Oil can, please! Rustiest bike I've ever found.

[Alienbaby17]

I picked this up today. It had been on CL locally for about a month but the seller was very hard to communicate with. I finally got her to agree to a time to meet up and came home with this rusty prize.

The down tube is actually separated at the bottom and the crank bearings are rusted to the point it won't turn. The fork also didn't turn until I gave the whole bike a shower in PB Blaster. Then I 'coaxed' it into a little movement. The front wheel hoop is also rusted to the point of being junk.

I'm going to let it soak for a few days or a week before I try to move anything else.

Still despite all of its major flaws I had to have it.

 

[Wildcat]

Gorgeous! I believe it's a Snyder made Hawthorne.

 

[Jamie825]

Very cool tank!

 

[imthegrt1]

What a great find.better luck than me this weekend .what's up plans with it?

 

[Alienbaby17]

What a great find.better luck than me this weekend .what's up plans with it?

I think I'm going to let it soak in penetrant for at least a week before I do anything else to it. The woman I bought it from had been using it as, "garden art" for the last two years. When I initially hit it with some PB Blaster I could almost hear the rusty metal cry out, "Thank you".

After it soaks for a bit I'll throw it on the stand and see what comes apart. I think the fork should probably loosen up without much trouble. If the crank comes apart I'll be really pleased but it seems like a long shot.

I'd like to get it apart and clean up and then fix the seat tube. If I could be successful at that I might even replace the crank with a modern non-skip tooth one for now and swap on a set of more modern wheels and tires and try to ride the thing!

I also forgot to mention I think the rear hub is wrecked. internally. Even though the crank and chain are rusted completely solid the rear wheel still spins in both directions pretty freely. That's part of the reason I might just convert it over to a slightly more modern wheel set I've got lying around. We'll see how she goes.

 

[DoubleL]

Nice rescue! Good eye! Looks like how the majority of my bikes looked when I discovered them. PB is wonderful stuff eh? Keep the natural aged patina and at most...a clear satin urethane finish over the mildly "burnished" natural oxidation. The tank is as I put it..."WAY COOL"....new old rims, set of cremes....wow!

 

[The Black Monark]

Looks like a Monark (Rocket) frame to me. These bikes fairly often came apart at the seat tube & down tube to bottom bracket. It appears that at some point they started putting a big blobby weld under the down tube, maybe in hopes of stopping that.

 

[Wildcat]

Gorgeous! I believe it's a Snyder made Hawthorne.

Duh! It says Western Flyer right on the tank, my mistake, it can't be a Hawthorne.
I think it's a Ross style sprocket.

 

[Alienbaby17]

Looks like a Monark (Rocket) frame to me. These bikes fairly often came apart at the seat tube & down tube to bottom bracket. It appears that at some point they started putting a big blobby weld under the down tube, maybe in hopes of stopping that.

That makes sense. When I flipped it over there was still the original little stamped tag on the bottom of the crank. It looked identical to the tag on the bottom of a 40's Monark I have. Who made the Monark bicycles of this vintage?

 

[The Black Monark]

Who made the Monark bicycles of this vintage?

Monark!

 

[Alienbaby17]

Monark!

Ha! OK! I guess that makes sense.

 

[Rustinkerer]

It can be dated by the serial #, if it's still legible. -Adam

 

[Alienbaby17]

I think I was thinking some other manufacturer because I had never seen a Monark with a skip tooth on it.

I'll get a look at those SN's tomorrow.

 

[Rockit!]

I think I was thinking some other manufacturer because I had never seen a Monark with a skip tooth on it.

I'll get a look at those SN's tomorrow.

That actually looks like a Shelby sprocket to me. Swapped in at some point in time!

 

[Rustinkerer]

That actually looks like a Shelby sprocket to me. Swapped in at some point in time!

Agreed. 99% of Monarks had 1/2" chain. -Adam

 

[Wildcat]

Here's a Shelby sprocket:

And a Ross:

From your pic, I'd say it's a Shelby sprocket, larger holes and skiptooth.