Has been Schwinn Twin

[us56456712]

Someone gave me this Schwinn Twin frame. Weighs like 15 pounds. It has been passed around because the fork race was stuck.
Here it is as given to me. It's a real has been, even the crank bearing cups are gone.

After 4 days of PB Blaster, heat and force it finally came apart, but I had to use my bench vice and use my large pry bar. It howled like mad and got hot but it came loose.

Then into the Jet Sled for a week of phosphoric acid.

The kick stand brace was cut off and there was a big ugly dent where it used to be. It must have tipped over and dented the frame at the kick stand and thus the brace was sawed off.

I don't really care about the cosmetics as this bike will be a Frankenrat but I thought I would see if I could fill it in using battery welding and some 6013 electrodes.

It needs more filler but my marine battery is shot and will only hold a charge for a few minutes. It ran out of juice before I could finish. I am satisfied that I could do this again and do it so you couldn't even tell but this is good enough for the Has Been.

 

[assa9]

Very cool.

 

[jamesdart]

ive been having ideas about a tandem frame I have. ill be watching this.

 

[us56456712]

The frame has been cleaned and lightly sanded. It's in rough shape as far as paint chipping and pitting. My son wants me to have it powder coated for my daughters wedding but it is only going to be used once and that seems like a waste of $. A complete strip job seems excessive for a one time use also. Since the gals will wear navy blue dresses and they guys navy blue blazers and khaki pants I thought I would use these colors for the tandem. Dupli-Color Sparkles hides minor imperfections pretty well so I thought I would shoot Dupli-Color Ocean Blue Sparkles over a navy blue base with the khaki highlights like on the fork and darts. Depending on how it looks I might buy new chrome fenders. The dog bone passenger handle bar stem is gone so I looked around my junk. The Schwinn seat post tube has an OD of 1 inch. I have an old Fuji frame that has an ID of one inch at the seat post clamp. I plan to cut this off, leaving about 3-4 inches of the top tube attached and use this for a seatpost clamp for the front seat. The plan is to use the 3-4 inches of the top tube for a place to put a conventional stem and jam wedge, I hope this works?. I am also toying with the idea of using rear derailleur parts to fab an idler wheel for the synchronizing chain tensioner. I searched my junk and found two one piece crank double chain wheels with the same number of teeth. They have the built in chain wheel guard, but the pattern is different. I don't know how this will look but it could save me having to fab a chain guard. I have a heavy duty front steel wheel with a drum brake and a heavy duty steel coaster rear that should handle the extra weight of a tandem. Once it is primed, filled at the worse places and sanded I will put on the paint. Hopefully I can then throw it together to see how it rides. Off to camp now to play for a few days as it is going to be 80F today. It's been getting down to 45F at night for several weeks and the mornings feel like fall. The leaves have been starting to turn color for about two weeks now. I have two bikes to paint in the next week or so because it might stay too cold after that to paint, you never know this time of year if you will have nice weather from the south or cold weather from Hudson's Bay, its a fight as to which one wins, usually back and forth.

 

[us56456712]

It's almost 80 today, 90F inland but high humidity with no wind. I painted the frame with the base coat today. It has metal etching primer on it, then minimal scratch filler in the rust pits, then sand then metal etch primer followed by 2 cans of primer filler followed by a can of sandable primer and a can of regular old primer. I used up all the primer I had laying around. A few can's no longer worked so I decided to use it all up. It will not be a good job but good enough. In a few days when it is nice again I will put on the color coat. I did it outside but no matter how calm it is a few bugs always find the paint. I took a trailer full of bike parts to the junk yard this morning and found another chain ring that matches the pattern on another one I have. One was grey and one was black, now they are both flat black. They both have 39 teeth on the small chain wheel that will be used for the synchronizing chain.

 

[us56456712]

Made a dog bone replacement for the stoker handlebars which also acts as the seatpost clamp for the captain's seat.
Schwinn stoker's seatpost O diameter.

Old road bike seatpost clamp I diameter.

Saw off the seatpost stays

Cut the top tube

File down the new dog bone replacement, Starting to look like something.

Stoker's stem and bars mounted on the Captain's seatpost.
I'll have to see how the riding position works with this, might have to rethink and go another rout or maybe use different bars?

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Looks like it should work!

Luke.

