1942 Elgin mod/restoration Project

[Uncle Shish]

This past fall, my friend bought a 1942 Elgin at the Royal Oak Swap. I fell in love with it, and had I had a little more cash in my pocket at the time - it would have been mine.
In November I found, what I was pretty sure was a 42, for sale about 4-1/2 hours away north of Chicago on Facebook Marketplace... near of all places, Elgin, IL.
The wife and I decided to make a road trip of it and went to go fetch it. Here's what it looked like that day.

 

[Uncle Shish]

After getting it home I began the chore of removing several years and layers of paint. I believe the black layer of paint was applied with a brush.

 

[Uncle Shish]

Next step was to come up with my paint concept based on other '42 Elgins I had researched. (some of you may even own the sample bike photos I had found - so thank you in advance)
Now before you say it, I am well aware that a '42 would not have had a tank, nor a rear rack. That's ok ... I knew in the eyes of the purist, it was never going to meet their standards anyway, so I'm doing it how I choose.

 

[Uncle Shish]

Next I began disassembling the wheels. My original plan was to try and save the spokes. That was funny as they snapped quite easily.

 

[Uncle Shish]

Hoops painted and then assembled. Not perfect - but ...

 

[Uncle Shish]

Matched up what original paint I could find (inside the head tube and the tan color was visible on the fender braces where the paint had flaked off)

 

[Uncle Shish]

Chainguard before/after. The after photo is extremely dark and not very representative of the actual colors.

 

[Uncle Shish]

Applying Graphics. I created paint stencils from my vector drawings after taking careful measurements from other bikes.
The entire bike is currently in post-clear coat mode as of 1/31/24

 

[Uncle Shish]

Had a very productive day today. The sun was out and got a 40+ degree February in Michigan bike ride in and with my bike buddies, just about finished the Elgin. One more day of tinkering and this will be wrapped up.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Looks great!

 

[Uncle Shish]

Looks great!

Thanks! The bad news is I may have spent all my build-off money

 

[Uncle Shish]

Finished up tonight 2/6/2024. I will do a more appropriate photo shoot in the spring.

 

[twojs.bike]

Amazing!