From rusty dust to Shiny ROSS *Slow-Mo For the Bro*

[OneHorsePower]

Hey fellows ,
So here i am again , thinkering on a other bike , just can't help my self
This one is my brother's Ross 4 bars 26"

He always liked the cruisers i rebuilt over the years ,and 4 year ago , he found that Ross all rusted out in the garage of his gilfriend dad.
not really sure what model it was , but it was metalic green and use to have a shifter ...only the (crank/sprocket/frame/front "rim only"/stem)
was saveable , or worth saving .

He know what he want it to look like, have the bike, but not the knowledge/time/money to rebuild it , so iam slowly putting it back together for him

Here are the first picture i took(bare metal-sand blasted) yeah i know , i forgot the before (rusted) picture

You can see where there was a shifter cable brace on that tube , the rust eat a big hole , and hade to fill it with led and bondo

Here it is on wheels ,primered , i was just trowing parts on it for fun , an that's where i knew what he wanted , a simple clean and useful cruiser
so that front fork n twisted spoke wheel were tossed aside... the new coaster rear wheel stays , it was a gift to him.
This was a few years ago

will post recent updates in few hours

 

[OneHorsePower]

So.. i rebuild the wheels ..painted rims "kaki beige" and wrapped spkoes in matt black "electric wire shrink wrap" topped it off with a nice pair of big apple brown tires.

This is the original front rim-only , or at least the one that was on the bike when we got it

doug out an old seat frame in my parts, cleaned/painted it and used a foam floor mat to make the cover..
I heated it a little bit so it take and keep its shape, and whrapped it in faux leather..
the thing is , i was planing on adding a contour with piping around the edges , but realized it is almost impossible to sow through 3 thickness of this fabric so now i don't really know what to do about all those wrinkles , how to cover/hide them , i don't really want to redo it all...

still have to true the wheels and finish the seat before showing how it looks on the bike

 

[OneHorsePower]

This is the plan! did the drawings tire color based on online pictures before having the tires, so its not exactly the right color , but show look nice still, also the frame may end up all black

and this is the unofficial emblem i plan to do , already did the base of the emblem out of a pvc pipe cut in half .. not sure yet if ill try engrave it or just paint it

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Love that shrink wrap trick, going to have to do that someday...

Luke.

 

[OneHorsePower]

Here is a better preview

 

[OneHorsePower]

Some progress!!
-Finished the seat , ended up redoing it with the piping stitched with the sewing machine ..
-Wheels are now true with tires inflated
-Handlebar is done , i cut the middle bar out of this bmx bars to make nice apes,
and in orther to use the original stem , i had to fab some shims ,
then hide them with some anodized grip clamps i had in my parts bin
-found some nice aluminum pedals
-found a good aluminum 2 leg stand
-found a nice fork with more clearance and style
-and made a Truss-Rods fixation for the neck out of 2 "brake cable addaptors"

but now i need to :
-cut about half inch of the head tube to fit the fork right
-found a better/cleaner/stronger 13/16" seat tube , cuz this one have some dents in it
-fabricate the trussrods
-get other needed parts to get it rolling
-paint it

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Getting there!

Luke.

 

[OneHorsePower]

did some sketches to choose a truss rod design that would fit well , the bro will have the final word , but what you guys think ?

1-

2-

3-

4-

5-

 

[LukeTheJoker]

I like 1 and 5...

Luke.

 

[OneHorsePower]

I like 1 and 5...

Luke.

Thank for your input luke

 

[OneHorsePower]

well well .. i showed him his bike today , he was Very happy with the "rims/tires/seat/bars" but he is not sure about that fork or having trussrods , he ideally want a "aluminum Monark springer repop" or a vintage rat-trap ... he also think , black would not do justice to his frame , so this project is somewhat on hold again , time to find a good fork and the right shade should call this :ROSS Cycle on idle

 

[Mike G]

I say beat him into submission for truss fork #5... that just has such a cool flow of the lines with that frame and totally unique.
How about a pea green (actually more like this one) for the frame, go pretty well with the brown and beige that's already there?

 

[OneHorsePower]

Like this ? ...i like this ! , did a really dark green in the 1st preview , but this shade is sweet

He tought maybe Root-Beer'ish

i suggested "champagne" too but he said hes not sure he want a light color ... its like the rims beige , but with metalic and gloss

for the trussrods , iam kinda don't want to build something and then throw it in the garbage afterwards cause he don't like ,maybe if it takes to long ill juste paint the fork to make it a roller until he find what he like

 

[Mike G]

I like that MOPAR dark green and probably would have suggested it... if I hadn't just seen it in "Show your Ind ChuckZ" thread. That's why I leaned in the pea green direction... that's probably gonna be too light of a color though.
However, I gotta admit that Rootbeer in a metallic would pretty freak'n sweet! Especially if the truss rods were a Champagne metallic!!!

In my best Yoda voice...
"School him you must"
"Coolness in unique truss rods you can find"

Of course after the mental Yoda picture... "Dark green metallic I am seeing it in"

Beauty of that brown/beige combo is just about any dark color will work and still look cool...

 

[OneHorsePower]

Bump!
Started building a springer fork after many thinking , i chose a very simple design i can build with the parts and tool i have.
Will upload pictures very soon , but you can see what it will look like

ill have to see if a put a Mtb rear spring under this one to make it look taller but you can get the idea
the front fork part is a rear seat-stay from a other frame , the springs are a cut seat spring and a cut mtb fork internal spring , the bracket holding thing up under there is held by a bolt with a modified step wedge part inside the lower part of the steering tube

 

[LukeTheJoker]

That should look cool!

Luke.

 

[OneHorsePower]

here is the real thingy

Kind of like a beehive fork , but with a compression spring instead of a tension spring^ ...
-inside the purple fork is a nylon cylender i turned on the wood lathe to align the fork and the smaller inside spring on the kingpin..
-the mtb spring adjuster(big aluminum washer) was also turned to pressfit over the fork and to sit the spring well on it...
-used longboard bushings under to cushion the return of the suspension..

and this the bolt/washer setup ill be using for pivots (the gray washers are composit) and you can also see the raw vs cleaned seal plates (about 1/8" thick)

And finally , i finally been abble to remove these from a retro handlebar almost forgotten in the parts bin

just cant wait to test the spring action hopefully it will be just perf

 

[LukeTheJoker]

That fork looks great!

Luke.

 

[OneHorsePower]

Fork is Done!
and there goes the picture abuse again

Changed my mind on the pivot bolts , did not want to make big holes in the forks , so i used 1/4" bolts with nylon washers inside the links , they are also chrome witch is nicer imo..

also decided to mount that "Liez" battety horn in front , fond that a a garge sale for a buck but does not work , mounted it on a nice thin piece of stainless i polished
Springs are a bit on the stiff side , but the inside one is preloaded "already compressed" so i have a couple of coils loose i can cut

 

[OneHorsePower]

Ajusted the spring and its now Perfect!!! also i forgot to mention the brother did not know anything about that fork design , but when he saw it ,he was impressed and very happy ,wich makes me happy

now it REALLY just misses a chain and a paint job ... so i sent him this :

will see what he choose ... even i am having trouble finding the one i like most.. what's your opignion?