- Joined
- May 12, 2009
- Messages
- 1,547
- Reaction score
- 118
Hi! I joined this site right after I purchased a repop Roadmaster Luxury Liner. I bought a stripped down Roadmaster with a Shockmaster Fork in the 7th grade from a friend for $2. That bike rode so well I've had an obsession with it ever since - that's why the repop. After owning more than 20 Cleveland Welding Bikes I started getting antsy for something different. I started admiring the Motobike Frames especially the earlier ones with the top bars real close together. As luck would have it a friend had two pre CWC Hawthorne frames for sale so here is the first one.
1933 Hawthorne 26" Ballooner
The blue is over the original red so I started working on removing the blue to see how the original red looked - not real good. I did the outside surfaces of the rear triangle to see how the overall patina would look. I'm not a super patina guy so the 50% Red and the 50% Raw metal just wasn't my style. I would have considered half red and half rust because they would blend together in my eyes. So I decided to strip it.
There are different ways of stripping paint off bike frames but I'm an old timer and I've been stripping paint off bikes since I was 12 (I'm 66). This may sound a little strange to some but I actually enjoy sitting for hours cleaning parts or in this case sanding paint off a frame with a palm sander. For me it's like meditation - the whole time I'm sanding my mind is relaxed. It's also kind of like painting a white wall black but in reverse. I love seeing an immediate difference in the surface as I go along.
I did the top bars first as close to the joints as possible with 60 grit sandpaper followed by the down tube. By then I was big time exhausted so I called it quits for the day. The next day I was contemplating how to do all the joints so I tried hand sanding for a few minutes with little progress so I broke out the stripper. I put a coat on the cracks and any exposed tubing I couldn't reach with the sander and let it sit a couple minutes. Then I brushed all the blue paint off with a tiny wire brush - got in the cracks really well. I put a second coat on over the red factory paint and let it sit longer and then brushed it off. What was left looked like a black stain on the bare metal so I went back to the hand sanding and it came right off.
Here's the cliff-hanger - A. What do you think the tubes looked like when I was done stripping them? B. What color do you think I should paint the newly stripped frame?
Spoiler Alert - B is a trick question!
I'll start my next entry with pics of what the frame looks like at this point - I haven't taken any yet - and then I'll proceed with the stripping. I'm extremely happy with how it looks at this point and I'll tell (and show with pics) why - this will be a first for me. Have Fun!
1933 Hawthorne 26" Ballooner
The blue is over the original red so I started working on removing the blue to see how the original red looked - not real good. I did the outside surfaces of the rear triangle to see how the overall patina would look. I'm not a super patina guy so the 50% Red and the 50% Raw metal just wasn't my style. I would have considered half red and half rust because they would blend together in my eyes. So I decided to strip it.
There are different ways of stripping paint off bike frames but I'm an old timer and I've been stripping paint off bikes since I was 12 (I'm 66). This may sound a little strange to some but I actually enjoy sitting for hours cleaning parts or in this case sanding paint off a frame with a palm sander. For me it's like meditation - the whole time I'm sanding my mind is relaxed. It's also kind of like painting a white wall black but in reverse. I love seeing an immediate difference in the surface as I go along.
I did the top bars first as close to the joints as possible with 60 grit sandpaper followed by the down tube. By then I was big time exhausted so I called it quits for the day. The next day I was contemplating how to do all the joints so I tried hand sanding for a few minutes with little progress so I broke out the stripper. I put a coat on the cracks and any exposed tubing I couldn't reach with the sander and let it sit a couple minutes. Then I brushed all the blue paint off with a tiny wire brush - got in the cracks really well. I put a second coat on over the red factory paint and let it sit longer and then brushed it off. What was left looked like a black stain on the bare metal so I went back to the hand sanding and it came right off.
Here's the cliff-hanger - A. What do you think the tubes looked like when I was done stripping them? B. What color do you think I should paint the newly stripped frame?
Spoiler Alert - B is a trick question!
I'll start my next entry with pics of what the frame looks like at this point - I haven't taken any yet - and then I'll proceed with the stripping. I'm extremely happy with how it looks at this point and I'll tell (and show with pics) why - this will be a first for me. Have Fun!