 

[us56456712]

Here is the finished dog bone in the wedding colors

 

[us56456712]

I ordered 2 part clear coat about 10 days ago and it still hasn't shipped. What the! Fall is here, 10 more days until bird season. It's cold at night and I have 2 bikes to paint. I am starting to get real impatient and itchy so I ordered the clear coat again from another vendor. I have leaves down and they are blowing into my shop. There is quite a bit of leaf color in certain spots but no where near peaking. Just on the other side of Lake Superior in Ontario the leaves get bright red on the hill tops by the middle of August, which always amazed me. I am hauling scrap wood from a flooring mill to burn this winter. I will have to start raking and hauling leaves in the next two weeks which is a pain chore as my cottage and home are in the woods and I usually have about 50 small garden trailer loads to get rid of. I hate fall leaves. Soon it will be too cold to paint. I might have to forgo the clear and put the bikes together without it.

 

[xddorox]

Love the ghetto weld idea. Nice project.

 

[us56456712]

I bug bombed on the heavy metal flake blue over navy blue bomb and then 2 part clear coat. The neighbor lady said I looked like I had on a bomb suit - Tyvek coveralls, rubber swamper boots, face shield, safety glasses and 2 pair on nitrile gloves. It hid the rough chipped rusted off original paint pretty well. I didn't want to spend time stripping it.

 

[Bike Bum]

I do love me some metal flake, especially when it's blue!!

 

[us56456712]

I tried to make a chain idler sprocket out of an old derailleur but it took too much fussing around. In the end I just made one out of a derailleur bogey wheel and an old canti brake arm. It seems to work with the chain not jumping out. I don't want to spend any $ on this project so getting one from the Bay for $40 is out of the question. It is only going to be ridden once at the wedding so why bother with new parts. The chain is made out of two from my scrap trailer.

 

[Just Jarrod]

Someone gave me this Schwinn Twin frame. Weighs like 15 pounds. It has been passed around because the fork race was stuck.
Here it is as given to me. It's a real has been, even the crank bearing cups are gone.

After 4 days of PB Blaster, heat and force it finally came apart, but I had to use my bench vice and use my large pry bar. It howled like mad and got hot but it came loose.

Then into the Jet Sled for a week of phosphoric acid.

The kick stand brace was cut off and there was a big ugly dent where it used to be. It must have tipped over and dented the frame at the kick stand and thus the brace was sawed off.

I don't really care about the cosmetics as this bike will be a Frankenrat but I thought I would see if I could fill it in using battery welding and some 6013 electrodes.

It needs more filler but my marine battery is shot and will only hold a charge for a few minutes. It ran out of juice before I could finish. I am satisfied that I could do this again and do it so you couldn't even tell but this is good enough for the Has Been.

Nice! I'm also working on a tandem (Monark). I had the same issue with the fork! It moaned and heated up. I ended up taking the sawzall to it.

 

[us56456712]

Progress has been slow on the Has Been, too busy raking leaves, building a shed, cutting firewood and hunting. I am leaving for hunting camp shortly for the weekend. We are having weird weather, we had a tornado/water spout just off shore on Lake Superior this afternoon with thunder and sunshine. They are predicting snow tonight and Friday and Saturday. It's going to be hard on my dog as he has short hair and hates the cold.


The dog bone might have to be shortened for the stocker's knees to clear?

Men's seat in the front, Woman's seat in the rear, because this is what I have. I plan to recover the Woman's seat in black.

 

[us56456712]

Done for now. I can store it as it is. In the spring I will put on grips, install the drive chain, put on a set of better whitewall tires I have, reupholster the rear seat, connect the front drum brake cable, and paint the rear bars and steel pedal parts. I might get chrome fenders for it, depending on how much they cost or else use a pair I have.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Looking good!

Luke.

 

[us56456712]

It's done. What a beast to ride. I needed a small spacer on the drive hub to get the 2 chains to clear at the rear chain wheel. Over the winter I found a seat to match one I already had at the thrift store. I also found two matching sets of pedals and two matching cranks in my junk. It's all set for the wedding with the wedding colors. The basket will have flowers in it. I guess i could make matching license plates for the seats with the wedding year and month but probably not.

 

[Chad T]

That came out nice. Looks great.

 

[us56456712]

The betrothed testing the Schwinn twin in the poring rain. Next, a test in a wedding dress and a tux? Ha, Ha. They said it was fun and rode OK but for me it was like riding a bike with a frame made out of wire, except it must have been uranium wire. They were probably being polite when they said it rode "not too bad".