I had pretty good success giving my Rollfast a facelift recently (although the Rollfast started out as a much cleaner bike) so I’m going to do the same to my Schwinn.
This bike is special to me because it was my first old bike. I got it from an old man than ran a bicycle shop that gave it to me if I promised to actually ride it. This was in the 80’s when all my friends (and myself) were making the transition from 20” BMX bikes to bigger Mountain bikes. I was the only kid in town that I knew of riding a big Ol’ tank bike!
The guy let me raid he junk yard and I found the B6 fender and chainguard and had them on there because I like the light. I always had it on the wrong fork, so it never really sat right. I don’t even remember what kind of bike I got the rims and Carlisle Lightning Darts off of, but I do remember it was girl’s bike.
It’s also special to me because when I got it, it looked about like it does now. I wanted it to look nice, so my Dad got me to sand it all the way down and told me he’d paint it back black for me when he painted his ‘78 GMC truck he had at the time. My Dad passed last year year, and the majority of the paint on this bike is the 30+ year old paint that he sprayed for me. It looked really nice when he painted it for me. My Mom helped me mask up the white blisters on the end of the ends of the fenders and back then she put white Vinyl pin stripes on it that are now long gone. When I started driving, this bike sat in the weather 10+ years forgotten behind my Dad’s shop, until I went and brought it to my house my around 2005. It’s been out of the weather since, but all those years in the elements took their toll.
My plan is to clean it up as much as I can, add a proper springer fork, and put the pin stripes back on it. I’ve figured out a way over the years to wipe thinned out new paint over old paint and then wipe it off to kinda coat the rusty spots but leave the original paint. Since Dad painted it, I’m going to retain as much of the black as possible. I’m going leave the incorrect paint details because it’s the way they’ve always been. I want to make it clean and presentable. If I get it clean enough, I may even try the linseed oil rub down.
Here are the pics of now and when I pulled it out of storage.
This bike is special to me because it was my first old bike. I got it from an old man than ran a bicycle shop that gave it to me if I promised to actually ride it. This was in the 80’s when all my friends (and myself) were making the transition from 20” BMX bikes to bigger Mountain bikes. I was the only kid in town that I knew of riding a big Ol’ tank bike!
The guy let me raid he junk yard and I found the B6 fender and chainguard and had them on there because I like the light. I always had it on the wrong fork, so it never really sat right. I don’t even remember what kind of bike I got the rims and Carlisle Lightning Darts off of, but I do remember it was girl’s bike.It’s also special to me because when I got it, it looked about like it does now. I wanted it to look nice, so my Dad got me to sand it all the way down and told me he’d paint it back black for me when he painted his ‘78 GMC truck he had at the time. My Dad passed last year year, and the majority of the paint on this bike is the 30+ year old paint that he sprayed for me. It looked really nice when he painted it for me. My Mom helped me mask up the white blisters on the end of the ends of the fenders and back then she put white Vinyl pin stripes on it that are now long gone. When I started driving, this bike sat in the weather 10+ years forgotten behind my Dad’s shop, until I went and brought it to my house my around 2005. It’s been out of the weather since, but all those years in the elements took their toll.
My plan is to clean it up as much as I can, add a proper springer fork, and put the pin stripes back on it. I’ve figured out a way over the years to wipe thinned out new paint over old paint and then wipe it off to kinda coat the rusty spots but leave the original paint. Since Dad painted it, I’m going to retain as much of the black as possible. I’m going leave the incorrect paint details because it’s the way they’ve always been. I want to make it clean and presentable. If I get it clean enough, I may even try the linseed oil rub down.
Here are the pics of now and when I pulled it out of storage.
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