Phantasm - 1953 Schwinn B6

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A few months back, I bought a bike and a slew of parts at a flea market - in that pile of stuff was a 1953 B6 frame. The original paint was long gone, So I decided this was the bike to rebuild. Not sure what I will do with the final product - maybe ride it, maybe sell it. Not sure. Anyway, here's how Phantasm got started.



Here is the pile of parts. You can see the blue frame leaning up against the fence, and the springer fork. Those parts are the basis for this build.



Here's a close up of that springer. It may be a frankenfork, or some kind of aftermarket, but it has the price tag from Village Cyclery in Chico still on it - hand written. If it's a frankenfork, it's an old one.



The original paint was long gone, so I stripped the rest of it down, and treated the rust.



The next step was some self etching primer.



And then a coat of standard primer.



I hit this at first with a coat of dark gray rustoleum gloss. But then thought twice about how I wanted to paint it, as you will see.



I have this 1952 Phantom I call Barney - a total barn find. I am going to try and reproduce this paint pattern on Phantasm.



Originally, I thought I would paint the secondary color on the entire bike, then tape it off, and paint the primary on the entire bike. That was going to be a pain with these darts, so I repainted the whole bike sage green, then went back and taped the darts off. I also decided to change the paint for the front of the bike - the dark gray is out...



And the "Black Night Metallic" is in.



Tape is off. It looks pretty good, I think. I have more painting to do - I still need to paint the diamond on the seat tube, and then the pinstripes and a coat of clear.
 
Re: Phantasm - 1953 Schwinn B6 - tank painted

I picked up a tank from heyslugger on the forum here, and went about to putting it to good use.

It's a repro, but that's OK, the fit and details are perfect.

8092870088_371d43dc61_b.jpg


The chrome had to go, so I sanded it down and hit it with some self etching primer, then a coat of filler (out of habit), before spraying the whole thing with metallic black Rustoleum. After that, I taped it off with some striping tape, and hit it with some sage green.

8092865115_74eed4831a_b.jpg


I'll let the paint set overnight before fitting it to the frame for a pic or two...
 
Thanks for the complements. I'm pretty happy with how this is turning out. I was planning on selling it when I'm done, but it may be a keeper.

I got the chain guard painted up, and installed some decals that I got from bicyclebones on ebay. Quick shipping on those - I got them in two days. I am really happy with the striping on the chain guard - I can't believe I forgot to tape that off on the tank. I'll fix that this weekend. In the mean time, I think it's looking pretty good.

8098516576_febedd9b11_b.jpg



Hopefully I can find some time to clear the frame, tank and chain guard this weekend, and start mocking it up next week.
 
the tin looks awesome. the shading on the chaingaurd looks great. i also forgot to mask that when i did my gaurd and tank. oh well it still looks good the way it is.
 
I figured I would give an update on this one. Not long after my last post, I applied some clear coat to what I thought was cured paint on the tank and chain guard, and it just came right up in an epic orange peel. A day after that, a strong wind blew down my bike stand with the frame in it, and caused some scratching near the head tube. I was so disappointed, I decided to put the frame to the side, and work on other projects. Bar Fly ended up with the chain guard and one of the wheels, but the rest of the parts were still around, so I started in on it again. I'll be posting pics soon showing my latest progress.

I'll be glad to get this one wrapped up... It's been out there a while now.
 

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