Hey everyone! Shoutout first to CRASH for encouraging me to join this year's Muscle Bike Build Off!
Mike originally suggested I consider doing this back during the summer while I was busy working on my 1970 Sears Screamer 1. It was a bike that turned out to be sitting at the back of a garage in the next town over. A buddy of mine who does estate sales located it, and thankfully remembered me saying in the past to keep an eye out for muscle bikes, and I was his first call upon him getting it back to his shop. I fell in love with the bike and brought it back to life, but then I chose to sell it to provide my wife with a memorable trip for our anniversary. I had a great time bringing it back to life since it was a complicated bike with the drag brake and handle bar wrap, along with locating a local Upholstery shop that redid a brand new seat cover from scratch that looked exactly like it would've been when new.
Since that bike was so much fun and I found it in me to take on a difficult project, I mentioned to Mike that I was contemplating enlisting my Huffy Rail V that is a MAJOR restoration waiting in the wings due to the amount of rust on rims and handlebars. I've had it since October 2022, but have not been brave enough to jump on it yet.
So that was the plan using this to motivate me, but then something wild occurred. As I typically do, albeit not so much as of late because I was starting to think about and even posted a few I'd my projects for sale, I chose to check out FB Marketplace prior to heading to bed on the night of August 22, 2023. I didn't even get to type anything into the search box as for whatever fate-driven, miraculous reason right there as the first result I saw a white muscle bike pictured. I clicked on it before I could even blink and the first thing I noticed upon opening the ad was that it was listed 10 mins earlier and was in a town about an hour and a half north of me. Then I swiped thru the pics and saw that it was a one and only Cotton Picker. I could not believe it. I've never seen an ad for one for sale, let alone within a reasonable distance from me. So I began my barrage of messaging in hopes that if anyone else was writing g I'd stay on top of the queue. Well somehow, I was the first one to write, and the seller informed me they had mistyped the price and it would be $100 more. I said no problem, as it was a steal already, and we began working out arrangements for me to pick up the next day in the evening. I hated to wait that long but I jist started back to school and we had in-service then an open house event so I wouldn't be able to get there until 10 PM that next night. All was set but then the seller wrote me saying they had an offer an additional $200 higher. Since I was this close I told them I'd still take it but I wasn't going to get into a bidding war with people who wrote after me. I was still getting what I felt like was a good deal, and at this point my mind was made up that I wanted it no matter what!
The next day of course dragged on for seemingly ever, but I did get the number to call the seller's dad who she was selling it for. He was looking forward to meeting me and cautioned me about how much of a project it was. I thought buddy, if you'd see my Rail or some of my other projects you'd see the same potential with this Cotton Picker that I do!
I arrived 10PM that evening during a torrential lightning and thunderstorm, was led back to his garage, and the lights kicked on and he had it set up at an angle for right as I walked in the door. I was in love with it. He's 84 and said it was his son's who is 57. He told me they bought it new (and the daughter later confirmed it was from a bike store up in northeast PA called "Wardle's". This made me even happier to know I was getting this from the original owners. I then checked the serial # and found it to be a bike produced in Dec. 1971, making it one of the last Cotton Pickers to be produced since they were not produced for the 1972 year and thereafter. To me this adds to the rarity, not to mention the rare and miraculous events that led to me finding it to begin with!
Anyhow once I got it home I took a ton of pics and decided it would be the bike I use for this 2023 MBBO. I will need to figure out somewhere to host pics so I can begin posting them, but for tonight at least wanted to get the backstory posted and detail that I have done the following to set up for this project:
Polished the top chrome on chsinguard with what remained of my Quick-Glow. I'm finding it to no longer be in production as it is MIA everywhere and I'm saddened since it has worked so extremely well for me on other projects.
Purchased white brake lever covers, black Schwinn flag valve stem caps, an NOS Gluco 6-pie reflector, and new cables/Housings since my front brake cable us gone.
I have a lead on a repro white letter rear slick and possibly an original front tire.
Tonight I removed the springer fork and both Fenders and tossed them in my 5 gal bucket of Evaporust to soak overnight and while I'm at work tomorrow. I also threw the bolts from chain guard, both Fenders, and springer fork into a smaller bucket of evaporust.
I've removed the grips and soaked then in Dawn dish soap overnight and the grime came off but they're still yellowed from age. Not sure if I want to reuse them since they're gouged on sides anyways from bike being laid down throughout its life or if I wanna buy nos ones to match the brake lever covers.
I've removed both wheels and plan to drop off my rear wheel this week to have the hub serviced and greased. Plus that will allow me to have the dust shield piece behind sprocket off so I can polish it up and clean the gears.
My biggest concerns at the moment are how to get the brake Levers off the handlebars, and what my best bet is going to be to shine up this white paint as many of my products on hand aren't giving me the results I'm looking for.
