Huffy Cranbrook " Rattitude Adjustment "

[junknutz1975]

July 30 , 2014

Immediately after I finished building my 1945 Elgin Build Off 9 bike I wheeled it into the backyard and started on my next project......


This is a quick makeover project that I was " commissioned " by a friend to build for him...... Quick background....

OK, so I have a group of awesome friends which I go vintage camping with a couple of times a year ( among other things ).... We call ourselves the " Time Travel Camping Club " ( Follow us on Facebook and all our shenanigans HERE ---->- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Time-Travel-Camping-Club/616167108498449?ref=br_tf )

....... Anyways, we all bring along vintage bikes ( of course ) .... except one friend brings along the Huffy Cranbrook that I found behind a dumpster. I gave it to him about 5 years ago or so....
We razz him about it ...... Well I have been asked to do it up for him...... So here goes..... Oh yeah, and the deadline is August 9th , just in time to go on our next campout.....


Exhibit A



































This thing SCREAMS Made in China


Stay Tuned!

 

[junknutz1975]

July 30 , 2014

Tear down to see what I have to work with....








1st thing to go is the darned Chinese forks.... Dead giveaway its a new Wallyworld bike....

Tried out a few options.... Ya know , to see what sticks...




1st tried the Columbia Thunderbolt forks... ok , but not quite right...
Then tried the original Schwinn fork from Gumby Rumpus.... MUCH BETTER!




Dragged a parts Columbia up from the basement ( gotta thin the herd and use up all the girls parts bikes I have... GEESH! )

Threw the fenders on and the chain guard , just to see ..... Kinda like em!





still undecided on the wheel and tire arrangement.... time ( not much of it! ) will tell...


Early mock up pic....







Stay Tuned!

 

[junknutz1975]

August 1 , 2014


Really humid today , but time is running short. And I can't have my buddy walking at our campout ....


Got a lot of the fun stuff accomplished today.

I decided the fenders were a keeper. First had to figure out how to mount em up....










I drilled the rivets out on a totally trashed donor fender. Not even sure why I kept it..... For the bracket , yeah that's it









Riveted in place.... found the rustiest hardware I could find









Obviously I have to get to the " body work " to fix up the awful Chinese
craftsmanship ( Chinese and craftsmanship do not belong in the same sentence )





Decided where it needed to be bobbed.
YES , needed!







Made sure the chain line was ok ,and not interfering with the chain guard. It was fine so I decided to keep it in the plan












Time to make some sparks! .....






















ground down , drilled the rear drop out ,and mounted the chain guard...
















Enough fun for tinker day 2.....

Stay Tuned....

 

[juniorswv]

Love cranbrooks..keep us posted!!!

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Cool build! Are those new forks a bit bent?

Luke.

 

[junknutz1975]

Love cranbrooks..keep us posted!!!

You got it! This is a quickie build.Started July 30th. Deadline is August 9th . Stay tuned

Cool build! Are those new forks a bit bent?

Luke.

Thanks Luke!
Yeah I though the same thing at 1st. I removed and inspected them over and over. I can't find any bend or anything. The base of the fork ( where the head tube meets the fork ) is actually thicker at the front vs. the rear. Seems that's how its made. Wierd

 

[whitefiretiger]

Can't wait to see how this turns out.

 

[junknutz1975]

August 3 , 2014

Had the day off from work .
....Our campout is this coming Saturday.... Tick Tock Tick Tock

I had a few more details I wanted to take care of before the bodywork starts.....

Had to grab some more parts from the Columbia girls donor bike. Another detail on Chinese bikes is the way the lower end always looks so cheesy. So I mixed and matched some Schwinn parts and Columbia to hide the Chinese bearing cups.






MUCH BETTER!




Removed all the lame stickers!






....and the quick release seatpost clamp had to go!







filed the hole to size..






I'm not sure if these New Departure S-2 beauties are gonna stay on this build or not.... They are pretty sweet!!















Last full " dress rehearsal " before the bodywork..









Had to get rid of the water bottle nut-serts







I started to clean up the awful welds that good ol China did
I am only gonna concentrate on the main weld areas , the ones your eyes are drawn to 1st. The rest will not be as noticeable.
I hope







some plastic filler action

















Some Faux-tina time....






























































Drying overnight.....
Next up.
Wet Sand feathering.......



Stay Tuned

 

[patman73]

cool bike !

 

[patman73]

cool bike !

 

[whitefiretiger]

Nice can't wait to see how the paint job looks after sanding

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Cool, looking forward to seeing the paint!

