Thanks Kingfish! I'd love to build a space-themed bike around one of those star chainrings someday. They're just too cool!
The Old West
- Thread starter Bike from the Dead
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I have one of the Schwinn exercise bike 64T chainrings that I want to cut out the same star pattern on.
That would be super cool!
I didn't get much sleep at all last night, and as a result, I had almost zero energy for the whole day. Figures that I'd come down with a bad case of insomnia the night before I planned to throw this bike together. Thankfully, I did make a little progress this evening. I spent a few hours manually cleaning up the frame with some rubbing compound, and I was surprised by how much of a difference it made! My phone camera didn't do the best job capturing it, but a lot of the duller parts of the frame managed to shine right up!
As nice as the frame looks now, I think there's still a lot of potential left in the old paint. I was going to try and get this bike reassembled before this weekend, but having given it some thought, I think I'll slow down and take some extra time cleaning up the paint on this bike before I reassemble it. I'm thinking about getting a couple attachments for my drill that might allow me to shine up this bike even better than I can by hand. Better to do this part right once before reassembly than to do it over another time.
As nice as the frame looks now, I think there's still a lot of potential left in the old paint. I was going to try and get this bike reassembled before this weekend, but having given it some thought, I think I'll slow down and take some extra time cleaning up the paint on this bike before I reassemble it. I'm thinking about getting a couple attachments for my drill that might allow me to shine up this bike even better than I can by hand. Better to do this part right once before reassembly than to do it over another time.
Question for the more experienced bicycle buffers: is there a more effective way to buff out the paint on this old bike than using rubbing compound and a bunch of old socks to cut through the oxidization? I thought about getting some drill-mounted mini buffing wheels and cones, but I'm not sure if I'll get any better results than what I already have, or if what I'm doing now, combined with the condition of the paint is as good as I can expect it to get. Also, I'm worried about rubbing away the paint, as I've seen in a few spots that the harder I hit it, the more the paint "faded." What are your thoughts on it?
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I restored the paint on my Schwinn Varsity Party bike last year.
I used parts from a 3M headlight restoration kit that fit into a drill…. I also used a dish sponge with a scotch brite pad on one side.
Check out pages 6 and 7 of the build: I was doing a lot of crazy stuff to minimize time and elbow grease.
Schwinn Varsity Party Bike
When I was going to college in the Rocky Mountains there was an awful lot of snow and I didn’t get to do much bicycle riding. It was a school where people went if they liked to ski. I sold my bicycle then, and I did not own another one for 14 years. I bought a used Schwinn Varsity and fixed it...
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Schwinn had better paint, so it could stand up to more scrubbing. I cleaned up a 64 American that looked new with just a scrubbing and a few coats of car wax.
With the AMF, you might just want to shine it with out scrubbing too much. I've found the third or fourth coat of paste car wax is about the best shine you will get. It's from the 60's, so it's old, they didn't expect people to still have these bikes when they were built.
With the AMF, you might just want to shine it with out scrubbing too much. I've found the third or fourth coat of paste car wax is about the best shine you will get. It's from the 60's, so it's old, they didn't expect people to still have these bikes when they were built.
You got some pretty good results on that Schwinn! Unfortunately, I don't think I can justify spending the extra money, not just on the tools but also the extra compounds/solutions you used on your bike. I may not have the most abundant supply of elbow grease, but I do have more than enough time to shine up this bike using what I have at my disposal. It's not how I want to go about it, but after thinking it over, it's the way I need to go about it.I restored the paint on my Schwinn Varsity Party bike last year.
I used parts from a 3M headlight restoration kit that fit into a drill…. I also used a dish sponge with a scotch brite pad on one side.
Check out pages 6 and 7 of the build: I was doing a lot of crazy stuff to minimize time and elbow grease.
Schwinn Varsity Party Bike
When I was going to college in the Rocky Mountains there was an awful lot of snow and I didn’t get to do much bicycle riding. It was a school where people went if they liked to ski. I sold my bicycle then, and I did not own another one for 14 years. I bought a used Schwinn Varsity and fixed it...
Yeah, my '52 Schwinn Hornet I built last year cleaned up really well with the same Turtle Wax rubbing compound I'm using now.
And yeah, I think if I try to scrub the paint any further than what I've done, I won't be attacking the rust, but instead will be rubbing off the paint. Maybe a coat or 2 of Johnson's Paste Wax will help to add that extra POP that I'm hoping to get out of the paint. Thanks.
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Yeah…. I actually had both the head light restoration set and the rain dance wax in my garage. the only cash out of pocket for me on the paint restoration was the turtle wax cutter and the sponge with scotch brite on one side.
you’ll do great. I look forward to seeing your progress!
Thanks!