Again pics to follow, but thanks for reading so far and sorry to build some suspense waiting on the pics. Haha
Mike originally suggested I consider doing this back during the summer while I was busy working on my 1970 Sears Screamer 1. It was a bike that turned out to be sitting at the back of a garage in the next town over. A buddy of mine who does estate sales located it, and thankfully remembered me saying in the past to keep an eye out for muscle bikes, and I was his first call upon him getting it back to his shop. I fell in love with the bike and brought it back to life, but then I chose to sell it to provide my wife with a memorable trip for our anniversary. I had a great time bringing it back to life since it was a complicated bike with the drag brake and handle bar wrap, along with locating a local Upholstery shop that redid a brand new seat cover from scratch that looked exactly like it would've been when new.
Since that bike was so much fun and I found it in me to take on a difficult project, I mentioned to Mike that I was contemplating enlisting my Huffy Rail V that is a MAJOR restoration waiting in the wings due to the amount of rust on rims and handlebars. I've had it since October 2022, but have not been brave enough to jump on it yet.
So that was the plan using this to motivate me, but then something wild occurred. As I typically do, albeit not so much as of late because I was starting to think about and even posted a few I'd my projects for sale, I chose to check out FB Marketplace prior to heading to bed on the night of August 22, 2023. I didn't even get to type anything into the search box as for whatever fate-driven, miraculous reason right there as the first result I saw a white muscle bike pictured. I clicked on it before I could even blink and the first thing I noticed upon opening the ad was that it was listed 10 mins earlier and was in a town about an hour and a half north of me. Then I swiped thru the pics and saw that it was a one and only Cotton Picker. I could not believe it. I've never seen an ad for one for sale, let alone within a reasonable distance from me. So I began my barrage of messaging in hopes that if anyone else was writing g I'd stay on top of the queue. Well somehow, I was the first one to write, and the seller informed me they had mistyped the price and it would be $100 more. I said no problem, as it was a steal already, and we began working out arrangements for me to pick up the next day in the evening. I hated to wait that long but I jist started back to school and we had in-service then an open house event so I wouldn't be able to get there until 10 PM that next night. All was set but then the seller wrote me saying they had an offer an additional $200 higher. Since I was this close I told them I'd still take it but I wasn't going to get into a bidding war with people who wrote after me. I was still getting what I felt like was a good deal, and at this point my mind was made up that I wanted it no matter what!
The next day of course dragged on for seemingly ever, but I did get the number to call the seller's dad who she was selling it for. He was looking forward to meeting me and cautioned me about how much of a project it was. I thought buddy, if you'd see my Rail or some of my other projects you'd see the same potential with this Cotton Picker that I do!
I arrived 10PM that evening during a torrential lightning and thunderstorm, was led back to his garage, and the lights kicked on and he had it set up at an angle for right as I walked in the door. I was in love with it. He's 84 and said it was his son's who is 57. He told me they bought it new (and the daughter later confirmed it was from a bike store up in northeast PA called "Wardle's". This made me even happier to know I was getting this from the original owners. I then checked the serial # and found it to be a bike produced in Dec. 1971, making it one of the last Cotton Pickers to be produced since they were not produced for the 1972 year and thereafter. To me this adds to the rarity, not to mention the rare and miraculous events that led to me finding it to begin with!
Anyhow once I got it home I took a ton of pics and decided it would be the bike I use for this 2023 MBBO. I will need to figure out somewhere to host pics so I can begin posting them, but for tonight at least wanted to get the backstory posted and detail that I have done the following to set up for this project:
Polished the top chrome on chsinguard with what remained of my Quick-Glow. I'm finding it to no longer be in production as it is MIA everywhere and I'm saddened since it has worked so extremely well for me on other projects.
Purchased white brake lever covers, black Schwinn flag valve stem caps, an NOS Gluco 6-pie reflector, and new cables/Housings since my front brake cable us gone.
I have a lead on a repro white letter rear slick and possibly an original front tire.
Tonight I removed the springer fork and both Fenders and tossed them in my 5 gal bucket of Evaporust to soak overnight and while I'm at work tomorrow. I also threw the bolts from chain guard, both Fenders, and springer fork into a smaller bucket of evaporust.
I've removed the grips and soaked then in Dawn dish soap overnight and the grime came off but they're still yellowed from age. Not sure if I want to reuse them since they're gouged on sides anyways from bike being laid down throughout its life or if I wanna buy nos ones to match the brake lever covers.
I've removed both wheels and plan to drop off my rear wheel this week to have the hub serviced and greased. Plus that will allow me to have the dust shield piece behind sprocket off so I can polish it up and clean the gears.
My biggest concerns at the moment are how to get the brake Levers off the handlebars, and what my best bet is going to be to shine up this white paint as many of my products on hand aren't giving me the results I'm looking for.
Again pics to follow, but thanks for reading so far and sorry to build some suspense waiting on the pics. Haha
