Ernie & Dolly his and her's dumpster builds.

[shacomm]

A few months ago, my wife came home with a stray Murray bike that was a piece-meal collection of parts and said "lets start riding bikes together... it will be good for us." I quickly parked the bike on the side of the house and said "sure... I'll get a bike too and fix them up for us to ride". Well finally a month ago someone in the alley was throwing away a perfectly good(ish) Huffy so all of a sudden I was out of excuses. Both bikes were/are a total mis-mash of parts. With torn seats, flat tires and just the right amount of rusty chrome, theres no such thing as a free bike.

Step 1 Strip the frames... I started "Airplane Remover" it worked as advertised as there are now no airplanes in my backyard. But there was still a lot of paint left on the frames after 3 applications.

The Murray had factory paint the Huffy had 3-4 colors on top of the factory metallic red. to get down to the base metal I had to finish stripping both with a wire wheel.

My favorite road trip food is beef jerky. Read my reviews and tell me about your favorites on my blog at JerkyAficionado.com -- Stephen

 

[shacomm]

Step 2 Rattle Bomb Primer and Paint
The color scheme for the Mrs bike was Valspar Nautical Satin and Valspar White Satin. For Mr Rustoleum Frame and Chasis Black. I started with a couple of coats of Rustoleum self-etching primer and finished both with color.

DIY Pallet Spray Booth

DIY Ladder Drying Rack


My favorite road trip food is beef jerky. Read my reviews and tell me about your favorites on my blog at JerkyAficionado.com -- Stephen

 

[shacomm]

Step 3 - Paint everything else that was rusty...
We did a quick and dirty clean-up of the rims, sprockets and cranks. The Murray's rims were steel and lightly pitted. The Huffy has some narrow rims from some sort of road bike are are aluminum with stainless spokes! Steel wool on the rims, wire wheel on the rusted chrome, cleaning, tape everything off and primer and paint. I dont expect much from these parts cosmetically... I'm looking forward to them regaining their patina.

My favorite road trip food is beef jerky. Read my reviews and tell me about your favorites on my blog at JerkyAficionado.com -- Stephen

 

[A.S.BOLTNUT]

Did you find valspar in a spray can ?

~Rafael~

 

[shacomm]

Step 4 - Ebay, Swap Meet, Bike Shop
This is where it becomes really clear that it cheaper to buy a bike at Wal/K... For the Mr. Black and Tan so I bought a Velo 'vintage' seat and matching grips, for the Mrs her seat was still pretty nice so we just got new grips that amazingly matched the paint perfectly. The Mr. also got new non-name 12" mini apes.

Then the fun started... while looking for practical parts I found a vintage Monark front-end for $60. Who could resist... right? I also bought a couple used rear racks on the Bay. The Huffy was missing peddles and a chain guard so I bought a set of Non-vintage Schwinn Approved peddles for $15 and a non-vintage Schwinn chain guard for $2 at the local swap meet. The final touch was a vintage Coke crate mounted to the rear rack.

The Mrs found a tool bag and bell from Target and got some new tires from Wal and both bikes got vintage looking headlamps from the Bay and her finishing touch was a cool mini-surfboard for the rear rack.

There's more to do... but that's the progress so far.


My favorite road trip food is beef jerky. Read my reviews and tell me about your favorites on my blog at JerkyAficionado.com -- Stephen

 

[shacomm]

Did you find valspar in a spray can ?

~Rafael~

Yes... at Lowes...


My favorite road trip food is beef jerky. Read my reviews and tell me about your favorites on my blog at JerkyAficionado.com -- Stephen

 

[A.S.BOLTNUT]

Very nice transformations , good work !
and thanx for the info on the Valspar '
ill have too check out our local Lowes
and see if they carry that product .
Oh and Welcome too the Forum..
Ride On !

~Rafael~

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Good work on the bikes!

Luke.

