Bettys bike.

[woodtickgreg]

The powdercoat came in the mail, it's called grape ape. So I figured I better get busy ckeaning some parts. First up is the kickstand.
Pretty rusty!

But it is from 1953.

A trip to the glass bead blast cabinet worked wonders.

Miller made a seriously stout kickstand back in the day.

It wasn't chromed originally or painted so I decided to try and preserve the raw look. I'm just going to give it a few coats of clear enamel to preserve the look and give it some protection.

 

[FOMOGO]

Looks like you found a winner there Greg. Aren't bead blast cabinets a godsend, probably my most often used tool in the shop. The kickstand does look more like something you would find on a motorcycle, and I like the clear finish. Mike

 

[woodtickgreg]

Yeah the blast cabinet is the berries Mike! When I leave this company I'll be buying my own, lol. For now I'll use the one at work for free! This was probably one of only a couple models of schwinn that year that did not have the built in kickstand.

 

[woodtickgreg]

Next is the seat post and clamp, a seriously thick clamp. I'm finding everything on this 53 schwinn to be very heavy duty and well made.
Rusty and corroded parts.

Can you see the letters in the clamp bolt?

Now you can after glass bead blasting. The significance of the AS is they are Arnold Schwinns initials.
And you can see Schwinn in cursive on the seat post now, all original parts to this 53.

The clamp and bolt get the clear enamel treatment.

I'm liking this clear technique, it kinda leaves it with a patina look but without the rust.

 

[woodtickgreg]

Today I was cleaning the crank and something very cool happened by pure accident. This is the original wald crank that came with the bike. After I degreased it I wanted to shine it up a bit and thought I would rub it down a little with a fine scotch rite pad, just a little rubbing and the chrome or whatever the coating was came right off! But it did reveal a nice copper coating under that. At first I was bummed, then after I thought about it for a bit i thought it looked pretty cool. So I finished the rest of it the same way. I left some of the patina on it. There wont ne much shiney chrome on this bike anyway.

The original wald crank.

1 leg done to reveal the copper.

What it looked like before.

All done.

And then I clear coated it.

This should look cool and different on the bike.

I kinda turned lemons into lemonade with this one, lol.

 

[derf]

Have you ever tried the "super chrome" powder coat? I used some on a mini bike build a few years ago. It is not quite "chrome' but it looks like polished aluminum.

 

[woodtickgreg]

That's very nice looking, might try it on some other things. But I have a vision in my head of how this bike is going to look, it will have minimal chrome. I actually like this very unusual copper look. I'm thinking I may look for some copper paint or plain black and spray paint the gooseneck for the bars to tone down the shiney. The bars will probably be the item with the most chrome on this build.

 

[woodtickgreg]

I interrupt this bicycle build for a spontaneous new toolbox insertion.

My old box, I hated digging through it to find the tool I needed.

The new box. My wheel truing stand even fits on the shelf below

Much more organized now and easier to find my tools.

A few park tool stickers dressed it up a bit.

 

[francist]

Nice! (I like Park tools too

-frank

 

[woodtickgreg]

Some progress. I had a newer Schwinn cruiser gooseneck that was a solid aluminum piece, but too shiney so I scuffed it up and painted it black.