41'Westfield / Davega sporting goods NYC

[Toadman]

found this on e bay at the end of June , totally coated in house paint rusty etc. , but could see potential

used the laquer thinner to uncover this gem

after two layers of red and gold paint

final result

very cool

 

[B607]

I never would have believed it without your pics. I will call your work "The Best Save of the Summer". Well done! Gary

 

[Ddivot]

Nice save and clean up! What did you use on it to strip it?

 

[halsencrew]

wow just wow beautiful bike and great save

 

[yoothgeye]

Amazing... If I was a skeptic I'd be asking for proof that was the same bike.

 

[Toadman]

yes , hard to believe it's the same bike .Sorry some of the restorstion pics are not too great, used a laquer thinner found at hardware store to slowly remove old paint there was actually two layers red , then gold .The laquer thinner will take of the old house paint, but if you are careful will not damage the original . The right side of the tank had been stripped and primered ,so I repainted that to match all else original, went through 50 or so rags over three days a very slow process , but well worth it .The two layers of paint seemed pretty old and I think actually helped to preserve what was underneath.

 

[Toadman]

also wanted to add that I had to replace the original wheels for now , they were in rough shape . I hope to be able to rebuild them down the road , to preserve the New Departure hub etc. those are the tires that came with the bike , they have "special LHR balloon tyre " written on the side wall , but made in taiwan . I think they could be from the '60s maybe , the good thing is I just filled them up with air and off I went!!!

 

[Rustinkerer]

That is SWEET! I have an older Westfield built motobike with the same name:

Sitting on balloon rims here but it should have 28"s.

Apparently Reggie McNamara was a board track racer from Australia and raced in the 20s. -adam

 

[Toadman]

That's cool , Davega was a sporting goods store in the NYC area that went bankrupt in the early ,60s. you should read the bio on Reggie Mcnamara ,very interesting , one of the first ironman atheletes

 

[Fisch]

A-FREAKIN-MAZING!!!!!! That is a find for sure!

 

[harquahalas]

Wow! When I looked at this earlier (without reading) I thought it was a re-paint :shock:

 

[flatblack50]

:shock: :shock: :shock: WOW... nice!!!

 

[thekid]

W-O-W !!! GREAT FIND AND SAVE ! 8) more pictures PLEASE!!

 

[Toadman]

Will try to take some better pictures and post them later, on a funny side note the first time I took the bike out for a ride , I rode about 10 feet and the right bolt flew off the front wheel . luckily my girlfriend found it , 1/2 hour of roadside repair I was back pedalling , 10 minutes later , fell off again on a bridge(metric bolts on an imperial sized axle I realized later) she found the bolt again next to a pond I almost fell into retrieving it , good eyes !!The ride ended here, thankfully as it was total crap , the bike was not ready for the road , banging , scraping etc. my gal is extremely patient putting up with my stubborness

 

[kingfish254]

Old thread, but still cool how well that house paint preserved this beauty.