Well, I don't spend ALL my time admiring my junk. This is a project I picked up off CL for $25, along w/the famed $25 JC Higgins springer. It's a Columbia Sterling middleweight, pretty ugly and unremarkable. I had the urge to rebuild it as a rat even before I found this lovely site. I completely dismantled it, unlaced the rims, everything. It was also a goal of mine to use as much of the bike as possible, and use replacement parts that weren't pretty enough for a resto. The chrome was basically gone, and the paint wasn't patina-ey enough to leave as is. I sanded it all down w/an electric sander, sprayed w/rust converter and primer. Painted the frame & fork red, then a black topcoat. I'm sanding thru to show some red in spots, and gonna hit it w/some satin clear. Painted the rims red today, cleaned the spokes w/steel wool, and wiped 'em down with silver paint on a rag. This is a great technique for just about anything that's not perfect. The paint will stick to pits and rust. Since the bars were peeling badly, I cleaned up some old roadmaster bars and a Schwinn stamped stem. The crank was bent, so I had a 66 Schwinn crank that had the chrome worn off on both sides. Touched it up with some silver. I painted the sprocket with 'Metalcast' silver, which gives it a freshly sandblasted look. I also taped off the 'Sterling' decal on the chainguard to save it. It has neat art deco-looking letters. This morning I painted the Bendix letters on the brake arm red, as well as the headbadge which had faded. That was tricky! I have an old knobby 2.125 WW for the back, and a 1.75 for the front. I'll have to dig for it, but somewhere I have a Columbia tank which they used on men's and ladies bikes, that oughta spiff things up! It's basically a no-buck buildup, using what I have. This is the before shot. I'll take some in process pics during the week! ~Adam
