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justride

justride

Joined
Jun 11, 2012
Messages
286
Reaction score
227
Location
Livermore, CA
After going back and forth on the bike I wanted to enter, I have finally settled on her - a 1950's Mercury Airflight. It's my first girls bike, and the first one that I will be doing a straight restoration. I'll be selling this one after it's built, and the proceeds will be going to a local women's shelter.

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I picked this bike up as a freebie a while back - the owner threw it in with a schwinn she was selling. It belonged to her mother, and it looks like the bike is complete. Well, I guess I'd better get to it!
 
Way to go!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Watching! I believe I have her little sister, a 20" I got for my grand daughter:



 
Aaaaand, I'm back. Work has been crazy - new job, lots of travel, blah, blah, blah... That said, I have made progress on her.

This bike had clearly been outside for a while - at least two years on my side yard, and, well, the stem was rusted in tight. It took a lot of penetrating oil, and a bit of persuading in the big vice to get it free.

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As you can see, the wedge was pretty well decomposing in the fork.

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That sorted out, it was time to get stripping. There was some rust on the head tube, so I hit it with a wire wheel to see if that would be the right solution to remove it. It worked well.

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I was hoping not to strip the entire frame down, but as I got further and further along with the wire wheel, and the little spots of rust kept cropping up. I got this far with just the wire wheel.

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It was about this time when I somehow managed to hit my fingertip with the wire wheel, and was not wearing proper gloves (the nitrile only served as a convenient place for the blood to pool rather that drip on the floor...). After bandaging the ground beef that was my fingertip, I called it a day. I eventually stripped it with airplane stripper, touched up the frame and forks with the wire wheel again, then got to priming.

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I used the SprayMax 2K Epoxy primer. I used it before on some aluminum rims, and was very happy with the durability, so it's my new go-to. It's stupid expensive, and you have to spray with a respirator, but it sands really well, and has taken paint well in the past.

So here I am, with a primed frame and fork, just waiting for base coats. I still need to strip, sand and prime the fenders and chain guard. Hopefully I will get to that next week.

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She cleaned up very nicely.
Don't forget to put your pin in the Build Off 9 - BONINE WORLD MAP
http://bit.ly/1nsYqVU
Then go to Additions > Add Marker - Simple
 
Gold Street Customs said:
Great idea with the sale, love the name, Maybe you can take it to Behind Bars in San Jose on the 27th of July (just a thought) should be a bunch of us there.
Click to expand...

I'll be at Shiny Side Up, with Skirt Chaser (assuming I get the paint done), Pinkie and Bar Fly - and maybe one or two others. Great show, this will be my 3rd year there.
 
Man, this one is going to come down to the wire.

Unfortunately, I forgot to snap pictures during the cleaning of the parts... But I spent so much time with the wire wheel and my fenders, chain guards, etc... Let's just say that I'm happy that time has past, and I'm kinda glad there are no pics.

I was on a business trip this week, to Manhattan, and when I got home from, I had received a little package from 66autocolor.com. Some Sky Blue base coat and some Cool Vanilla for accents, and some 2K high gloss clear for later.

I was able to get a couple coats on the frame and the forks. I'm really impressed with the finish. It's my first time using an automotive base coat like this - in the aerosol SprayMax can - and I'm very impressed. It's expensive, but I think it may be my standard for bikes that I'm planning on selling or donating.

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I was considering reusing the old wheels, but today, when I was visiting my local bike shop, I asked if they had any 26" rims they were looking to get rid of, and they had a couple Kruiser King drop center aluminum rims, and the price was right, so I picked them up. One happened to be acid green, but a quick sanding and a couple coats of 2K epoxy primer, and it was good to go. Unfortunately, because I was moving so fast, I forgot to take a before pic in all of it's glory, but you can see some of the color coming through on the inside of the rim.

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I'm letting the primer set overnight on these, then I'll shoot them with a coat of Cool Vanilla in the morning.

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More pics tomorrow, of the fenders, etc. It's coming together, but it's going to be tough to get it done in time... Will be right under the wire...
 
Man, this is coming down to the wire for me... My goal is to have her ready for Shiny Side Up!, but we'll see... I was going to use a different approach for painting her, basically painting her all blue, then masking and painting in the white. However... I could not get the mask the way I wanted it, so I pivoted. The color I originally looked at was a Cool Vanilla from 66autocolor.com, but it was not quite right, so I ended up ordering some Stone White, and it looks much better.

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I'm usually working on Schwinns, and had ordered some of these for a build, and had some left over from a pervious build, so I decided that my Mercury could just as easily become a Schwercury... It's not a concourse restore, after all...

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They apply pretty easily, and because they are vinyl, you get pretty clean lines and no tearing.

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I hit the forks with the stone white, again, using a template, and the contrast is exactly what I was looking for.

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No stencils for the fenders, and I had to mask it all by hand. No biggie, just time consuming. I used vinyl masking tape on the lines, so they would be clean.

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Zapped with some Stone White...

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I wish the light was better in my garage, but here's the frame with the stencils and masking removed.

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I decided to use the SprayMax 2K high gloss clear aerosol. Nasty stuff, and you need a respirator, but the hardener should make it head and shoulders above the rattle can variety at the hardware store from a durability standpoint.

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Got a chance to hit the fenders with it as well.

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There is a 12 hour cure time on the clear, so I should be able to start putting her together. My pick list is still pretty long, need to rebuild the wheels... Finish the chain guard, etc... Will be another long day.
 
Thanks for the compliments, guys!

Well, today was a busy day. I did manage to take a few pics, but I was pretty much balls to the wall all day.

First things first. I cleared the frame, forks and fenders yesterday, with the SprayMax 2K clear, and let it cure overnight in the garage. All I have to say is "wow"! That stuff is amazing. I'll use it on the rest of my builds (when I actually paint the frame, anyway).

Back to today. I decided not to repaint the fender struts, instead, I am using the fender struts from some NOS fenders I picked up at a swap meet. They went on easily, and I avoided any scratches on the fresh clear. I will have to mod one of the struts, but I'll get to that later in the week. The other parts went together nicely. I have a pic of the fenders later in the thread.

I also needed to finish the wheels. I painted up some new rims, and they look great, but I wanted to use the original hubs that came with the bike. The spokes were on pretty tight, so... well... The spokes met Mr. Cutoff Wheel...

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I cleaned off the hub with a wire wheel, then serviced the bearings and built it up with the freshly painted rims. Did the same thing with the rear hub, and they are both looking good. I mounted them up to some brown Duro wheels that my local shop had.

I also pulled together the Electra seat, and the Felt handlebars and grips that I plan on using. I also threw on the custom seat post that Chad made for me - 5/8" with a 7/8" top. So, after all the stripping, prepping and painting, I finally have a mockup.

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A few more days to go before Shiny Side Up, and I still need to do the chain guard. It will be a close one, but there is a light at the end of this tunnel.
 

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