Now it's done!

I simply hated the chromed upside-down Madonna seat frame on the new seat. As a matter of fact, I disliked the seat frame so much that I spent part of this morning getting the old seat frame cleaned up and painted so I wouldn't have to look at the chrome anymore.

I think that looks muchas better...and with that...Bruizer is done!

And today... I just scored a 1977 Schwinn Speedster! Stay tuned!

All Done...mostly!

A lot has happened since my last update.  I mentioned about the serial number thing, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it might be OK.  I called Steve at Precision Powdercoat and told him I wanted to see the serial number thing...maybe it would be OK?

After looking at it, I decided I actually liked it, so I brought the frame and other bits home.

Here's what the serial number looked like at first...

To make it less conspicuous, I taped everything off and hit it with some flat black paint, so this is what it looks like now...

After that ordeal, I began the reassembly...

That last picture is where I called it a night.

Yesterday morning, I took an inventory of what needed to get done next. I needed a seat post (mine is with a friend getting chromed, and I didn’t want to wait), and I also needed a clamp for the arm on the coaster brake. A quick trip to Cyclone Cycles and a half-hour-or-so later (digging through old parts bins) I found what I needed!

By early morning, this is what the bike looked like...

For the most part, I am happy with it, but I don’t like the seat. The old seat was shot, so I bought a new one, but I don’t like all the chrome and the upside-down Madonna look. My plan is to use the old frame, but you can see it’s in pretty bad shape...

I think what I’m going to do is clean up the old seat frame (I need to go to my buddy’s place and use his sand blaster), then paint it flat black. I will use the padded seat and grab rail from the new seat and use the frame from the old seat as the final version...

I think this will look much nicer.

Anyway, here’s the before-and-after picture...

And, I figured out what kind of bike it is (well, I didn’t...I asked the question on ratrodbikes.com).  Turns out it is (was) a Huffy “Good Vibrations” from the late ‘70’s or early ‘80s. With a quick search on the Internet, I was able to find the following two pictures:

If you took the cranks off the bike in the second picture and put them on the bike in the first picture, that would be how my bike originally looked when new (and if you didn't notice, the seat in the second picture is different than the seat in the first). Anyway, Bruizer sure doesn’t look like that now...

Overall, I’m very pleased with the look and ride of Bruizer. Even on my shake-down ride, I had three random people make comments on the bike. It’s a head turner! I’m happy.

And I just picked up an old Schwinn last night...stay tuned for "Project 3."

Waiting sucks.

Well, the bike won't be ready tomorrow [insert sad face here].

My powder-coat guy called me today... he asked about the serial number on the head tube.  Basically he said the frame looked awesome, but they didn't coat the serial number on the head tube.  So there's a 2" strip in the head tube that's not coated so the serial number shows.

In a perfect world, I would have had them coat over it, and I guess he heard that tone in my voice when I said it would be "OK."  He replied, "No, that's not what you want; I want you to be happy."  So he's going to blast the entire frame again and recoat it tomorrow.

On one hand I'm sad the bike won't be done tomorrow, but on the other hand, I'm thrilled with the customer service.  In the long run, I'll be happier--besides, the chrome won't be done by this weekend anyway...

On a positive note, the front wheel came in today!

Insert bike here

So more waiting [insert another sad face here]...

Fixin' to be rollin'...

That's a good-looking wheel... and is going to look awesome on Bruizer!

And look at it when the whitewalls are added!  

O yeah!!!

The front wheel will be here tomorrow...and the frame will be ready Friday.  I think I might be short a few chrome pieces though, but at least it's progress...

"Project 3"

So while I wait for Bruizer's painted parts to get powder coated and the chrome bits to get re-chromed, I started looking for ideas for the next project.  I gave some thought to building a "stretched" bike...something like this...

And while something like that would be fun to build...I happened to stumble upon the following pictures while doing my research...

I think that about sums up perfect!  While I'm not a huge fan of the baby blue paint or the all-white tires, I love this bike.  I'm thinking finding a front fork like that is going to be a challenge... though, I guess I could make one...maybe make one from some parts from something else...???

Needless to say, the wheels are turning...

Powder Time!

All the painted surfaces are now with Precision Powder...

