Project B-6 - New - Frame Pics

[rat royale]

After a two year stint in the side yard waiting for some attention, the '49 B-6 is now disassembled and waiting for a trip to the sandblaster. It was a patient bike, and rewarded me for leaving it sitting out in the weather all this time by coming aprt with little to no issues at all. I remember taking some less than two year old bikes apart with a lot of locked solid bolts/screws, but not this baby. It was a piece of cake. (Does that mean it is gonna bite me when I go to put it together?)

Haven't made a real plan, but have anough parts on hand to go a couple of different ways... We'll leave it at that until it tells me what it wants to be.

Starts out like this (but before spending two years in the yard):


It will still be a bike when it's done, just don't know exacly what it'll look like. I can assure you, it won't be the same colors again, and stock ain't where it's headed, though there will be a lot of period correct pieces involved.

I guess we'll see as time goes by....

Rat Royale
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[Anonymous]

Re: Project B-6

You left that in the Yard?...Outside?...for 2 Years?... :shock:

Good Luck with it.

 

[user 135]

Re: Project B-6

cool bike. I like it as is, but I bet you will do it justice.

 

[rat royale]

Re: Project B-6

cool bike. I like it as is, but I bet you will do it justice.

Thanks for the faith, I hope I do it justice too!

You left that in the Yard?...Outside?...for 2 Years?... :shock:
Good Luck with it.

I can tell you as an absolute, I was expecting that this thing would not come apart, but it was like butter... nothing close to stuck anywhere. As for the outside part, I had (and still have) run out of space.. Lord knows where I will put it when done, but I would imagine that a certain lawn maintenance device will be living outdoors soon..

I dropped the '49 frame at the shop today and have spoken to the powdercoater about seeing some colors on Tuesday evening. I have several choices, and want to be sure of where it goes before dropping the dime on it.

I was in a rush this morning (before taking a trip out of town to a family event) when I went to pick up the newly chromed kickstand for the "X" Project. Man it turned out super slick!!! I have been putting the chroming off until I was able to see some of the work from the place, and gave up about two weeks back - taking a leap of faith with a part that I have only one more of, which is damaged and would require some adding of metal into as well as a "re-bend" into the proper stance. This is a '46 DX stand that is typical of the '46 models.. it is tapered.

I'll do the reassembly tomorrrow and see how it looks. That will make the bike 99.5% complete. (I'm never finished, as I always seem to see something else that I can do later..) Off the bike it is beautiful!

Rat Royale
REC Elsewhere

 

[Anonymous]

Re: Project B-6

Good deal,keep us posted.

 

[rat royale]

Re: Project B-6

Some days .....
I left a message early this week for the powdercoater, as I hadn't heard from him in a couple of weeks. I was close to the shop today, and decided to drop a steering tube off with the motorcycle shop to get chromed, and looked at the frame for the B-6.
When I left the frame, Mike (the powdercoater) told me he would let me know what the frame looked like after blasting.
We had decided on this really nice color, but the frame had to be close to absolutely free of pits/nicks/etc. for it to come out right. After not hearing from him, I was a bit worried. Well, he made a VERY sincere effort to get the frame to "smooth" out with a first coating, and a hand sanding prior to redoing it. It was not worth the effort. I knew that the frame had some pit issues in the rear stays and it was only a chance, but we took it. Mike did call me back after I left a second message today, and said he was relieved that I had seen it, and felt pretty bad that he could not get it to a point of smoothness that would make the color we discussed come out as it should. After a few minutes, we made a different underbase choice, but will stay with the same topcoat color. It will have a different appearance than I planned, but seeing as the other two "hammered" colors have come out so nice, we're going for another one.
I am thinking of a name for this color... but will need to see the finished coating before confirmation. I can only mention it will be another fruit based name....

Time will tell more!
Rat Royale
REC Elsewhere

 

[sensor]

Re: Project B-6

well ive really liked your past 2 builds and i also like the b6's........cant wait to see where this one will take you :mrgreen:

 

[rat royale]

Re: Project B-6

OK... This is not an update so much on the bike, but on why the bike is still not done.

I had mentioned several times that I was going to put a shed in the back yard to house the bikes and stuff, as well as to work on them. It fnally has become a reality, but with a bit of a price. The time required to move everything, as well as to organize (OK, shoved stuff on shelves after building them) has taken away from getting "bicycle 101" from happening.

I am presently charging the camera battery to take some photos of the frame for this thread. It came out beautiful! I'll post those as soon as I take them - probably tomorrow or Saturday.

The following photos are of the shed coming to roost, and after the drop. I have to take some of the inside after the frame....
Before:


Over the hedge:


On the ground:


So there is why things have been a little delayed. More to come!

Rat Royale
REC Elsewhere

 

[rat royale]

After the camera charged, I took a few shots of the frame after powdercoat. The color is "Hammered Cherry," a base of black/silver hammertone with Translucent Red over the top of it. It looks better in person than in the pics. Lights up nicely....






More to come!
Rat Royale
REC Elsewhere

 

[Markm]

Beautiful!!!!

 

[rgallen]

Man that is absolutly gorgeous. I like.

 

[dirtywater]

Outstanding color! I'm waiting for more!

 

[rat royale]

Re: Project B-6 - New - Building Pics Coming

Well, I finally found a little time to put the frame on the stand today. I was able to get the headset cups in, and set up the bottom bracket. Went for the old sprocket on this one, rechromed and with a rechromed crank as well. The headset is one from the local shop. Have not shot any photos of it as of this time, but the camera is on the charger. I need to do some "as it gets assembled" photos.

Now the catch is that as this one goes together, I am also putting another one together too. I had a slimline tank style frame sitting and had planned on it being very LIME... Well, that didn't quite work out, so it went.... "Back to Black!" It was originally black, so it doesn't bother me that the lime didn't work out. I'll give that another shot on a different frame in a while. (And it didn't make it out for St. