Murray Jet-Fire restoration

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drabe

drabe

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I recently restored a '59 Schwinn Fair Lady for a buddy of mine over the winter (see thread; viewtopic.php?f=21&t=35518).
This Murray Jet-Fire was the brother bike to the Schwinn, both were found in a barn and belonged to my buddy's mother and her siblings (there is another Murray (womens) bike that I haven't started on yet).

Unlike the Schwinn, this one was pretty rough and needed a total repaint, etc...

Anyway, on with the before pics...

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I couldn't find any place that would re-chrome plastic, so I wound up painting the headlight cover the same color as the tank.
I couldn't find a headlight lens in time either (I was trying to finish both bikes by Christmas), so I did my best to polish this one up.
Also, the little ornament on the front fender was wasted so I left it off (filled in the holes with fender rivets).
All of these are things that can be re-done later.
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This was the tire from Hades to remove, it was like it had turned into a solid piece of rubber then petrified!
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I'm sure some of you have run into this rare aftermarket pedal replacement!
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The rust looks pretty bad on the tank but fortunately it was still solid.
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The seat was in pretty bad shape and hard as a rock, rather than recover it, I found a new replacement.
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I generally try to save the original paint on bike restorations but this was just too far gone, so a total repaint was in order...

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The color is a Dupli-Color Ford color called RedFire Pearl metallic.
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Here's the thread on the decals; viewtopic.php?f=3&t=35543
 
Now jumping to the end is the finished bike (I did a separate thread on how the graphics were made and applied viewtopic.php?f=3&t=35543 ).

I used the same Nirve LED headlight (the owner wanted them on both bikes) as the Schwinn as well as the Schwinn pedals.
The new seat really looks great and pulls it all together!
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Just to show that no matter how careful you are 'stuff' happens, notice the scratch on the chainguard!
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NICE :shock: :shock: :shock: I personally would put a Brooks on there if they weren't so much :roll: Looks great though :D
 
Beautiful work!

As for chroming plastic, Hemmings Motor News might list some vendors who do that; they did last time I looked in one a few years back.
(think muscle car restoration)
The plating may actually be aluminum; it's done with a metal vapor deposition process inside a vacuum chamber. High current is passed
through a metal ingot until it vaporizes, and the vapor settles onto the plastic part (as well as everything else inside the chamber) as my
Dad and I found out when we messed around with the process a few years ago.

It might be worth making a mold of the headlight lens and casting a new one in acrylic; Tap Plastics has the supplies you would need.

Bill
 
:shock: wow that looks just like new ! how did you do the graffics ? that bike remineds me of a firestone 500 i used to have ,which is featured in the in the book The Evolution of the Bicycle vol.2 .
 
great job, looks really pretty.

I had that same bike in the 80s and did a hack restoration on it:

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