They said they should be done with every thing as early as Friday!  Awesome.

And I have a few chrome bits and pieces with JK.

Now I wait...

Now that's a seat!

Well, the seat is here... I can either use it on the bike or on the John Deere tractor!

As you can see, the seat post needs to be re-chromed...the corrosion is so bad that I cannot get it cleaned up enough.  I have a few other parts that need chroming too...my buddy JK is going to help me out there!

I also drilled out the front fork to accept a 3/8" axle.

I think that sums up all of the modifications I need to do to the painted parts, so at some point tomorrow, I will take everything (frame, fork, fenders, chain guard, other random bits) to the Precision Powder to get powder coated.

It's coming along... I'm looking forward to riding it!

My best guess is that I'm about three weeks out from completion.

More soon...

Progress on Bruizer!

I spent a couple of hours working on Bruizer today...and probably an equal amount of time finding replacement bolts.

All of the bolts on the bike are a rusted mess, so I gathered them all up and went to Lowes and ACE Hardware to find replacements. It was difficult to find exact replacements in terms of length, but I found bolts that were close enough--I’ll make them work.

I also spent some time cleaning rust off the lower chrome piece of the chain guard, then I assembled the parts I’ve cleaned up and the new fenders. I was going to use the fenders that came with the bike, but the rust had eaten through the metal on the back fender, and the front fender had a dent in it.  Since I’m not rebuilding an all-original bike, it was easier and cheaper to simply buy new fenders. The new fenders did require a little “fitting” to make them work--nothing that a drill and a tap couldn’t fix--but it wasn’t a simple bolt on replacement.  Here's where I am right now...

I could send the painted parts off to the powder coater tomorrow, but I want to wait until everything is installed in case I have to do any additional modifications. Basically, I don’t want to have to drill or grind on anything after the bike has come back from the powder coater...tis better to know now if there are going to be any unexpected "issues."

That’s it for now...stay tuned...

The Bruizer!

My buddy, Magnolia Marc, brought over his dad's 1941 Western Flyer.  Nice!

Marc wanted to know if I could restore it...and of course I could...but the reality is that I do not have enough free days in a row to complete it in a timely manner, and it would be extremely difficult for me to put a price on it because there's no clue what it's ultimately going to cost.

Since Marc brought the bike over, I've developed the bug to do one of my own.  If it takes two to three months...or two to three years for that matter, no biggie...I have the time.

So I started looking for a bike and ultimately found this for $30...

It's not much to look at...at least not yet...but it will be!

The first thing I did today when I got it home was tear it down...

I thought I would call it a day at that, but the teardown went so quickly, I decided to try and clean up a few parts to see what it would take to get some of the rust off, etc.  The following pictures show the results of that effort...

Obviously there's more to come...a lot more!

Stay tuned...there really is a plan...

Magnolia Marc's 1996 Proflex Attack

My buddy, Magnolia Marc, has a 1996 Proflex Attack. Old School.

I told Marc I'd take a look at it...see what I could do. Well, this is what Marc brought over (I already took off the front wheel when I took the picture)...

The biggest challenge of this project was trying to find the elastomer replacements for the rear suspension. The elastomers apparently disintegrate over time. When Marc brought the bike over, the elastomers were completely gone.

Another challenge was to clean the bike. The old elastomers appeared to have "melted" in that there was sticky gooey residue all down the back side of the bike...and I mean everywhere. It took significant cleaning.

Since the bike was old and needed so much cleaning, I decided to simply disassemble the entire bike and redo it all...new grease for the bearings, re-cable it, etc...

The old tires were a bit rotten as well.  Since I have a ton of spare mountain bike parts, I dug up some pretty much new tires and tubes to replace the old ones.  This is what the bike looked like after a thorough cleaning...though you can see the elastomers for the suspension are still missing...

Since I knew finding the elastomers would be a challenge, I did a little research on the internet and a few emails back and forth with Jim of Suspension Fork Parts,  I scored two elastomer replacements.  I ordered them on the Monday after Marc brought the bike over.  As luck would have it, they shouwed up today!

Here they are installed on the bike...

And with that, the restoration is complete!

Not bad at all if I say so myself...especially for only a half-day's work!

:-)