El Moco Mojado

[Cuan]

Here is my entry for the build off. It is a 1974 Schwinn Typhoon that was given to me by my wife’s family about 14 years ago. They purchased it brand new and rode it until everybody moved out of the house. It had been stored in their barn, so it was in good shape, but very dirty. When I first got it I cleaned the chrome, polished the paint, found a seat for it and replaced the tubes and a tire. I rode it once, didn’t like it so it was parked.

I was going to customize it with a bent springer fork, apes and new wheels, but I ended up doing all of that to another bike. I’ve always had a hard time figuring out what to do with this bike. I don’t like the color, the S-7 wheels, the fenders, or the handlebars, there is a lot of ugly in the bike.

One day I was messing around and replaced the front wheel with the normal sized 26” wheel that was black with a black tire. This one change made all of the difference. I finally had inspiration on how to build this bike.

This build won’t be an extreme custom. I am going to try what Chip Foose describes as “take the ugly out of it.” I plan on making a few changes so that it looks cool, is comfortable and fun to ride. I have new tires, handle bars and a few other components for it and I will be building a different wheel set. I plan on keeping the color, but I have some plans for custom graphics.

 

[Xcruiser]

Yeah nice bike.Kinda hate to see such a clean original tore apart but we all do it lol.Enjoy bro,Ill check back later!

 

[vibr8shun]

I am going to try what Chip Foose describes as “take the ugly out of it.”

I couldn't have said it better.

 

[Circa Cycles]

I like it.Can't wait to see what you do to it.

 

[yoothgeye]

Yeah nice bike.Kinda hate to see such a clean original tore apart but we all do it lol.Enjoy bro,Ill check back later!

I'm the opposite, I love seeing something clean and original being tore up! Do it! Have fun. :mrgreen:

 

[Jake Sensi]

Yeah nice bike.Kinda hate to see such a clean original tore apart but we all do it lol.Enjoy bro,Ill check back later!

YEAH WHAT HE SAID SO...GET TA BUILDIN'!! PEACE

 

[largek9]

Yeah nice bike.Kinda hate to see such a clean original tore apart but we all do it lol.Enjoy bro,Ill check back later!

I'm the opposite, I love seeing something clean and original being tore up! Do it! Have fun. :mrgreen:

Man I donno , I'm glad I don't have to make that call I'd BIG time on the fence,But in the end aint it my call and I trust it will be a great and very nice Build.

 

[Cuan]

So, these are my tires... yes I plan to roll a Fatti. A Fatti-O that is, but I love the size of the 24 X 3.0. I searched and searched and ended up buying a Kenda for the front. I thought that the shape of this Kenda was a good match for the Fatti.

That is my good news, the challenge will be to make it fit. I've heard of people spreading the seat stays with a 2" X 4" or a car jack. I don't want to tweak the frame anymore than I have to.

In other news, I scored a bike off of a co-worker today. She said that I could have it. I tried to offer her money for it, but she said that she was done with it and would be happy to see it gone. It isn't anything too cool, but it is a Huffy Cranbrook.

She didn't ride it much and it has been left outside for at least one winter. I got it home tonight and started looking at the frame, I have to say that my Typhoon is a MUCH better looking frame with smoother joints. The welds on the Cranbrook are sloppy, but it appears to have more width in the rear triangle than my Schwinn.

I mocked up the Fatti on the Cranbrook. It is a tight fit, but it made the bike look much better. The color of the paint and the tire reminded me of a really cool knuckle head I saw in a recent copy of a motorcycle magazine. I am now wondering if I should invoke my frame swap option and build the Cranbrook rather than the Typhoon.

What do you think?

 

[Circa Cycles]

I like the idea of building vintage , to me it means more , kinda like bulding a 57 chevy ..or a kia like the idea of new upgrades on something vintage , kinda like old hotrods ...but thats just me :!: :!: i am just a old guy :wink:

Well said.

 

[raggedjim]

Any updates on this, I like the green Schwinns...

