50'S MONARK MUSCLE

[nito900rr]

This project started as a Craig's list find this past winter. It is a 20" Monark Silver King Rocket. I believe it to be from the 50's. I paid $40 for it and planed to restore it for my 8 year old daughter. She fell in love with it and could'nt wait to start work on it. So after finishing an 80 Ross Apollo 5 speed ( many thanks to apolo nut and first year chevelle for the hook up) for my son, we got to work. But to my delight she said she wanted it to look like her brother's muscle bike but without the banana seat. I instantly thought old school bobber! So after wiping the grinn off of my face we looked at some pictures and started getting our hands dirty.

 

[nito900rr]

I loved the lines of this bike when I saw it on craigslist. But when I got there and saw that awesome looking sprocket and very cool aerospace style head badge, I knew I had to have her! The frame was straight, rim's had a slight wobble and the stem bolt was frozen. The fenders on the other hand were in very bad shape. The pic's don't show really how bad they were but the back part of the rear fender was folded up on to it's self! Someone probably took a slow cruise off of a tall curb and jammed it up like an accordion! That had me very worried. The front fender had a big dent in the front of it but not impossible for a hammer and dolly. The tires on this bike were 20x2.125. That's front and back! I knew this was going to be a far out ride man!

 

[nito900rr]

Disassembly went smooth up until I got to that frozen stem bolt! It ended up snapping pretty much right away. And wouldn't ya know it, the wedge bolt was rusted in place not letting the stem break loose! Here is a pic of the parts after an oxalic bath. Oh ya, I found out why you shouldn't mix it up to hot and leave 60 year old parts in for to long. the chrome is in bad shape anyway but the acid had no problem showing me how delicate it had become. look at the goose neck!!! lol

 

[nito900rr]

Plan ''A" was to put it back to original. So I took a razor blade and started scraping off old paint in areas to uncover the original paint scheme. Well I found it under 2 other paint jobs and determined it to be the same lay out as this 24" I found on Google.

 

[jats]

this thing is a tank very cool! good luck

Troy

 

[nito900rr]

Here are some pics of the parts. The stripper I use is used on aircraft. But it is definitely not the one you buy at the auto parts store! this stuff is mean and loves burning little holes in your skin!!! So gloves were a must.

 

[nito900rr]

Here is all the parts stripped clean.

 

[nito900rr]

These parts were in good shape so I put them in etch primer right away.

 

[nito900rr]

These parts were not in good shape. As I said the fenders were in very rough shape. In this pic you can see the rear fender. I got ahead of my self and did not take a photo it before hand. But this is after I hammered and dollied it out. I had it pretty smooth for not having an English wheel but the metal was to stretched out. So I had to ding it back to this to take up the excess metal.

 

[nito900rr]

In these pics you can see the dented up front fender. I didn't have a shot bag to hammer out some of the really deep stuff. So I improvised and used a sand bag. It worked excellently! It really was able to form around the compound curves of the fender.

 

[nito900rr]

After hammering out the fenders the best I could, I grabbed the 80 grit and went to town roughing up the areas that needed to be mudded. Then I mixed up the filler and started swiping I ended up just completely swipe them both! I also put a little on the chain guard.

 

[nito900rr]

After the filler started to kick (15 minutes or so) I picked up the cheese grater started knocking it down. It is so much easier to rough shape body filler before it turns rock hard. I let an hour pass before blocking them out with 80 grit on 5" hard block. The fenders started coming back into shape when I moved to the 150 grit on a soft block. Just before they hit perfection, I quickly switched over to the 220 grit. Leaving just enough play in the filler to take out the 150 grit scratches and finish it smooth. The reddish colored areas are spots I used spot putty to fill in some pinholes and a few slightly low spots I found.

 

[jats]

dang that is a nice clean up and fender fix

Troy

 

[NewOrleansFlyer]

You've given me the courage to bang out a couple of fenders...thanks!

 

[jats]

what is your final paint colors going to be? any idea yet?

Troy

 

[Sourceunkn]

Wow, that is impressive work! Any suggestions on a stripper for those of us without aircraft grade chemicals at hand? Looking forward to seeing the final result!

 

[nito900rr]

what is your final paint colors going to be? any idea yet?

Troy

thanks Troy for the compliment on the fenders! As far as the paint goes, It's almost completely finished. I will be clearing the parts this weekend. Its a purple and black metallic. I decided to thro myself a curve ball/challenge.... its all dupli color! the paint turned out totally sick!!!!! I will get caught up on posting pics this weekend. But I will wait on posting pics of the paint until its finished. thx again!

 

[jats]

post some pics!!!!!

Troy

 

[nito900rr]

Wow, that is impressive work! Any suggestions on a stripper for those of us without aircraft grade chemicals at hand? Looking forward to seeing the final result!

Klean Strip makes an aircraft stripper the I've seen available at most auto parts stores. I haven't used it before but it should work ok. aircraft paint is extremely tough and chemical resistant so it requires the nasty stuff! lol the paint on bikes is usually not the best quality and old and worn out anyway. the steps I use are: #1 clean and degrease, #2 lightly scuff paint with 180 grit to open it up, #3 blow or wipe off sanding dust,#4 apply stripper with 1"paint brush (apply liberally but do not drown it. the stripper needs air to work properly. don't let it dry, keep wet.), #5 scrub with small wire brush recoat as needed, #6 after metal is clean rinse with water using a pressure washer or pressure nozzle, dry immediately to prevent rust. that being said it is very time consuming and messy. soda blasting would work also. you don't always need to go down to bare metal either for a good paint job. if the paint is newer factory, a scuff and shoot works to.

 

[nito900rr]

Hi everyone! Its been an action packed summer so for filled with camping, vacations, day trips, and of course bikes! A lot has been going on with "Monark Muscle" so here is the update!!! The pics below are of what I found when I took the fork off. The rusted out hole is from the wedge bolt being rusted solid in the fork tube and the tube was bent to boot! I thought this was going to be the end of the road for the fork and I would have to replace it. But I decided to cut off the old rusted tube and weld on a new fork tube from a donor with a sleeve . After I made the cut I realized that I had cut into the factory sleeve leaving no room for another one. So I ended up doing a "fillit" weld instead. You can do this kind of weld by grinding the apposing edges of the joint completely flat with each other. Then you grind the outside edge of the seam on both pieces to create a valley. Then you "fillit" with the weld. This is a strong weld as it maximizes penetration and bead size without having to puddle it up on the surface. I tested the repair on the bench vise and it is very strong weld!