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I guess I really wouldn't call this a "build" but this is probably the closest place for a mock up. I picked up a girls Roadmaster Luxury Liner cheap for the parts plus it's a 1955 where they turned the bumper style lower struts facing forward - gotta have at least one of each. I eventually picked up a 1955 CWC Hiawatha with Shelby parts. I prefer to keep my CWCs looking like CWCs so I stripped the Hiawatha. A few days ago a friend of mine needed a CWC girls frame and I told him I had this Luxury Liner he could have. So after the little woman took off for a couple days I threw the packing quilt on the living room floor, brought in the Park repair stand, clamped the LL in and commenced stripping.
Well, when you are under the gun things never seem to go the way you want. The wedge on the stem was frozen so I spun the bike around upside down and shot some crap into the head tube. While that was soaking I stripped off all the parts I could - everything but the lower fender mount bolt that was rusted shut. I spun the bike back around, backed the stem bolt out a little and tried to break it loose by hitting the cut end of a 2x4 on the top of the bolt. I wailed on it till the 2x4 split. Up to this point I was trying to salvage the stem but I guess it wasn't meant to be. So I began hammering on it w/ a 16 oz Stanley straight claw hammer. I started with the stem bolt backed out about 1/8th inch - if you back out too much of the bolt it's easy to bend it. It seemed like it may have moved a 16th so I backed it out to 1/8th inch again. I repeated this about 5 times and figured it wasn't going to work and the hack saw was next. I grabbed the stem and twisted and it turned so I kept twisting till it came out - YAHOO! Next up was the nut on the end of the fork tube - rusted shut. I hauled the frame out to the garage and used the torch to heat & remove both the fork tube nut and the fender mount bolt. Only thing left on the frame was the head badge. Most of the badges I've removed were held in with pins threaded like a wood screw. I took a long handled heavy duty wide blade screwdriver, put one corner of the blade tip on the end of the pin inside the head tube and bang sideways on the screwdriver to push the pin out. It usually takes a few tries till I get the head of the pin out far enough to clamp my mini vise grips on and twist out counter clockwise. I finished that head badge and then removed the Hiawatha from the boys frame the same way.
I then clamped the boys frame in the stand and proceeded to install the newly removed parts. I shimmed the extra inch of head tube with a couple headset cups temporarily till I can get the time to rebuild, rethread and cut to length the girls springer to fit the boys bike. The only two glitches I had were minor - I had to remove a link from the 1/2 inch pitch chain so it would pull the rear wheel up to the center of the fender and for some reason almost every kick stand I had was so wide it would scrape the back side of the sprocket so I put the original on - junky. Put the original seat and post back on and grabbed a larger size handlebar out of the garage and there we go.
The original paint scheme on the CWC/Shelby/Hiawatha was red, white and blue and the girls LL was blue. When I put the blue parts on the white frame I though it looked pretty good so I'll eventually paint this red, white and blue. A little seat recovering, some fat tires, some matching red or blue grips and a headlight she'll be good as new. Like I said earlier, this is just a mock up so it's going back into the storage unit but I did eliminate one bike. I have a 1940 CWC Western Flyer girls bike with springer and a 1940 boys frame waiting for the same treatment. It was a long day but I did get it done in a day even with the glitches so I'm more enthusiastic about the next one - plus I like 1940 a lot more than 1955. Here's some pics:
CWC/Shelby/Hiawatha
After Stripping
CWC Roadmaster Luxury Liner Donor Bike
Mock Up
Well, when you are under the gun things never seem to go the way you want. The wedge on the stem was frozen so I spun the bike around upside down and shot some crap into the head tube. While that was soaking I stripped off all the parts I could - everything but the lower fender mount bolt that was rusted shut. I spun the bike back around, backed the stem bolt out a little and tried to break it loose by hitting the cut end of a 2x4 on the top of the bolt. I wailed on it till the 2x4 split. Up to this point I was trying to salvage the stem but I guess it wasn't meant to be. So I began hammering on it w/ a 16 oz Stanley straight claw hammer. I started with the stem bolt backed out about 1/8th inch - if you back out too much of the bolt it's easy to bend it. It seemed like it may have moved a 16th so I backed it out to 1/8th inch again. I repeated this about 5 times and figured it wasn't going to work and the hack saw was next. I grabbed the stem and twisted and it turned so I kept twisting till it came out - YAHOO! Next up was the nut on the end of the fork tube - rusted shut. I hauled the frame out to the garage and used the torch to heat & remove both the fork tube nut and the fender mount bolt. Only thing left on the frame was the head badge. Most of the badges I've removed were held in with pins threaded like a wood screw. I took a long handled heavy duty wide blade screwdriver, put one corner of the blade tip on the end of the pin inside the head tube and bang sideways on the screwdriver to push the pin out. It usually takes a few tries till I get the head of the pin out far enough to clamp my mini vise grips on and twist out counter clockwise. I finished that head badge and then removed the Hiawatha from the boys frame the same way.
I then clamped the boys frame in the stand and proceeded to install the newly removed parts. I shimmed the extra inch of head tube with a couple headset cups temporarily till I can get the time to rebuild, rethread and cut to length the girls springer to fit the boys bike. The only two glitches I had were minor - I had to remove a link from the 1/2 inch pitch chain so it would pull the rear wheel up to the center of the fender and for some reason almost every kick stand I had was so wide it would scrape the back side of the sprocket so I put the original on - junky. Put the original seat and post back on and grabbed a larger size handlebar out of the garage and there we go.
The original paint scheme on the CWC/Shelby/Hiawatha was red, white and blue and the girls LL was blue. When I put the blue parts on the white frame I though it looked pretty good so I'll eventually paint this red, white and blue. A little seat recovering, some fat tires, some matching red or blue grips and a headlight she'll be good as new. Like I said earlier, this is just a mock up so it's going back into the storage unit but I did eliminate one bike. I have a 1940 CWC Western Flyer girls bike with springer and a 1940 boys frame waiting for the same treatment. It was a long day but I did get it done in a day even with the glitches so I'm more enthusiastic about the next one - plus I like 1940 a lot more than 1955. Here's some pics:
CWC/Shelby/Hiawatha
After Stripping
CWC Roadmaster Luxury Liner Donor Bike
Mock Up