Rg

 

[Circa Cycles]

Me, I'd probably use the Huffy for the build. Then I would have one cool Huffy and still have the cool Schwinn . If you build the Schwinn, you have one cool Schwinn and a Huffy .

See, in one case you have two cool bikes , but in the other case, you have only one cool bike .

Of course at some point, I'd chop 'em both up anyway, so I am a hypocrite really. 8)

And honest :!:

 

[RonK]

Me, I'd probably use the Huffy for the build. Then I would have one cool Huffy and still have the cool Schwinn . If you build the Schwinn, you have one cool Schwinn and a Huffy .

See, in one case you have two cool bikes , but in the other case, you have only one cool bike .

Of course at some point, I'd chop 'em both up anyway, so I am a hypocrite really. 8)

...what he said!

 

[Cuan]

So, I've put this off for way too long. I have excuses ranging from work, traveling for work, vacations, kids, etc, etc. I lost some interest and was demotivated for a while, but I have all of the parts so I'm going to try and finish it and get some photos before I have to go out of town again.

Anyways, I have been doing some work along the way. I stripped all of the components off and did some mockup with the wheels and tires.

I planned on keeping the original paint, but I decided to put some stripes on in. So, where do you go to get cool stripes??? The Rat Fink Reunion and Rat Fink's 50th birthday of course.

http://www.ratfink.com/rat-fink-reunion.php

Ed "BIG DADDY" Roth's widow lives around the corner from my in-laws, so we went down to visit family and get some strips on my bike. My cousin is licensed to do Rat Fink artwork and Ed's widow is a fan of his work.

This photo is Ed's widow Irene with a piece work that my cousin painted. She purchased it at the charity auction during this year's Autorama.

My cousin paints and sells these barrels for use as trash cans. The first picture is one that he painted to match somebody's vehicle. My cousin painted and striped the three cans on the table to sell at the reunion. He had a booth set up at the Rat Fink car show where he and his son were striping and selling work. While I was in his booth, Ed's widow came up and purchased the purple can on the left. She really liked the color.

One interesting thing that I learned at the car show is that my dad striped my cousin's dad's car (my uncle's car) many years ago. My dad was really good at lettering, striping and gold leaf before he passed away almost 40 years ago. My uncle picked up the trade that my grandpa started and now my cousin's 19 year old son is a 4th generation artist. My cousin was going to all of the striping on my bike, but he was busy doing the work below. He had his son, who has been striping for a few years and does nice work too, start the work.

This picture is my cousin painting a Rat Fink on a '67 Impala at the show.

This picture is my cousin's son doing some of the stripe work on my chain guard.

These are some of the details that my cousin added to my stem. I think that I'm going to hold off on more striping pictures until I'm finished. For now, I'll throw in one more picture of a really cool bike that I saw at the Rat Fink car show. It was in the back of a really cool old Volkswagen truck. I'd vote for it if it was in the buildoff. I like the sticker on his gas tank, "YOUR BIKE SUCKS!". I need to get one for my Harley.

 

[Cuan]

Photobucket is down right now, so sorry if the pictures are no showing up right now. You may need to come back later to see the pictures.

 

[kingfish254]

Man, the back page bandits are coming out of the woodwork like rats.

Welcome back. Cool RF stuff.

 

[Cuan]

Man, the back page bandits are coming out of the woodwork like rats.

Welcome back. Cool RF stuff.

I consider myself a proud member of the Back Page Bandit Mafia. And I like the reference about emerging rats, even though I don't deserve it. I'm not as cool as RatRodBikes or the Rat Fink, so a rat reference is still above me.

I've been excited to do this bike since I finally realized what to do with it. I ordered the few parts that I needed the timing was close enough that I decided to wait for the build off to do the work. Like I said at the beginning, it was going to be a simple build. As far as schedule goes, the two things that I had to wait for were for the build off to start and for the RF reunion.

I finished the build yesterday and I took some photos this morning, so after a couple more posts I can return to the back pages where I belong.

