Middle Child -- Done!

[horsefarmer]

Minor mundane micro-update time...


IMG_20150516_085516 by Nick, on Flickr

So, those pedals are not coming off. I also need a new 9/16 wrench. The bottom bracket was easy to take apart, though, so I disassembled with it still in the bike.


IMG_20150516_071636035_HDR by Nick, on Flickr

I spray-degreased the whole shootin' match and wiped it down. It's drying nicely. Later today the garage should become a Florida oven and bake all the solvents out...'cause it's Florida.


IMG_20150516_074016873 by Nick, on Flickr


IMG_20150516_073917046_HDR by Nick, on Flickr

Mmm...nice, clean bearings and degreased chain.

I used the same method on my Hawthorne, left the peddles in place and cleaned and greased the bearings.

 

[noodlenoggin]

More micro-updates.


New tires/tubes/bell by Nick, on Flickr

Got my stuff from Wal-Mart on-line -- tires, tubes and a ding-dong bell.


Bicycle forks by Nick, on Flickr

Spent an hour out in the garage and got the forks stripped down. It's 90 out there right now, with a heat index of 96...so I came in to shower and maybe play some games with the family. It's slow-going, but it's progress.

 

[Fv2]

Slow progress is better than no progress,and family is more important.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Any progress is good progress...

Luke.

 

[noodlenoggin]

'Nother hour...more clean metal. Little more than half the frame done.


IMG_20150602_201049824 by Nick, on Flickr

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Looking good!

Luke.

 

[noodlenoggin]

Looking good!

Luke.

lol, Thanks, Luke. You don't have to keep praising my micro-progress, though!

 

[noodlenoggin]

Ha! I feel like I actually accomplished something! Frame, fork, fenders, chainguard, seat clamp...all down to bare metal, ready to be wiped down and primed. I got out in the garage at about 9:30, and it was already in the high 80's. By the time I knocked off at about 11 to make breakfast for the girls, I was dripping sweat. Literally. Disgustingly. Splashing on my glasses and dripping on the metal I was stripping.

How's sweat for a patina-starter? Good? No? Asking for a friend....


IMG_20150606_104806030 by Nick, on Flickr

So I threw 'em all together with the tires and leaned 'em against my "2nd workbench."


IMG_20150606_104817915_HDR by Nick, on Flickr

And I'm really thinking of mounting the fender like that, faux taildragger style. It might bug me a little, leaving all that open space by the seat tube where there should be a fender, but I like the way it looks in back.

Actually, anyone who's done this...I'd be giving up the mounting screw in the middle of the fender. Any problems with the fender only secured in two places instead of three?

Oh, and since it's the first day of summer vacation for the kids, breakfast was homemade crepes. Roll 'em up with blackberry jelly...mmmm. I had to enlist my 12-year-old to roll 'em for the 8-year-old twins, because I couldn't cook 'em fast enough to keep up. Little fact about crepes...you can eat about 3, maybe 4, and have all the hunger in the world...then they go >CLANK< in your belly and form a lead ball that lasts just about until dinner. Good stuff!

 

[noodlenoggin]

Aaand, two updates in one day! It's crrraaaazzzzzyyyyyyy!

Anyway, we had a decent thunderstorm bang through the Tampa suburbs, and it cooled things off, so I spent another couple of hours out in the garage.


IMG_20150606_144813786 by Nick, on Flickr

BREAKING NEWS...frame swap!!

No, not really. I did break down the donor bike, though. Wheels, hubs, shifter, cables, brakes (maybe) and I was GONNA keep the black grips...but they were persnickety and ticked me off, so I cut 'em and whipped 'em in the garbage. Taught THEM to talk back.


IMG_20150606_145747402_HDR by Nick, on Flickr

Now, in the category of "no detail is too small," there's this tiny little cable end. It was crimped on the end of the shifter cable, back at the rear wheel, and I had to cut it off to pull out the cable. BUT, I saw that it had only been crimped at the very end, so ten seconds with the Dremel tool and...


IMG_20150606_150031294 by Nick, on Flickr

New, shorter but still usable cable end. This little thing went into a ziploc so I wouldn't lose it, and into the box of donor parts.

Next, I spent some quality time with a piece of sheet steel, cutoff discs in my Skilsaw and the Dremel tool, then a grinding bit in the Dremel. End result:


IMG_20150606_151851563 by Nick, on Flickr

One cut-and-deburred tank plate. Bonus points....it even FITS!

