Bettys bike.

[woodtickgreg]

Then I worked on the sprocket for the crank assy. It was covered in grease and crud so I had to clean that off first. Then I worked on the rusty spots. Not all the rust will come off so to pitting, but keep in mind this is from a 1953 bike, It's ok,some patina on this one will actually look good.

 

[woodtickgreg]

When I got this bike the headbadge was missing and finding an original for a spitfire has been tough to say the least, the ones I have found cost more than what I paid for the whole bike. But I did find this one at a reasonable price. It's a 1937 Schwinn century badge and it says Arnold Schwinn on the bottom, not the correct badge but it will look nice and this is a custom build.

 

[woodtickgreg]

And I picked up some nice cream colored balloon tires and some wide black fenders with the kick out flare at the rear.

 

[woodtickgreg]

Work continues, next is the wheels. The plans for the wheels are to strip them, powdercoat the rims, get a new rear hub and a large flange front hub, order new spokes. These Schwinn S2 rims are starting to get hard to find, especially in chrome. But these painted ones are in pretty good shape especially for 1953's. They are double wall and very strong, these are still straight even though the rear has a dent in it that I need to fix before it goes to powdercoat. Its dented on the outside but not on the inside. The rear hub is a new departure brand and has an oil cup for lubrication, makes a mess, that's why I'm going to change it out.
The wheels.

I just cut the spokes out since most of them where snapping off because they where so rusty.

I tagged and bagged the hubs for future use, I'll either sell them, part them, or save em for a future restoration.

The dent that needs to be filled, I'm thinking map gas and high tin lead solder. It has to be able to withstand the heat from the powdercoat oven.

 

[woodtickgreg]

I could not get the solder to stick to the rims so I took them to a friend at a weld shop and had them tig welded. Then I sanded everything smooth and dropped all the parts off to the powdercoater.
Well I finally found time to pick up the frame and the rest of the parts from the powdercoater. The color of the frame is called grape ape. Everything else is gloss black. The parts came out nice!

I just had to put the new decal on the chaingaurd, lol.

It'll be a little while until I can get back to this one because I have to get at least 8 bikes ready for a bicycle swap meet the end of April. I really want to work on this build but I have to keep my priorities straight.

 

[woodtickgreg]

I've been sick for about a week so I haven't done anything with the Betty. Today I was feeling a little better so I placed up the front wheel with heavy duty 11 gage spokes.

The wheel is on the truing stand but it's not done yet, lol. But I'm confident it's going to come out nice.

 

[woodtickgreg]

I found a cool vintage rear rack and tail light at the Ann Arbor Michigan swapmeet. I took it to work and gave it a trip to the glass bead blast cabinet so I could strip the paint and take it to powdercoat.

 

[woodtickgreg]

 

[woodtickgreg]

I got the vintage Arnold Schwinn century head badge installed.

Then I needed to make a bearing race driver so the old south bend came in handy for that.

I needed to remove a little material.from the inside of the hardened 1953 bearing race, a dremel was the trick for that job.

Then I installed the bearing cups.

And then the new Springer fork.


I powder coated the spring the same color as the frame.

 

[woodtickgreg]

I worked on the Betty again today.
Installed the gooseneck, handlebar, and the front light.

The light has a cool retro look but has modern led lights in it.

Installed the original 1953 crank assembly, I like how the chrome wore off and exposed the copper, I clear coated it.

I installed the seat post and AS clamp.

Installed the original 1953 kickstand.

Next was the front fender and wheel assy.
I'm liking how the colors are coming together on this one.