found this - a Tropical Rose and Snowshoe White 1955 Fairlane. Close enough to the original color for the period, and a bit more striking contrast.

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About the name... When I thought about naming her, I thought pink, girly and 1950's, and, well, she practically named herself. Jayne, after Jayne Mansfield.

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Stripped and primed some bits last weekend, need to take some pics of that. In the mean time, I placed an order this morning with 66autocolor.com for the paint. I can't say enough about these guys. This is what I ordered:

Items Ordered:







Amazingly, I placed the order at 6:49AM pacific, and received word that they shipped it at 10:43AM. Looks like I will be doing some painting this weekend!
 
I have the same girls bike you started with. Mine has everything. sometimes mine looks blue and sometimes a little purple. But it is in a little better condition. There is no way in the world, I would consider stripping it and painting it. I love it the way it is.
But I will say that you do some great work. I look forward to seeing your finished product. I just leave them as original as I can. I mess with repainting destroyed bikes or newer ones.
Thanks for the post.
 
Believe me, I went back and forth on this for a couple years before taking the stripper to it. But here's the thing. Whatever got all over it ruined the patina, and ruined the charm of that bike. There is a reason it hadn't been ridden in decades - it wasn't cute. My mission here is to make it something that will be ridden and enjoyed for years to come. No, it will not be a concourse restoration, and no, it will not use the original colors, but it will be an eye catching bike, and people will notice it. Hopefully the people that see it will remember that we used to make some pretty killer bikes back in the day...

Enough of that...

The light was in decent shape - aside from the internals. Pretty happy with the light restoration. Stripped to bare metal, primed with etching primer, then epoxy primer.

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I needed to add bondo to the front to get the dents out. I could probably do a little more to make it a bit more round, but this is not a "concourse" restoration, so I'm declaring this "good enough"...

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The paint arrived Friday, so in between working on my other build and visiting with friends at Altamont Beer Works (my local brewery), I got a couple coats on the light.

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Tropical Rose and Snowshoe White from the 1955 Ford Fairlane. I need to repaint the top part - it has some scratches on the primer that I'm not wild about...

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This thing was a pile of rust when I started. There is more work to do, but at least I won't have to make any parts for it. It still may end up with an LED mod - but not one that would permanently affect the light.

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Stripped and primed some bits last weekend, need to take some pics of that. In the mean time, I placed an order this morning with 66autocolor.com for the paint. I can't say enough about these guys. This is what I ordered:

Items Ordered:







Amazingly, I placed the order at 6:49AM pacific, and received word that they shipped it at 10:43AM. Looks like I will be doing some painting this weekend!
I want to try my hand at spray painting a simple bike frame. A true beach cruiser that needs some paint. I tried some "automotive paint" once with unsatisfactory results. Looked OK, but was very easy to scratch. I was using a paint from Auto Zone. Obviously not in the same league as this paint. Do you a) use their primer after sanding, b) apply the color, then c) finish with a coat of clear? Will that give me a reasonably tough finish, using this brand?
 
IMO, the key to a good, durable paint job is a quality clear coat and a good primer. The epoxy is nasty, and expensive, but it holds paint and it holds the surface. I will sometimes use an etching primer first, but If I have the time, I will try to lay down epoxy. Then I paint with automotive grade base coats because it really goes on well. I've tried Rustoleum (hate it) and Krylon (tolerable), but the automotive stuff that I have been getting is the best. Mind you, it's terrible without a clear coat, but it goes on really well.

The 2K High Gloss clear that I have been using recently is simply gorgeous. I put it on Skirt Chaser, and it was, by far, the best finished bike I have ever painted. Tough, and beautiful. I'll be using it on this build as well. I'm going to try the 2K satin clear on Bones Bomber - should have an idea of how well that works in a couple days.

Back to your original question, though, I always, sand, prime, scuff, prime, scuff, base, base, base, wet base, clear, clear, wet clear.
 
Your light turned out nice, I did one for my daughters bike. It was in bad shape also, I used J-B Weld to fill the holes & dents, after sand blasting. I found some 3 volts LED screw in bulbs, I'm using on her Delta light!
 
IMO, the key to a good, durable paint job is a quality clear coat and a good primer. The epoxy is nasty, and expensive, but it holds paint and it holds the surface. I will sometimes use an etching primer first, but If I have the time, I will try to lay down epoxy. Then I paint with automotive grade base coats because it really goes on well. I've tried Rustoleum (hate it) and Krylon (tolerable), but the automotive stuff that I have been getting is the best. Mind you, it's terrible without a clear coat, but it goes on really well.

The 2K High Gloss clear that I have been using recently is simply gorgeous. I put it on Skirt Chaser, and it was, by far, the best finished bike I have ever painted. Tough, and beautiful. I'll be using it on this build as well. I'm going to try the 2K satin clear on Bones Bomber - should have an idea of how well that works in a couple days.

Back to your original question, though, I always, sand, prime, scuff, prime, scuff, base, base, base, wet base, clear, clear, wet clear.
Thank you very much for the good information.
 
I always wonder how they were able to Paint everything years ago without clear. Like when this bike was created, It had a nice paint job but no clear.
I wonder if the paints were better due to the additives which are now banned? E.G. Lead?

All I know is old paints seem very hard to remove whereas new stuff... o_O

Luke.
 
I don't know. But after I apply clear on some of my spray can paint jobs. I can lay down a pretty good spray can paint job, But they look so much closer to perfect with clear on them.
 

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