1962 Schwinn Fleet. suggestions?

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Pencap914

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Hello! So I'm new here but I've always loved rat rods ever since a kid. So this is my bike, I picked it up from an old hippie in Berkley CA. Its a 1962 Schwinn Fleet, and its in pretty good shape! :D It has little rust and I had plans to make it a rat rod bike, but now I'm having second thoughts. I was gunna blast it all and paint it flat black with hand drawn pin stripes, red rims, whitewalls...etc. but I might just leave it be because its in pretty good shape. I did do the typical mods: remove basket, drop the seat and flip the handle bars. However, the tires do need replacing, and I ordered blackwalls but whitewalls came. Which is ok because I was thinking about leaving everything but putting red rims on it with whitewalls. White rims with whitewalls would be too much white... :? So what do you think? Would it offend anyone if I powder-coated the rims red and put whitewalls on it? or just leave it? Any suggestions appreciated!

Here she is the day I picked her up.
P1000850.jpg


Basket removed, seat dropped:
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Bars flipped:
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P1000858.jpg
 
Hello - first of all, that is one CLEAN bike you have there. Those reverse-screened FLEET chainguard decals are usually faded and don't hold up well to wear and abuse. Yours looks crisp and fresh. You may want to consider clearcoating it or at least waxing it (WAX, not rubbing compound) in order to protect it from damage if you're planning to ride this one. I do agree with the above posters that you'd want to keep that one pretty much as is. It's survived 46 years in fine shape, and you've made a great buy. I also have a black Fleet - mine is a '63, and I decided to go with the wide whitewalls combined with the original white painted & pinstriped rims. Perhaps this will help you decide what you'd like to do with your rims/tires.

newhat134.jpg

newhat133.jpg


There are other guys with Fleets, too...maybe they will chime in to give you some more ideas. Either way, good luck and beautiful bike!!
 
LEAVE HER ALONE!Keep that original,Way to purdy to do anything to.Easy turn around for some big bucks,or just one heck of an original Schwinn to ride around the town.I would leave the blue sticker aswell,as it apears to be the bicycles registation number and gives some character to the bike.Whatever you decide to do,have fun,thats the most important part.
-Kreep-
 
slacker said:
I'd try to remove the blue sticker on the down tube. Leave the American flag sticker, though. After that, I'd shop around for a cooler seat. Great bike, enjoy!
Click to expand...

Ya the sticker is some registration thing from 1995 so its not like it fits with the vintage of the bike. I might try to peel that one off. Other than that im just gunna leave it. If Find a nice seat I'll stick it on tho! 8)
 
Thank you all for the help and cheesegrabber6, thank you for your suggestions. You've got a pretty clean fleet! I will clearcoat the chainguard since it will be my daily commuter. I think the whitewalls look good! I'll put mine on and see how I like them.
 
The bottom line: It's your bike, do with it whatever will bring you the most happiness.

I've said before, the older a bike gets, the less likely it's going to have all it's original parts. The tank is first to be dented and discarded, then the fenders, then the chainguard. Or the bike might still have them but they're beaten up real bad. It looks like you've got a bike that not only has all the original parts, but the paint and decals are in great shape too. Those also get battered with time.

Your bike has the elements which are normally long gone by the time the rest of us guys get a bike, which is why everyone is generally saying to save it as it is. We tend to buy beat-up rust buckets and bikes other people have given up on. Although many a forum member here has rat rodded an old bike into an impressive imitation of a classically restored bike, you don't see straight-up classical restorations here too often. It's too much work, and too expensive if you're going to be totally authentic. Hence, if you've already got a classic, why not keep it that way?

Keep in mind, most of us don't have much of a problem finding bombed-out old rust buckets to rat rod. When they're that cheap, you have nothing to lose.

No one will fault you if you decide to rat rod this one. We've all been stunned by some creation that someone else made that we never thought of. It's one of the reasons why we're here and not a classical restoration forum. When the majority of people say to clear coat what you have and save it, it's only because we know how rare it is to come across a complete bike in such good condition. It doesn't mean you can't achieve whatever vision you have for this bike.

And hang on to that folding rear basket! You might find it useful on a later build, like if you decide you need a grocery or beer hauler bike. Or you could sell it to me for my early 50's Columbia Newsboy :wink:

There's several ways to get labels off without removing the paint if that's the way you decide to go. Just throw a post up in the How To section for more info...

Good luck on the build, no matter which route you take.
 
Thank you for your opinion. It did give me a perspective of why everyone is here. When I found this bike I wanted something that was different since I would be using it for a daily commuter. Everyone around here at Chico state University pretty much has the same stuff so I wanted to stick out from the rest of them. I guess I really dont need to do anything to the bike to be unique, no one around here has a 1962 Schwinn. So mission accomplished. There are plenty of beat up bikes around here that i can aquire for probably free. Those I will chop them up and rat em out. But my 62 will remain what it is. And yes I probably will end up putting the basket back on. (I need somewhere to put the beer!) :p Thank you all for your opinions! I'ts really helped me out.
 

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