1941 ladies Western Flyer "patina'd" resto

[kentercanyon]

Making this for a friend and neighbor out of "seconds" I have laying around. The original bike was found by me over a decade ago at an estate sale, and supposedly belonged to a schoolteacher who used it during WW2 gas rationing days to commute to her job in Austin, Tejas. The killer bits were her '42 license plate, the peaked fenders and the mighty Morrow Coaster, all of which went on to other projects or trade, but when she was almost stripped bare I began to appreciate the rough beauty of the patina and her lines, and decided she should ride again, if in maybe slightly less style than back in the day.



Here is a rough assemblage of the parts I grabbed to see if I had enough to complete her with what I had lying around. This is already changing up a bit...



My concept for the project is to try my hand at a build that goes without any new paint, and doesn't cost me much if any cash to complete. Most of what I spent was at Vato-Zone getting some WD-40 and steel wool and some clear coat stuff. Also, I'm trying some de-rust techniques including using a four day vinegar soak. More on how that worked out soon - it works well!

 

[kentercanyon]

Here is a "before" shot of the paint job near the headset showing the rust peeking thru the white. The frame was washed with soap and water, then sprayed with WD-40 and lightly scrubbed with 0000 steel wool. It did a good job in revealing what was left... and darkening the bare spots. Next will be a cleaning of some sort followed by a synthetic clear coat with a product called TR3 Resin Glaze that came recommended by RRB'er FloridaGlaze. Since this isn't going to be my bike when I'm done and I'm using "seconds" as parts I've been willing to try anything and everything I'm reading about on this site. If it doesn't work out I'm not going to cry about it, but so far I like what I've managed to do.

The brass brazing at all the joints is peeking out and I kinda want to "go with it." The trick I'm learning here however is that without painting the frame, I am kinda locked into the concept of not painting anything else either, like the chain guard or the seat guts or the (rugged looking at present) bars, etc and instead only relying on the TR3 resin. It's a learning experience.

 

[kentercanyon]

Here is the same area after WD-40 and 0000 steel wool, coated three times with TR3 Resin Glaze.

 

[HxCforever]

I like the direction. Cleaning up nice.

 

[kentercanyon]

Here are some of the parts (and a few extra) getting the white vinegar four day soak treatment to remove rust.

 

[panelman]

Check that vinegar bath often, I had a sprocket in that during the build off and the chrome started peeling up. After that I check mine once a day now.

 

[DJ Bill]

Seems like Vice grips and adjustable wrenches always make their way into my acid dips too.. I use The Works toilet bowl cleaner from the dollar store, but it is a bit aggressive for a patina bike restoration. Anything over rust is gone. .

Nice results you got on the frame!

 

[kentercanyon]

Here are the pedals after a soak - one has been wiped off with steel wool and the other is how it came out of the soak. The method works well on cheaper metal like thism but as you can see it flash rusts quickly and needs to be dealt with right away.

 

[kentercanyon]

Here are some more shots of vinegar-soaked parts. Some of these were quite rusty. This is sort of an extreme test here. In the past I would have written off a lot of these parts but for this bike they are going to work.

The bars were pretty ugly and they still are a mess, just not an ugly mess. The chain guard on the other hand was completely transformed. Like I said the cheaper plain steel cleaned up the best, like the pedals did.



Here is a close shot of the chain guard and a bit of the bars "before."



Here is a close shot of the worst sprocket and the bars "after." Not sure if I will use them or not. But the vinegar did remove the rust and didn't attack the plating on these parts after two days of soaking. Four days did start to seriously attack the plating on some stems I threw in the tub, but again they were in very bad shape to begin with.



The fact that i considered these parts 100% unusable before and now I'm contemplating putting them on a bike... I'd say is a big endorsement for the vinegar treatment.

 

[noodlenoggin]

Good lookin' stuff there. I love the vinegar soak -- I've used it on my wife's Firestone, and my son's chopper and it's great.