 

[shacomm]

I finished my tool barrel and tank plate. I left the straps natural so they will age on their own. Tried to die the body of the barrel to be a similar color to the seat/grips.

For the Monark front end guys... take a look at the side shot thats a ladies front end with the longer fork tube. To get it mounted I used a 1" spacer below the lower bearing race. So... that "fix" caused the front end to be an inch lower than stock. Then when I put my svelte (not) self on the bike I noticed that on the first good bump this would cause the tire to "bottom" out on the fork. So the "fix" was to load up the springs with a 1" spacer on the bottom. This causes the springs to lock (fully compress) before the tire hits the fork. While this was a nice solution so I could admire my work and take it for a test ride, it wasn't a good solution. I'm a little concerned all the preload on the front end will cause me to bend/break other parts... so I took it apart and will drop it off at the local bike shop to have the neck cut and rethreaded.


My favorite road trip food is beef jerky. Read my reviews and tell me about your favorites on my blog at JerkyAficionado.com -- Stephen

 

[LukeTheJoker]

Nice work! Good thinking with the fork, shame it didn't work... I bet you are looking forward to the forks coming back and taking it for a spin!

Luke.

 

[shacomm]

Yes... I figured the dental bills or neurologist would be more expensive than fixing the forks correctly. Hopefully soon!


My favorite road trip food is beef jerky. Read my reviews and tell me about your favorites on my blog at JerkyAficionado.com -- Stephen

 

[shacomm]

Got everything back together and took the bikes on a little cruise for Sunday brunch. The springer is riding great now...

Since more useless accessories are fun... the flag pole and stern lamp are an old boat part. I mounted a wrench on the seat tube and I Finished off my tool bag with sterling silver pilots wings that came from a thrift store.

My favorite road trip food is beef jerky. Read my reviews and tell me about your favorites on my blog at JerkyAficionado.com -- Stephen

 

[shacomm]

Added the Camaro "Hotwheels" badges to the tank plate...

I like to name my vehicles so the bikes were named after Ernie from My Three Sons and Ms Dolly Parton.

This hobby feels addicting.


-- Stephen JerkyAficionado.com

 

[LukeTheJoker]

This hobby feels addicting.

It is!

Bikes are looking good!

Luke.

 

[us56456712]

A few months ago, my wife came home with a stray Murray bike that was a piece-meal collection of parts and said "lets start riding bikes together... it will be good for us." I quickly parked the bike on the side of the house and said "sure... I'll get a bike too and fix them up for us to ride". Well finally a month ago someone in the alley was throwing away a perfectly good(ish) Huffy so all of a sudden I was out of excuses. Both bikes were/are a total mis-mash of parts. With torn seats, flat tires and just the right amount of rusty chrome, theres no such thing as a free bike.

Step 1 Strip the frames... I started "Airplane Remover" it worked as advertised as there are now no airplanes in my backyard. But there was still a lot of paint left on the frames after 3 applications.

The Murray had factory paint the Huffy had 3-4 colors on top of the factory metallic red. to get down to the base metal I had to finish stripping both with a wire wheel.

My favorite road trip food is beef jerky. Read my reviews and tell me about your favorites on my blog at JerkyAficionado.com -- Stephen

AWSOME BIKE WORK STATION. I HAVE A LOT OF PALLETS THAT I USE IN THE WINTER FOR FIREWOOD STORAGE. IN THE SUMMER THY ARE STACKED AGAINST MY DOG RUN. I AM GOING TO BUILD A PAINT STATION WITH THEM. I AM GOING TO STEAL YOUIR CONCEPT. THANKS

 

[Lil' rat rod]

These are cool. A good classic build(s) like this is good for the soul. Welcome and enjoy the hobby!

Jon

 

[shacomm]

Thanks guys! The pallets are easy to put up and breakdown and the scrap piece of plywood is an easy drop cloth. These were fun projects...


-- Stephen JerkyAficionado.com