Well, another build-off come and gone, and i'm too broke and too busy supporting myself as an amateur Luthier on Ebay and Etsy to participate. 
No matter, I have my 1965 Schwinn Aristocrat to comfort me on late evening rides, and starting in August I will have work driving cars for a dealership and extra cash, so i'll wait...
Or so I thought, before a local bike dealer stops by with a truck full of dumpster parts. It seems that my neighbors kids went to his shop for some bling (lights, bells, streamer) and told him about the crazy man who gave them their hand-painted brazed frames, so he donated some smashed and cracked frames and some cosmetically damaged bits and bobs...and so IT IS FATE THAT I PARTICIPATE in BUILD OFF 10!
(glances at calendar, notes July 29)
AAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!
No matter! I have tools, will and daylight-also, COFFEE. Late late late, my ears and whiskers I am....oh wait, there's my theme!
Here we begin with an untwisted frame-the vinyl sticker reads Kent but the serial number is obscured-it has been covered in what appears to be a 'hide the rust' schoolbus yellow...I remove the stickers and braze an extension to the seat tube...
Hopefully this will give me a wheelbase short enough to stuff into my 1993 Ford Festiva and take to nearby Emerald Isle, while allowing me enough leg room to enjoy pedaling it-a sort of one-speed Japanese commuter if you will. Also, I hate open tubes, so I inserted two bolts to braze it shut, grind round and add more metal to the drop=out welds:
Here are some parts from a Bratz bike-the Ape hangars, duct-taped banana seat and fixings (sadly the frame and wheels were a twisted ruin:
I used a Rustoleum appliance paint on the Apes, bits and bobs and the Springer fork and left it to dry-by rights it needs a solid week to achieve maximum cure, but a full night and day should be sufficient to handle and assemble. the paint I used on the frame cured within three hours though-how odd, I didn't know 'Evinrude' was a color...
Having lost daylight at 8.30 PM I sat down to post-and realized that I had no photo account...Imageshack account awaaaaay! And then I was too tired and went to bed.
DAY TWO-Oh Lord it is July 30 EEEEEEEEEEKKK!!! Okay, don't panic, the COFFEE pot is near...okay, let's go!
I had some vinyl stickers my Dad had thought to decorate his truck with-he decided on a different set and I took the old ones off his hands because-hey, free stuff right? They don't look too bad on this semi-metallic grey-blue sort of paint:
I remove what duct tape I can from the seat (not much, it's on goooood) and cut of a pair of jeans I outgrew many years ago (I save my old clothes for cleaning rags and such, but I think this rich blue denim was made for greater things) between the spray-on adhesive and the pulling and the clamping, I was able to apply the denim over the tape itself with nary a wrinkle:
All right, now I need a set of cranks-wrong size, wrong size, wrong size, nope, nope, no no no no....
YES!!!!!
Okay, gotta book-it's mid-afternoon and I want to finish this build...it won't hold a candle to some of the work i've seen on this board, but it will be MINE! AHAHHAHAHA, Mad they called me, MAD I SA- wow, better cut down on the COFFEE-
(slurp)
After the Build that is.
No matter, I have my 1965 Schwinn Aristocrat to comfort me on late evening rides, and starting in August I will have work driving cars for a dealership and extra cash, so i'll wait...
Or so I thought, before a local bike dealer stops by with a truck full of dumpster parts.
It seems that my neighbors kids went to his shop for some bling (lights, bells, streamer) and told him about the crazy man who gave them their hand-painted brazed frames, so he donated some smashed and cracked frames and some cosmetically damaged bits and bobs...and so IT IS FATE THAT I PARTICIPATE in BUILD OFF 10!(glances at calendar, notes July 29)
AAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!
No matter! I have tools, will and daylight-also, COFFEE. Late late late, my ears and whiskers I am....oh wait, there's my theme!
Here we begin with an untwisted frame-the vinyl sticker reads Kent but the serial number is obscured-it has been covered in what appears to be a 'hide the rust' schoolbus yellow...I remove the stickers and braze an extension to the seat tube...
Hopefully this will give me a wheelbase short enough to stuff into my 1993 Ford Festiva and take to nearby Emerald Isle, while allowing me enough leg room to enjoy pedaling it-a sort of one-speed Japanese commuter if you will. Also, I hate open tubes, so I inserted two bolts to braze it shut, grind round and add more metal to the drop=out welds:
Here are some parts from a Bratz bike-the Ape hangars, duct-taped banana seat and fixings (sadly the frame and wheels were a twisted ruin:
I used a Rustoleum appliance paint on the Apes, bits and bobs and the Springer fork and left it to dry-by rights it needs a solid week to achieve maximum cure, but a full night and day should be sufficient to handle and assemble. the paint I used on the frame cured within three hours though-how odd, I didn't know 'Evinrude' was a color...
Having lost daylight at 8.30 PM I sat down to post-and realized that I had no photo account...Imageshack account awaaaaay! And then I was too tired and went to bed.
DAY TWO-Oh Lord it is July 30 EEEEEEEEEEKKK!!! Okay, don't panic, the COFFEE pot is near...okay, let's go!
I had some vinyl stickers my Dad had thought to decorate his truck with-he decided on a different set and I took the old ones off his hands because-hey, free stuff right? They don't look too bad on this semi-metallic grey-blue sort of paint:
I remove what duct tape I can from the seat (not much, it's on goooood) and cut of a pair of jeans I outgrew many years ago (I save my old clothes for cleaning rags and such, but I think this rich blue denim was made for greater things) between the spray-on adhesive and the pulling and the clamping, I was able to apply the denim over the tape itself with nary a wrinkle:
All right, now I need a set of cranks-wrong size, wrong size, wrong size, nope, nope, no no no no....
YES!!!!!
Okay, gotta book-it's mid-afternoon and I want to finish this build...it won't hold a candle to some of the work i've seen on this board, but it will be MINE! AHAHHAHAHA, Mad they called me, MAD I SA- wow, better cut down on the COFFEE-
(slurp)
After the Build that is.
quick recycling there!