Luke.

 

[junknutz1975]

Thanks guys!

August 4 , 2014


I had a few hours to play before I leave for work.

My weapons of choice today....






It's a bit sloppy . So I did the whole thing on a tarp on the garage floor....







Really happy with how it turned out!

















Full dress rehearsal































I still have to trim the front fender a bit , rebuild the hubs , true the rims, and grease everything.....
not 100% sure if I like the chain guard as is or not. ( I have tomorrow off, we'll see )
I certainly LOVE the contrast of the fenders.... really makes the faux-tina pop


Now I'm off to work ......


Stay tuned!

 

[whitefiretiger]

Looks good.
Maybe paint the chain guard like the fenders or match the fork. My 2c isn't liking the 4 colors.

Nice kickstand BTW but it may be a little hard to carry around.

If I didn't know it I wouldn't think this was a cranbrook

 

[junknutz1975]

August 5 , 2014


I spent the entire day out in the garage today

Crunch time! Deadline is Saturday .....

In all my prior mock up picks I had a stack of bearing cups on the front forks... Only so I could tighten it up and stop the clunk while tinkering on the rest of the bike .....

Today , 1st on the list was to fix that....

Removed all the cups, and measured everything up...



























( I had to use the drill wire brush wheel in despiration ... I forgot that I used my other one as a wooden paddle for my " leading " project on my 1945 Elgin )


I only inserted the junk neck for lineup and for the initial few tack welds. The chrome was decent within, so it doesn't actually get welded by accident. Then I removed it to finish weld.....
















Ground down...
and filed inside...Patience











All one piece again , and no need for the extra bearing cups....







Next up....

( now that the fork is properly fitted ) ....On to the trimming of the front fender ....











....electrical tape to figure out where I wanted to cut....


















MUCH BETTER !



















.... I slept on it and figured out what to do with the chain guard.....


.... Before





.... During

I sanded down the raised areas.... part of it feathered, some bare metal , some primer ,and some pinstripe showing .

The valley part ,with the silk screened remnants of " Traveller " , I sanded some. Leaving only hints of blue
















...masked off the raised portion with electrical tape ( so easy to use, especially with a brand new razor blade



















Fogged on many layers of odd varying colors....
So odd , that my neighbor came over to see what the heck I was up to ( true story )

























My color palette







Dried in the sun for 30 minutes or so, then wet sanded.....





Perfect match to the fenders.....

Quick background on the fenders ( whole bike actually ).....
My friends father works for the Parks and Recreation department... He found the red girls Columbia donor bike abandoned in the woods behind a cemetery and gave it to me .... There were vines woven through the spokes and all.... can't ruin that sort of patina and provenance




Do you see what I see ?
( yes , it is a junk 1996 Honda Accord motor mount )
I saved it a while back from work , figuring I might need it someday( really thick metal )
..... today is the day.

Don't see it yet? .... You will...



















( I haven't had a chance yet to de-rust my tools from the patina jig during the build off. )
Oh well. I've got a deadline






















( it was just like the smokiest of smoke shows. Smelled like tires burning .... It was awesome!! )

























If you guessed the Honda motor mount was to make a tombstone shaped bracket to mount a Farm-All tractor ( black AND red ) upside down...
.... Then you're good


The headlamp is an extra one from Gumby Rumpus , his is the flip flop version of this one ( red with black )







































as time marches on the chain guard will only get cooler and cooler!!
All that bare metal and feathering was my part, mother nature has it from here







Stay Tuned !

 

[whitefiretiger]

Looks much better now.

Loving the RF head badge.

 

[junknutz1975]

Looks much better now.

Loving the RF head badge.

Thanks dude!

The Rat Fink "head badge" is a sticker I bought from @Smoopy's here on the forum.
I applied it , and then burnt it with my blowtorch to age it

This has been a fun quickie project.

I sure hope my buddy likes it as much as I do

 

[whitefiretiger]

Hope he like it too.

Still wondering why no kickstand lol

 

[raggedjim]

Great job! No one should ride a stock bike... Well, unless it's a vintage stock bike.

Rg

 

[junknutz1975]

Hope he like it too.

Still wondering why no kickstand lol

I always wait to put the kickstand on til last. The bike gets put together and taken apart during the mock ups 100 times. Easier for me to just prop it up on the jack stands. Wierd , I know

Great job! No one should ride a stock bike... Well, unless it's a vintage stock bike.

Rg

AGREED!