That headlight is awesome. The chainguard is awesome. The pedals. This resto-build is awesome.
I love this era of absolute overkill in steel.
I love this era of absolute overkill in steel.
Western Flyer X-53 resurrection
- Thread starter ParkRNDL
- Start date
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Things have changed.
Today I swapped most of the parts off the girls' bike onto the boys' frame. I am pretty thrilled that everything fit. I know for that some brands (Schwinn?) some pieces don't work that way... rear fender? chainguard, maybe? But in this case, everything was a direct bolt-up.
I still have a ways to go. I need to swap over the skiptooth crank, chain, and rear wheel, but I want to rebuild the rear hub (Musselman) first. Also, the donor bike has a correct kickstand that I need to switch over.
I have some winter repairs to do. The bottom mount of the rear fender is sketchy at best:
Not sure what the best way is to remedy that, if it can be welded or if I'm just going to have to drill a hole and put a patch bracket or something on it.
Then there's the steerer tube:
Ewwww, not good. I haven't searched the forums yet for methods to straighten that, but that's a winter project.
Next up: that cool P-38 Lightning headlight. The painted top part looks pretty good, but the chrome bezel is pretty rough, and the base isn't any better. Honestly I don't care and I'd ride it just the way it is, with maybe a Harbor Freight flashlight jammed inside it, except the top doesn't stay on. When I first brought it home, I lifted it out of the back of my buddy's truck and the headlight cover just fell off and bounced across the garage floor. I realized I was lucky I didn't lose it over a bump on the highway. Gotta figure out a way to make it stay together and on the bike, even if it's just decorative at this point.
Plans for this winter include taking it all back apart and putting some things in an oxalic acid bath, like the chrome parts of the springer, the rack rails, the sprocket and crank. The donor bike has correct jeweled pedals, but both are rusty and one is bent, so I have to see if they are viable.
It doesn't show well in the pictures, and I wasn't real consistent about it, but I have been cleaning the painted parts and hitting them with a coat of Turtle Wax. I grabbed the pictures quick as the sun was going down. Tomorrow in the sunlight I will get some more pics that focus on how most of the paint came back pretty well.
What I REALLY hope to do this winter is repaint the frame and tank. Not sure if I will attempt it myself; I have a friend who knows a guy lol. There's enough original paint on the fenders, fork, guard, and rack that I'd really just like to preserve them. The boys' bike came in black with red, the girls' was navy with aqua. I'd like to repaint the frame and tank in that navy and aqua to match. For inspiration, I stole a pic of a mint boys' X-53 off the interwebs and had my daughter Photoshop it to the girls' bike colors:
Man. that's pretty.
Today I swapped most of the parts off the girls' bike onto the boys' frame. I am pretty thrilled that everything fit. I know for that some brands (Schwinn?) some pieces don't work that way... rear fender? chainguard, maybe? But in this case, everything was a direct bolt-up.
I still have a ways to go. I need to swap over the skiptooth crank, chain, and rear wheel, but I want to rebuild the rear hub (Musselman) first. Also, the donor bike has a correct kickstand that I need to switch over.
I have some winter repairs to do. The bottom mount of the rear fender is sketchy at best:
Not sure what the best way is to remedy that, if it can be welded or if I'm just going to have to drill a hole and put a patch bracket or something on it.
Then there's the steerer tube:
Ewwww, not good. I haven't searched the forums yet for methods to straighten that, but that's a winter project.
Next up: that cool P-38 Lightning headlight. The painted top part looks pretty good, but the chrome bezel is pretty rough, and the base isn't any better. Honestly I don't care and I'd ride it just the way it is, with maybe a Harbor Freight flashlight jammed inside it, except the top doesn't stay on. When I first brought it home, I lifted it out of the back of my buddy's truck and the headlight cover just fell off and bounced across the garage floor. I realized I was lucky I didn't lose it over a bump on the highway. Gotta figure out a way to make it stay together and on the bike, even if it's just decorative at this point.
Plans for this winter include taking it all back apart and putting some things in an oxalic acid bath, like the chrome parts of the springer, the rack rails, the sprocket and crank. The donor bike has correct jeweled pedals, but both are rusty and one is bent, so I have to see if they are viable.
It doesn't show well in the pictures, and I wasn't real consistent about it, but I have been cleaning the painted parts and hitting them with a coat of Turtle Wax. I grabbed the pictures quick as the sun was going down. Tomorrow in the sunlight I will get some more pics that focus on how most of the paint came back pretty well.
What I REALLY hope to do this winter is repaint the frame and tank. Not sure if I will attempt it myself; I have a friend who knows a guy lol. There's enough original paint on the fenders, fork, guard, and rack that I'd really just like to preserve them. The boys' bike came in black with red, the girls' was navy with aqua. I'd like to repaint the frame and tank in that navy and aqua to match. For inspiration, I stole a pic of a mint boys' X-53 off the interwebs and had my daughter Photoshop it to the girls' bike colors:
Man. that's pretty.
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