 

[kingfish254]

Cool man. Love to see as many builds finish as possible.
Let's see watcha gots!!

 

[Cuan]

I don't have a really cool pile of old vintage bike parts, so I have to buy parts and use what have on hand. Many of my recycled parts come from Wally World bikes that have been trashed. I've picked many bikes myself and my neighbors are starting to give me more old bikes.

My front wheel came from a bike that was pulled from the gutter. It was a Wally World special that was being tossed in the trash because it was a little rusty. My friend wanted the wheel for a bike of his. I did the work for him, but I gave him a wheel that I had and I kept the junk bike. I cut the front of the bike off and made it into a skate bike.

I took the front wheel, did some prep work and painted it for this build. I also repacked the bearings with grease because they were bone dry.

I built the back wheel out of parts from two bikes that were pulled from my neighbor's dumpster. I took the rear hub and stem from a little BMX bike that had been run over. I used the 24" wheel and spokes off the back of a little mountain bike. I painted the wheel, cleaned the spokes and nipples and repacked the bearings with grease. I don't have any pictures of the work as it would be as exciting as watching paint dry. Both the font and rear wheels are nice steel wheels that actually match.

 

[Cuan]

I like ape hanger handle bars, but it didn't want anything as big as the ones that I put on my other cruiser.

I found these bars from Nirve. The size is perfect and they were already black.

I picked up some sparkly green grips off the internet to match the paint. Have I mentioned that there aren't any bike shops within 40 - 50 miles from my house? Wally World sells some parts, but they don't stock what I really need. When the grips showed up and I put them out in the sun, they didn't really match the color of my bike. That is sometimes a problem buying stuff online. Having said all of that, I ended up using some black Bell grips purchased from Wally World.

My friend from the bike store gave me this seat many years ago, specifically for this bike. It is nothing special, but I still like the looks and feel of it for this build.

I painted a few other components and small items and I had everything that I needed to finish the build.

I thrashed yesterday morning and into the afternoon and by the end of the day, I had the bike assembled.

 

[Cuan]

After I finished the build yesterday, I took photos in the front yard. In doing so, I noticed 5 things; First, I suck at taking pictures. I wish that I had a better eye for what looks good. Second, I suck at using our new camera. I couldn't get things in focus for the life of me. Third, lighting at 6 p.m. sucks. Fourth, the combination of my front yard and my dead lawn make a horrible location to take pictures. I may throw a few of the pictures in to show details, but I sure hope not. Finally, I need new pictures.

I decided that I'd get up early in the morning and get some pictures in a better location with some better lighting. Now I don't know if anybody else has already taken their pictures at this new location, or if others were planning on using the same location. I recall that there were a couple of builds with the theme of this new location, so sorry. But, where better to test a new bike build than the Bonneville Salt Flats, and more specifically The Bonneville Salt Flats International Speedway.

I got up at 4 a.m., ate breakfast, packed the camera, an empty memory card, some food, lots of water, sunscreen, tools, cleaning products and I got out there before the sunrise. I was taking pictures and I was starting to do a better job until the stupid battery in my camera ran out of juice. I should have recharged it last night. I'm going out of town tomorrow for a few weeks, so I'm not going to have time to take any more pictures. I'll sort through what I have and post them in finished builds section.

I may be a member of the Back Page Bandit Mafia, but I finished my build. I'm glad that I finally figured out what to do with this bike. I enjoyed doing the build and learning and seeing the things that I did during the whole process. I really like the bike, it looks better than I ever thought it could. I have never liked green, but I like how the black makes the green pop. I like the simple bobber style look of the bike. I love the big fat 24” x 3” tire on the back and the smaller 26” tire on the front. They look much better than the S-7 rims with 26” x 1 – 3 / 4” tires that originally came on it. I like the monkey bars better than the ape hangers that I have used in the past. I have also enjoyed my first rat style build where I didn’t have to cover every scratch, I didn’t have to buy all new shiny fasteners and I recycled as many parts as possible.

Good luck to all and I’ll get my finished pictures up as soon as possible.