Huffy Santa Fe - First Build

[ExileRed]

Ok, my first bike build/rebuild. I picked up a Huffy Santa Fe a few years back at a Salvation Army store for about $40. It was in decent shape, a little spotting rust here and there but nothing major. Then it sat in my garage for a while...between a year and a half, possibly closer to two years. Time to rebuild and make her new-ish again.

Overall plan is to strip her down, clean her up, repaint and then re-assemble with a mix of new and stock parts just to customize a bit. Later on I may drop a motor on her, but that's not decided yet.

She started off like so...



Now she looks a bit more like this...



I still have to pull the bottom bearing and pop off the chain this afternoon. May start paint stripping, may wait till the weekend.

Oh, and this guy showed up to volunteer as a build mascot, so he will be getting a matching paint-job.

 

[KingOwheele]

Is this for real?

 

[ExileRed]

Yes it's for real. I don't have huge plans since it's my first build. Sorry to disappoint.

 

[Bill in Houston]

far out. i got a huffy santa fe in 6th grade, but it was a 10-speed road bike.

 

[Onewheelsqueel]

Sorry to disappoint.

But your doing such a good job of it. Totally just kidding. Do what you do, build, learn, evolve build better. Build on. Keep it real yo. lol

 

[raggedjim]

Actually, that is a perfect bicycle to start with. The huffy's aren't rare or worth so much that it will make a difference if you make a few mistakes along the way, they are put together just like the older bicycles, and they make good looking and riding bikes when they are done.

The only disappointment will be if you give up on it.

Good luck! Rg

 

[ExileRed]

Spent a bit of time this afternoon learning how to strip paint from a bike. I started with the chain guard since it seems to be the most expendable if some sort of tragic stripping accident made the original worthless.

All in all not a particularly difficult task, but time consuming. I know that taking it to a sandblaster would be quicker and much more efficient, but I prefer to do this sort of thing by hand. Though I may pick up a wire-wheel to try and speed up the process.

We begin...

Working...

Finished