I've posted some pics of this bike before, but here it is pretty much finished, almost, maybe. It's never going to be done done, but I'm pretty happy with the way it's looking now. Let me know what you all think, be honest with your opinions, I'm hoping to find a few more things to do with it anyways.
I don't know what kind of restoration rattification I've actually done here. A lot of the original parts have been switched out, hubs, cranks, handle bars, seat. I decided to include a little history of this 7 month build.
These parts got yanked-Torrington bars-dog leg cranks(52 teeth/wider chain)-Troxel saddle-bent pedals,- front hub-front fender-non functioning rear hub, a Morrow I think. I guess the entire front end had been replaced at some point, the fender was round, rim a little different(not too much), hub said Schwinn and paint on the fork was a different red, some clues. It was beat, bent and covered in chrome spray paint but clearly a beast.
I saved the rims, the rear fender, the stem, a couple spokes, rear reflector and the cross brace. The tires on there now came with it, but I don't believe are original. Then it becomes a tell of spending money and scrapping around for parts.
A Sturmely drum brake hub went on the front, a generic Shimano coaster went on the rear. Some Schwinn cranks, similar sprocket style at least. Rack came from Yeshoney, I broke it at some point and had to reweld some new seatpost tabs. Found the matching fender on ebay for 40 bucks, an aluminum reproduction, original is steel. Rack came from Memory Lane for 35.
On the custom side of the build. Got an Ebay chaingurad, a cheap ladies Elgin. She got chopped and bondo, kind of in the Pope Westfield style, a Pope knock off. Sanded off the chrome from some regular cruiser bars, rusted and torched them then mounted the original cross bar(facing down). Brake line housing for Truss rods, wet sanded and polished a bit and a homade bracket.
On the electric side, it has a black and decker drill battery in the tank and a flasher switch running the LED lights on the tank, rack and inside the fender reflector. It's bright and the battery seems to last about 20 hours.
The paint job shows in those pictures. I know some of it isn't pretty. It's was all done by brush in various states of intoxication some fume induced. Rustoleum bronze tinted and darkened a bit for the gray, California outdoor oil paint for the red and One Shot brass color paint. I learned to start thinning out the paint with a little more mineral spirits and get the paint to flow, so you're not pushing the brush but kind of gliding it. It took about 5 coats and 10 sheets of sandpaper to get a good finish. The pinstripping was all done with tape and took about a week to finish, probably to most tedious and time consuming part of this build. Here's the perfectly preserved original paint from under the reflector. I did my best to match it. Parts of the frame were spared from my amateur house paint job
This bike is a daily rider. It's definitely about as heavy as bikes get. It made a ton of noise at first and drove nuts. I went through it, put in rubber washers on all the screws and bolts and glued in little bit of rubber and foam anywhere metal was touching metal. Sprayed some rubberized undercoating on the inside of the fenders and the tank. Now it's pretty quite, even hoping around and jumping off curbs.
Like I said it's not quite done, some obvious touches like a bigger seat, a nicer grips and pedals. Some more pinstriping? Let me know what you all think.
I don't know what kind of restoration rattification I've actually done here. A lot of the original parts have been switched out, hubs, cranks, handle bars, seat. I decided to include a little history of this 7 month build.
These parts got yanked-Torrington bars-dog leg cranks(52 teeth/wider chain)-Troxel saddle-bent pedals,- front hub-front fender-non functioning rear hub, a Morrow I think. I guess the entire front end had been replaced at some point, the fender was round, rim a little different(not too much), hub said Schwinn and paint on the fork was a different red, some clues. It was beat, bent and covered in chrome spray paint but clearly a beast.
I saved the rims, the rear fender, the stem, a couple spokes, rear reflector and the cross brace. The tires on there now came with it, but I don't believe are original. Then it becomes a tell of spending money and scrapping around for parts.
A Sturmely drum brake hub went on the front, a generic Shimano coaster went on the rear. Some Schwinn cranks, similar sprocket style at least. Rack came from Yeshoney, I broke it at some point and had to reweld some new seatpost tabs. Found the matching fender on ebay for 40 bucks, an aluminum reproduction, original is steel. Rack came from Memory Lane for 35.
On the custom side of the build. Got an Ebay chaingurad, a cheap ladies Elgin. She got chopped and bondo, kind of in the Pope Westfield style, a Pope knock off. Sanded off the chrome from some regular cruiser bars, rusted and torched them then mounted the original cross bar(facing down). Brake line housing for Truss rods, wet sanded and polished a bit and a homade bracket.
On the electric side, it has a black and decker drill battery in the tank and a flasher switch running the LED lights on the tank, rack and inside the fender reflector. It's bright and the battery seems to last about 20 hours.
The paint job shows in those pictures. I know some of it isn't pretty. It's was all done by brush in various states of intoxication some fume induced. Rustoleum bronze tinted and darkened a bit for the gray, California outdoor oil paint for the red and One Shot brass color paint. I learned to start thinning out the paint with a little more mineral spirits and get the paint to flow, so you're not pushing the brush but kind of gliding it. It took about 5 coats and 10 sheets of sandpaper to get a good finish. The pinstripping was all done with tape and took about a week to finish, probably to most tedious and time consuming part of this build. Here's the perfectly preserved original paint from under the reflector. I did my best to match it. Parts of the frame were spared from my amateur house paint job
This bike is a daily rider. It's definitely about as heavy as bikes get. It made a ton of noise at first and drove nuts. I went through it, put in rubber washers on all the screws and bolts and glued in little bit of rubber and foam anywhere metal was touching metal. Sprayed some rubberized undercoating on the inside of the fenders and the tank. Now it's pretty quite, even hoping around and jumping off curbs.
Like I said it's not quite done, some obvious touches like a bigger seat, a nicer grips and pedals. Some more pinstriping? Let me know what you all think.