I peeled the old, crusty tires from the donor wheels and tossed 'em. They may be perfectly true, but they're rustier than I thought, and I just didn't have the gumption to break out the drill and wire wheel again today, so since it was about 4pm, I came in and grabbed a hard lemonade and took a shower.

 

[Fv2]

When grips give me a fit I just pry the end up with a small flat screw driver and spray some WD40 in with the supplied tube, takes a minute of working but they always come off.

Of course you have to soak them in soapy water after but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

 

[Flying Sheepdog]

And I'm really thinking of mounting the fender like that, faux taildragger style. It might bug me a little, leaving all that open space by the seat tube where there should be a fender, but I like the way it looks in back.

Actually, anyone who's done this...I'd be giving up the mounting screw in the middle of the fender. Any problems with the fender only secured in two places instead of three?

Lookin' good. You're way ahead of me. I have my rear fender mounted at three points like that as well. If you look at some of the older bikes with racks they had the same. Three points will do fine. An old welding instructor used to tell me constantly - "Two points is a line, three points is a plane." I didn't know what the heck he was talking about until he started knocking my tacked welds off when I tacked them in only two points.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Looking good!

If you grab another fender brace from somewhere and place it so it joins the fender where the brake bridge used to it should be all good.

Luke.

 

[noodlenoggin]

Looking good!

If you grab another fender brace from somewhere and place it so it joins the fender where the brake bridge used to it should be all good.

Luke.

Hmmm...I like that idea. And I have some fender braces from the donor bike...they don't match but could work.

Thanks!

 

[noodlenoggin]

When grips give me a fit I just pry the end up with a small flat screw driver and spray some WD40 in with the supplied tube, takes a minute of working but they always come off.

Of course you have to soak them in soapy water after but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

Thanks...I lost all the little red tubes long ago. Besides, I was tearing the grip up with channel locks, AND it made me mad so it had to die.

 

[horsefarmer]

Thanks...I lost all the little red tubes long ago. Besides, I was tearing the grip up with channel locks, AND it made me mad so it had to die.

I tried getting windex under a grip the other day using a screwdriver, ect.
IDK how many years it had been on there it was like cemented on with some kind of black goop. It ended up pealing off inside out, looked like a black mushroom!

 

[noodlenoggin]

'Nother hour or so in the garage...wire wheel, some chrome polish, and presto -- shiny wheels. So on went the new tires.


IMG_20150612_185955990 by Nick, on Flickr

And now that it's on its wheels and we can visualize better, Evie and I brainstormed on the paint scheme.

 

[OddJob]

And I'm really thinking of mounting the fender like that, faux taildragger style. It might bug me a little, leaving all that open space by the seat tube where there should be a fender, but I like the way it looks in back.

Actually, anyone who's done this...I'd be giving up the mounting screw in the middle of the fender. Any problems with the fender only secured in two places instead of three?

Lookin' good. You're way ahead of me. I have my rear fender mounted at three points like that as well. If you look at some of the older bikes with racks they had the same. Three points will do fine. An old welding instructor used to tell me constantly - "Two points is a line, three points is a plane." I didn't know what the heck he was talking about until he started knocking my tacked welds off when I tacked them in only two points.

That welding instructor would have fit right in at our house...my dad taught geometry for 34 yrs to his students; 56 yrs to me...

 

[noodlenoggin]

Spent time this morning working on "smalls." More wire brush and chrome polish on bars, stem, seat post, brake levers, etc.


IMG_20150613_105858055 by Nick, on Flickr

Also disassembled the brake calipers and took off the rust. I could kick myself -- I can't find the back brake for Evie's bike. I have the brakes from the donor bike, but they're rustier. Also I need the cable that's attached to the brake. But somewhere in my pit of a garage there's a brake hiding.


IMG_20150613_105830301_HDR by Nick, on Flickr

Like I said, the donor calipers were rustier, and the chrome plating brushed off in places, so I hit 'em with a shot of primer, and some gloss black.

While waiting for the paint to dry, I worked on my son's Army bike from BO8. I peeled off the tennis racket tape that we'd used for handgrips, and put on some real grips that don't get your hands all sticky and nasty. This is his bike:


DSCN0018 by Nick, on Flickr

So when the calipers had dried to the touch, I reassembled 'em so I don't lose more tiny pieces.


IMG_20150613_112617898 by Nick, on Flickr

 

[gsc]

Starting to look like a bike again very cool..

 

[noodlenoggin]

Starting to look like a bike again very cool..

LOL, I know, right!?

I think I'm past the teardown-clean-and-strip phase, finally, and into painting and reassembling.