 

[kentercanyon]

Here is a mock-up showing some progress.... I lubed and installed the cranks and headset, mounted the original neck and original bars and decided to see what some middleweight rims and new brick tires would look like.



It looks kinda naked without fenders. And a little anemic with the skinnier tires. I had planned on setting up some ballooner whitewalls but am having trouble sorting out the wheel situation. These painted rim wheels are "patina'd" quite a bit and in theory match the paint job but I'm just not sure... nicer looking wheels would help feature the pantina'd frame as a deliberate component. This way it just looks all over old and crappy, maybe... haven't made up my mind.

 

[Big Goose]

nice

 

[kentercanyon]

nice

I still want some big white walls- cleaned up rims of some sort and maybe even painted or patina'd fenders. To me it looks kinda naked still.

The only fenders I have however are VERY rusty. Not sure what they would look like after a vinegar dip. i may try WD-40 and 0000 steel wool first on a fender and see what it looks like.

 

[The Black Monark]

Coming along, but would definitely benefit from some sheet metal IMO.
Are the wheels regular 26" or the Schwinn MW 26 x 1 3/4"?
fwiw: liked the look of the frame better before brightening up the darts/paint.

 

[kentercanyon]

I usually don't care for girls bikes, but I must say you have inspired me to do something with my 30s Hawthorn. It looks bad the way it is. I really like it. I would put on the white walls and leave it fender-less, at least until I found some cool ones. It looks really good without them. I dipped a real rusty fender for about 3 weeks and it came out with pin, bb sized and bigger holes under the area where the brackets were mounted. I would leave the wheels if they are true. If the spokes don't free up I would eventually replace them and try to preserve the rust look on the wheels, but thats just me. By the way, I tried your vinegar dip on my junk pile build frame and it came out nice, and faster than molasses. Bare metal with paint remaining. Now I am having trouble deciding what to do next. I might try gun metal hot browning the bare metal that shows on the fame and fork, but can't decide. I should be easy to get the frame to 200 degrees as I would just put it on my wood stove. I have blued two guns in the past and might give the hot brown a go, it might match the patina and help preserve metal. I would use Penetrol instead of bees wax (usual vintage browning stuff) and then some kind of sealer, but? I want to see your finished bike.

Gunmetal browning sounds cool. The 4-day vinegar dip finished off what small bit of chrome was on the cranks -I let it soak too long on purpose here to see what "too far" was... and now they are bare metal. I was thinking I might have to rattle can paint them with "hammered" paint but I wasn't looking forward to that. Tell us more about the browning when you do it, and make a "how-to" thread maybe... (hint hint.)

I have bees, so maybe I will use their wax for that truly homegrown DIY aesthetic.

Stay tuned for some variations. The point of this build is to experiment, so I'm gonna try whatever.

As for the "keep it crusty to the max" look, I have worse bikes to try that one with. If these fenders don't work out I'll pair them with that frame.

 

[kentercanyon]

Here are the fenders with a before and after halfway stage photo. The dry one is before, and the darker one got soap and water bath, then WD-40 and 0000 steel wool. Then I cleaned it off with carb cleaner to hopefully get any oil residue off. I wiped it down and then applied a coat of the TR3 resin stuff.

It's a "look" but I'm not sure it works. These fenders were not original to the bike and are in worse shape. The whole "patina" thing sometimes looks to me like some idiot at the antique mall put decoupage on something and tried to sell it as "shabby chic" or something. It's a balancing act to get it right and not totally cheeseball.

dunno whats up with the underlined text above.... site acting up or the keyboard has been drinking. Having trouble getting the photo to post right


fenderphoto by jeandodge67, on Flickr

 

[kentercanyon]

Getting too dark to really tell, but here is a dry fit with the fenders just to see what the shape is like. I'm torn: I like the shape but the darn things don't match, paint-wise.






CUfender by jeandodge67, on Flickr