I guess I kinda ran out of time to do a proper photo shoot for this one. Down to the last day, and it's a rainy cruddy day and we have plans to go to a cookout, so all I can do is rip off a few shots against the garage door and the neighbor's brick wall. Oh well, the bike will have to stand on its own merits.
This was kind of an interesting project. Many times I've heard guys here on the board say stuff like "Listen to the bike." Well, it took me a while, but I finally heard this bike saying "stop putzing around with taillight ideas."
Sure enough, I was better off sticking with what I started with.
My daughter asked why I left the little #32 decals all over the bike. It's a philosophy I carried over from collecting old Aurora slot cars. Many guys who collect will go to a lot of trouble and expense to restore cars to their original condition. But on the occasions when I have found a Pit Kit full of cars left exactly the way they were when the kid discovered girls and stopped playing with toys, all painted and stickered and beat up, I have mostly left them exactly as I found them as sort of a snapshot of a different time. Some kid spent his hard-earned paper route money buying decals and fat little tires and hop-up magnets to customize this thing, and I choose to preserve that.
Same goes for this bike. Fifty years ago, some kid made it his own with these decals. Now I made it mine with the bars and seat and cleanup effort, but the decals are part of the story.
