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photoaggie

photoaggie

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So I am a rookie here, and a rookie to RatRods. I live in Dallas and have been watching Craig's List constantly for a nice bike to work on to make my own. I am finding it tuff to get to the good bikes before they sale. Is there a good source in the Dallas area of reliable older used bikes at prices that make it worth grabbing one and fixing up? I am not looking for a collectors item, I just want one I can toss a custom paint job on and will be a good starter bike to learn how to restore and work on these great old bikes. I currently have an older GT Mountain bike that I will replace or sale one day once I get one of these up and running.
 
You don't have to have anything special to make a killer bike, I'm rocking a used Huffy Santa Fe. It's what you make of it that makes it what it is. If nothing else good deals are being had every day on E-bay. Or post up an add on craigslist that reads something like this:

Wanted: Old school cruiser bikes. CASH PAID !!! Send me pics and we'll go from there.

I've done that many times and found a lot of $5-$10 jewels that way. Also yard sales and scrapyards are great places to find old bikes. I wish you best of luck on your search.
 
It all depends on what you are looking for. Do you want something vintage...60s and older? How much are you wanting to spend?

The Dallas CL is pretty active and you have to be ready to jump on something the minute it pops up.
 
Howdy fellow DFWian! :lol: My advice is to just keep watching CL daily...I check it several times a day and when you do find something you like, jump on it ASAP. Don't wait, do it then!
That saying, WM has really dropped the cost of their Cranbrooks. I paid $75 for mine just the other day and it makes a great starting point for a custom...nothing is rusted tight! :wink: Now of course you'll want to replace a lot of parts to make it better and more suited to your personal taste but at least the basic package is there and easily prepped. But then as always YMMV. 8)
 
outskirtscustoms said:
If only I was a Texan......
Click to expand...
There's always room for one more...but you might rethink that thought of yours today...supposed to be 104 today (heat index of 110...and that ain't "dry heat"!)and a low of 90 tonight. And it's been that way since last Friday and will continue into next week at least. But on the positive side...paint dries real fast! :p
 
I'm a thrift store junkie and it's not too uncommon to find cool bikes there. If you ask an employee what day they put out "new" stuff and go that morning, it's easy to find goodies. Another thing to try... I was at the city dump and the workers there pull out all the bikes to sell. I'm on a mission to find my childhood bike so I wrote down what I was looking for and gave them my number. No success yet but if you're not looking for something specific that might be something to think about.
After we left the dump that day, my hubby pointed out that lots of the workers there are prisoners on work release and I just went and handed out my digits to half of them. D'oh! Thank god I didn't get any "friendly" phone calls!
 
Yeah I hit the thrift stores too. Especially Goodwill, I got a '60's Murry stingray knock off there once for like $10. Mainly got it to fix up for my neighbor's son. But lately there hasn't been squat. And we only got 3 local scrapyards here, one doesn't sell anything, the second the owner won't sell it reasonably and the third normally screws it up with the grabber machine if you don't get it as soon as it comes in. I always watch Craigslist and I've told all the junkers that I buy bikes for scrap value. So normally I'm piled with every Huffy in a 5 mile radius. I've started to tear them down and put wheels in one shed, tires in another, frames I cut in half and make tire hangers out of, anything else I scrap. I always get excited about anything old though. Currently Rating out a Huffy Santa Fe.
 
StepChld said:
outskirtscustoms said:
If only I was a Texan......
Click to expand...
There's always room for one more...but you might rethink that thought of yours today...supposed to be 104 today (heat index of 110...and that ain't "dry heat"!)and a low of 90 tonight. And it's been that way since last Friday and will continue into next week at least. But on the positive side...paint dries real fast! :p
Click to expand...

Ouch that's hot. Didn't really think about that but I'd just have an air conditioner hanging out the garage window.....lol. Right now I'd probably go for it. I work out of 5 sheds and with the rain my back yard has been a swamp and my 3 of the 5 sheds are not water tight in spots. Nothing valuable in them so don't harass me, just a bunch of parts from all the huffys junkers bring me. Where's a good place to find old tank bikes? I've been looking for one for a long while.
 
Come over here, we have dry heat! It only made it to 110 so far this year, pretty tame. Also not much of a cruiser, chopper, rat scene. See a lot of mountain, road race, and recumbents.
 
Dry heat? :roll: Turn your oven on and set it to 120°. Open the door and stick your head in. That's "dry heat"...but it's still HEAT! Gary
 
put the word out that your looking for old bikes.do it long enough
and eventually, they start showing up at your door. :)
voludf.jpg
 

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