~The Pepperbox Special~ Done.

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The Renaissance Man said:
Looks good!
I like the rusty metal bits and nails. You could also soak those screws in vinegar for a day and it will remove the zinc coating to make them match.
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I actually ground off the plating and applied a thin coat of Stay Clean flux, in a day or two the screws will look a hundred years old if a day.
 
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Less than 24 hours later...


When it reaches the desired amount of aging, just rinse with baking soda and water or soap to neutralize the acid and there you have it a century of rust in a matter of days. Feel free to use this, I came by it working as a tattooist, we used Stay Clean for building our own needles. I had a small work shop set up to the side of the needle building station, some flux found it's way onto some of my tools, and I found an awesome way to age steel, ruined some jeweler's files, but well worth it. I've used it quite a bit in my "fine art" work-

 
Three day weekend!!! So far I've worked on 3 side projects, I completely stripped, brushed and cleared my wife's road bike, which I also converted to single speed;

And two bikes I hope to show/sell at the upcoming Slow Spokes DFW swap meet and show on June 7;

This early 60's Murray built Sears?.


And my '49/'59 Mercury badged Murray mash up.
I did some digging around and pulled out the headlight and taillight I'll be using and this cool old door? dash? mount ashtray I pulled out of a trash filled ditch on my father-in-laws ranch;

Hopefully the plans I have for the ashtray will work out, a little hint there will be no butts or guts in it in the end.
I also found dug out the bars stem and chainring I'll be using;

Prewar Murray longhorn bars, which will have to be stripped of all that flaky peeling chrome, then added patina and clear. The stem is off the Goodyear badged Columbia parts bike, I hit it with a wire wheel, and like it as is, it'll get shot with some clear as well. The chainring is era correct Columbia, kind of blah, but I don't want this build to get too busy. I've still got 2 days before work resumes so we'll see what else comes about.
 
It's always cool seeing what people pull out of their parts stashes.
Can't wait to see how you use the ashtray.
 
Had some time my wife dropped our son off with grandma for the evening, so I figured my patio didn't smell enough like pickles so I began the vinegar re-rusting, I put everything together-ish, and sprayed it all down. I love this process, within 10 minutes...





I'll keep at this for a few days, maybe add a little flux to the mix, then disassemble it, clean it up, do it all again and shoot some clear...eventually.
 
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While I'm thinking about it, I have 2 wheel sets I'm trying to decide between. The first is a 50's chrome 26x1.75 set with a Komet hub. The second also chrome but early 60's S7, 26x1 3/4 with a Bendix Automatic 2 speed kickback. Either way I'm running conservative black wall tires, Sunlite Street tires on the Komet set, Kenda S7's on the...wait for it...S7 set. I'd appreciate some input if anyone wants to throw in their two cents.
 
Well, I'm biased toward the Bendix 'cause that's what I'm using too,:) but I guess it depends on how you plan to ride if you need the extra gearing or not. Most people won't know the difference looking at the bike.

What color are the bands?
 
The Renaissance Man said:
Well, I'm biased toward the Bendix 'cause that's what I'm using too,:) but I guess it depends on how you plan to ride if you need the extra gearing or not. Most people won't know the difference looking at the bike.

What color are the bands?
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Red. I'm kind of leaning towards the Bendix as well, even though it's on middle weight rims, and going on a balloon bike, my thought is the skinnier tires will make the fenders look even wider, but we'll see. Also the Komet needs to be rebuilt and the Bendix has already been.
 
So last night I moved the frame to the side of the house as my driveway was beginning to look and smell like a rusty pickle, and as it would happen, mother nature decided to help out with the repatination. Unfortunately, I didn't bother checking the weather or consequently removing the wood inserts from the rack. So when I got home this afternoon, I had bowed boards popping up out of my rack. I guess a century of drying out can be undone by one Texas thunderstorm, anyways I have a plan to hopefully save it, Texas style.

As I heated up the grill I placed the wood on, I'm taking it off now that the meat's on, I'm positive chicken grease is not an element I want to incorporate into this build.;)
If this doesn't work and I have to scrap the wood rack idea, I have a Plan B, that will more than suffice, so fear not, I'm not left high and dry, although hopefully the wood will be.
 
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dracothered said:
So did you serve it up rare???
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I'm really hoping you mean the rack, that's chicken man! :chicken:
Pretty close though, I left it on for about 15 minutes, let the grill warm up to 400 and then took it off, let it sit overnight, and today it still didn't fit. I just got a Colorflow rack from MONARKofSoCal, and thought I'd use my original "Plan A" as "Plan B", but it didn't fit the frame, and I really can't bring myself to alter it as much as would be needed to make it fit. So I shortened the planks from the wood rack and narrowed them a bit as well, so that when they're in place the foremost end stops right before the curve in the racks frame, and to where there's a 1/4" gap down the center. I'm making a piece for the center out of more of the strapping that will cover that gap and float on spaced bolts through the rack's cross bars. Basically it's the way bed wood in old trucks was held in place with steel strips, they keep the wood tied down but still allow it to expand and contract as moisture decries. I'll get some pics up once it actually looks like more than two pieces of wood and a strip of rusty metal, but for right now this will have to suffice;

A little Texas Chainsaw Massacre thanks to the lighting, but you get the gist.
 

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