'38 Special ------ Update July 2nd

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Re: '38 Special ------ Update June 23rd

Congrats!
And welcome back. I was just about to sick the hungry update bunnies on you!!!!
 
Re: '38 Special ------ Update June 23rd

So cool. I like all the creative fabrication you've done. The filler caps are a nice touch. All of your work on the extra mile bits is making the whole bike cohesive. Nice work.
 
Re: '38 Special ------ Update June 23rd

Ape Stanger said:
So cool. I like all the creative fabrication you've done. The filler caps are a nice touch. All of your work on the extra mile bits is making the whole bike cohesive. Nice work.
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Thanks! I've been trying to make this look as close as I can to a real Board Track Racer. I've been watching boardtracker builds for a few years and everybody captures a certain essence of what it was so I'm trying to pull a bunch of those ideas together in one build. I like using this frame because the top bars are so low where they meet the seat tube which puts the saddle lower than usual also. A Zep Frame is even lower at the seat tube. Thanks again for the compliment! Robert
 
Re: '38 Special ------ Update June 23rd

Finally had a chance to check out builds I've been missing.Up to speed on this one.As usual,you are bringin' it 8) 8)
 
Re: '38 Special ------ Update June 23rd

Saverio said:
Agreed, I'm definitely following this one. Excellent work.
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Cool :!: Another Denver bike enthusiast :D Welcome :!:
 
Re: '38 Special ------ Update June 28th

I've been painting a bunch of the small parts because there are so many I don't want to end up trying to finish all of them at once. Today I tackled the frame for the first time - had to test out this great "Aircraft Paint Remover" I keep hearing so much about. I found out how many coats of paint were on it - many! And thick - all house paint. The last color was cream, under that was blue, under that was red and finally the original burgundy. The first two pics were after the first coat of A.P.R. that revealed the original color and darts that traveled over half way across the top tube. The last pic was after the second coat of remover and a bunch of scraping. The paint was so thick it wouldn't fall off even with the house water pressure but the Paint Remover Softened it up enough that I was able to scrape all the layers of house paint right down to the original.

Hopefully one more coat will get me there. One thing I found out about this frame that I was extremely pleased with - there are no holes, dents, bends or deep rust pitting on the entire frame. When I first looked at the frame and saw all the bare rust spots I figured I was in for a lot of work to make it look good but I got a feeling a palm sander is all I'm going to need. Hard to believe a frame that is 74 years old is in such great shape. Looks like a few people took care of this one. One other thing I like about working with 1930s frames is since they came with drop stands a lot of the chain stays are not crushed or damaged on the bottom.

We've been hit w/ a heat wave but working in the shade with a nice breeze going constantly makes it more than bearable. I'm not sure of what temp we topped out at today but when I came in the house at about 4 PM my computer said is was 103 - they were calling for 101 and over 100 for the next 2 days. It bakes the finish on real good - I leave the parts sit in the sun for that faux baked finish (I was reading one of the threads yesterday where everyone kept going on & on w/ faux filled quips). Welp - TBC! Robert



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Re: '38 Special ------ Update June 28th

Nice frame and paint on the other parts!!!
What color for the frame???
 
Re: '38 Special ------ Update June 28th

WOW I just wan to say... I like the way you think
 
Re: '38 Special ------ Update June 28th

kingfish254 said:
Nice frame and paint on the other parts!!!
What color for the frame???
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Thanks for the compliment guys! I came across a pic of a boardtracker style bicycle and except for the tires the entire bike was cream colored. I really liked the look of it so I'm going to do a slight variation of the cream theme. Although they won't be exactly the same color I'm painting the frame, fork and rear fender cream to ride on the creme Fat Franks. But I'm also going to have little splashes of red here and there for accents. Other than a few chrome & bare metal parts that's pretty much it. Thanks for checking it out. Robert
 
Hi Everybody! Yesterday I finished stripping the frame. I wasn't worried about the flash rust because I planned on sanding it today. I hit it first w/ 80 gritt which easily removed everything including most of the rust. Some rust spots I could feel were raised up so I tried fileing the humps off but that wasn't real effective so I tried something new which I just happened to have a lot of - emory paper. Comes in the same size sheets as regular sandpaper so I could cut it up into 1/4s and get to work. Since it's made for metal it worked really well. I'm taking into consideration that the rust spots were not all that bad so emory probably won't work so good for deep pits. The added bonus was that the frame came out really shiney - you can guess what I'm thinking. Going to have to have a build w/ a SHINEY Naked Frame. One more day of this and I'll be ready to paint the frame. TBC! Robert


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