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."