The Ben Davis

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Sorry for coming so late to the game. I have had issues with losing my photos. I was able to recover enough to tell my story.

The frame I have is a 1955 Schwinn Straight Bar with springer fork. I bought this in 2003 off ebay for $45 from a guy in Illinois. I am in California.

(This phot was pulled offline) Difference is my bike had more rust and a white chain guard.

Here is the rear wheel which was in the best shape. I removed the hub in hopes of repairing it.

The Sweet Heart Sprocket skiptooth

I am a big fan of the Fat Frank tires made by Schwalbe. The bike is being built around the color of the tires. It was my hope to save the wheels to use the original skip tooth setup. This was not the case.

 

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So I lost the photos from the paint stripping. Since this was my first project I was a little ill prepared to take 55 years of paint and rust of the bike. I started by using a sanding disc with air compresser. This worked for large areas, but I lucked out and was able to us a sandblaster for the majority of the build.

Here is the best picture I have of the sanded and primed bike.

Here is another primed picture. The bike had a cool metallic raw look from the sand blasting.

The bikes name is The Ben Davis because it will be a black and brown 2 tone color to match my new rims and tires. Tried to keep original parts, but the chrome was to rusted and skip tooth chain was dead.

Here is the first layer of black gloss paint (Rattle Can Krylon).

Another pic from the front.

The hardest part was finding the right brown to match the tires, seat, and grips. Eventually I used a Krylon Satin Brown Boots. I was worried that the gloss and satin wouldn't look right next to each other. To blend them, I gloss clear coated the whole frame. I tried to be fancy with the paint lines. Instead I stuck to something simple and symetrical

From the front.

Rookie mistake: Didn't cover up the second paint area before painting the first coat. I did it in reverse. I was fortunate I kept it simple.

 

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Here are the new parts I needed to add to the bike. The only original components left on this build beside the the frame are the cranks, bearings, seat post tightener, and license plate.

The Fat Franks lit up with 26in black rims.

Felt Hot Wheels Seat.

Aggressive BMX Neck

Black Handle Bars w/ cheapo rubber grips

Had to use the sprocket from a 58 Hornet to switch to regular chain and cog set up