My wifes 67' Jet Fire build.

[sdJOE86]

Hey what's up yall. I bought this bike about a week ago, originally I was just going to clean and polish this up for my wife but, once i had it cleaned up, she decided that she wanted it redone instead. So, for as cheap as possible(haha) I started to tear into to it. I was very surprised at how everything came off so easy, no stuck bolts or rusted fastners to deal with. here are some pics of when it came home. It was pretty solid except for the broken headlight bezel and missing lense.

The day we got it home.

 

[sdJOE86]

So after I had everything broken down, I realized that the bearings and cups were all in great condition. I throught all the cubs and head hardware, along with anything else that was dull or had some sort of rust, into a bucket of Rustgone. I then moved on to tackle the chrome.I cleaned and polished the handle bars, sprocket fenders and I am still trying to get the wheels done. The bars and sprocket turned out great, I was pretty surprised by how they came out.

I amnot sure if I want to reuse these wheels. If they are originals theni will re build them but if not i can just buy some new ones for a pretty fair price. here is a pic of them somewhat polished up. Is there anything special about the brand?

 

[sdJOE86]

Moving on, Like i mentioned before, My headlight was cracked. I went to Oreilly's and scored some plastic super glue and some spot pudy. After washing and drying the bezel i glued the pieces together. I t did not come out perfect but, It will do until i can find one that is in descent shape along with a lense. I used some model car chrome paint to make it look a little better.

Not great looking, but still an improvment from what is was.

there was some wholes from some pices of the bezel that had broken off on the lower left hand opening, this was as smooth as i could get it.

 

[sdJOE86]

When the wife decided that she wanted to reshoot some paint, I knew i would need some fresh decals. After seeing what another board member had done on here, I got some insperation and went to a little sticker store about 10 minutes away from my house to see if i could get some decals made. The gentleman i spoke with was not too sure if he could pull off copying them so he told me to give him a few days. I left my rack, tank and chain guard with him. That was last Wed. On Sun i got a call from him telling me to go down and see if i liked what he had come up with. I was very pleased with the results. the Chain guard decal is a bit off but its nothing an exacto knife cant take care of.
Before-

One of the tank stickers is not shown, After-

 

[FOUND OBJECTS]

looking good! Rims look original and in good shape...a little steel wool and mothers polish goes a long way.

 

[sdJOE86]

After thinking it over, the wife decided that she did not want to repaint the bike the original teal'ish looking color. She wanted it a " blue with shiny spots in the paint" color. I have had great results in the past using Dupli-colrs metal Flake line before on small car parts. So, after showing her their metallic blue, we were set on what color she wanted. I sprayed the frame down with some Mar-hyde tal strip and tossed back a cold one while i waited for the stripping to do it self.... I love this stuff. After i hosed down the frame i took a wire brush on my drill to the few rust spots, scuffed the metal and cleaned it with degeaser. after it was nice and dry i shot it with some dupli-color filler primer followed by some regular sandable primer. After a day we followed it with some silver metal flake for a base coat. after that dried for a day I sprayedthe Blue metal flake on.

Here is a pic of it the next day after getting some color, getting some sun

 

[sdJOE86]

looking good! Rims look original and in good shape...a little steel wool and mothers polish goes a long way.

Thanks man, tell me about it. I am still polishing them, The wheels have a wobble, can this be due to old spokes or, to a bent wheel? the wheels dont look bad to me.

 

[sdJOE86]

It has been a couple of days since i had shot the color on to the frame. Today i shot some really light coats of clear and got started on my chain guard and rack. I know this sounds ridiculous but i sprayed about 12 coats of clear on to the frame and fork. i sprayed a light coat about every three minutes. I also sprayed my other parts with my favorite tool, Tal Stip! here are some pics of the frame a few hours after it dried. I am going to shoot a few more coats tomorrow, and finally get started on the other parts.

some Tal strip at work!

 

[FOUND OBJECTS]

looking good! Rims look original and in good shape...a little steel wool and mothers polish goes a long way.

Thanks man, tell me about it. I am still polishing them, The wheels have a wobble, can this be due to old spoked or to a bent wheel? the wheels dont look bad to me.

Take them down to your LBS and have them trued...Like you said, it's probably bad spokes.
Dig the work you did on the tank lens too...Keep it up man!

 

[FOUND OBJECTS]

Paint looks great!

 

[sdJOE86]

Paint looks great!

Right on! thanks man..

 

[carvingbike]

The paint and stickers look great!! I really like that blue!!

 

[user 135]

Wow, you are going all out. This will look sharp.

 

[Fireproof]

BIG improvement on the headlight housing! Nice job on the paint also!
Lookin' forward to what you do next . . . it'll be a sharp one when yer finished!
(tip . . .get some WD-40 or PB Blaster on the spoke nipples now so they will, hopefully, be free when you go to true the wheels)

 

[sdJOE86]

BIG improvement on the headlight housing! Nice job on the paint also!
Lookin' forward to what you do next . . . it'll be a sharp one when yer finished!
(tip . . .get some WD-40 or PB Blaster on the spoke nipples now so they will, hopefully, be free when you go to true the wheels)

Thanks man, when i went to loosen the spokes i bent one! haha... I have been spraying them every morning with some liquid wrench.

 

[ratina]

Those rims are original. I would rebuild them. Komet hubs are nice too. New rims have crappy rear hubs anyways

 

[yoder327]

Beautiful bike! I love that blue!! We have lucky wives!! :wink:

I don't think the twelve + coats of clear coat is excessive. Rattle can "coats" are usually very thin so it's not the same as a real coat. 12 rattle can coats = 3-4 coats with a sprayer.

Lookin good my friend!!

 

[Fireproof]

. . . when i went to loosen the spokes i bent one! haha... I have been spraying them every morning with some liquid wrench.

You’ll need plenty of patience, but you might be able to save those spokes. I have a Roadmaster of about the same vintage as yours, and I ended up having to replace two spokes that I broke trying to free them. Fortunately I had a couple of old spokes that matched.
Worse case scenario . . . you’ll need to buy new spokes and nipples. After seeing what you’ve done so far, I bet that you’ll certainly be able to take care of lacing new spokes into those wheels. Check out this thread viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2887&p=27578#p30168 and scroll down to “Hugo’s Lacing Tutorial” 18 step plan to lacing excellence. You can do it! :wink:

 

[sdJOE86]

So I finally got around to wrapping things up on my wifes Jet Fire. My total investment was not too much prolly around 200. of the 120 bucks i spent after the purchase, the paint took up nearly half of it. I am really satisfied with the outcome. it rides increadable after cleaning and greasing all the bearings and truing my wheels, I was able to reuse my spokes! I still need a headlamp lense but have had no luck finding one. So, I will just stay on the lookout. The only parts i replaced were the seat, grips chain, and obviously the stickers. I was able to reuse every bolt and washer. Well, Here are the pics. They really dont do the paint ANY JUSTICE. enjoy and stay tuned for more. I have a new bike that I am really excited about!

Here is a sneak peak at my next build, I can't wait to get started!

 

[FOUND OBJECTS]

Your wife should be proud of that ride!!!!! Came out great!