Schwinn DX newbie help

[Jfly]

Almost 30 years ago when I was 18 I was given this bike with two coats of house paint on it. I took it apart and removed enough of the paint to see the pattern and did a very amateur paint job on 90 percent of it. I lost interest in it and it sat in a box till a month ago. I finished the paint and now I don't know how to put it back together. Most of it makes sense but not enough for me to finish. Is there any video out there showing all this or can someone guide me thru this? Also would it be completely criminal to spray paint the rusted chrome pieces chrome again? Wish I would've tried harder to save original paint but I was an eager teenager. I have no idea if the ball bearings are even part of this bike.

 

[twojs.bike]

More than happy to help. Probably best to watch a few bike building videos to learn how it goes together first. Then ask specific questions when you need help.

As far as I am concerned, it is your bike, you can do whatever you want to it, without feeling criminal.

I don’t think those loose ball bearings are from the bike. They are trash anyways. Ball bearings really cheap and it’s not worth re-using them in that condition.

Do you have wheels in decent shape?

 

[Pondo]

That's a cool DX you've got there. It's great that you're getting it back on the road. If you want to bring that old chrome out I think it might clean up reasonably well using 0000 steel wool and WD40. If you want to spray paint it that should be fine. You can always strip the paint back off if you want to go back to chrome. And it's a great old bike, just make it your own and enjoy it!

For assembly I think YouTube is a really good resource. Old Shovel does great bike restorations and this video will probably be pretty helpful for you:


LocoJoe is really good too:


For bike how to videos on specific topics I like RJ The Bike Guy
https://www.youtube.com/@RJTheBikeGuy/featured

and Park Tool among others
https://www.youtube.com/@parktool/featured

If you need parts you can ask here on RRBs or check out the CABE
https://thecabe.com/forum/

Start a build thread in the builds section and post your progress with pics as you go. There are lots of experienced folks here who love to help out. You should have that bike on the road in fairly short order and have a blast doing it. Looking forward to seeing your progress!

 

[RustySprockets]

How did I miss that relic build by Old Shovel?!

Anyway... The numbered items constitute two major bearing groups. Items #1, 2, 3, 5, & 8 are from the crank set/bottom bracket assembly. The remaining items #4, 6, 7, 9, 10, & 11 are from the headset/steering. The loose bearings are superfluous junk not related to your bike.

I'm sure the build seems daunting at the moment, but just break the job down into manageable tasks and you'll do fine.

 

[Jfly]

Thanks! Watched the videos and learned a lot. I'll try to make a build thread as I could see more questions coming up.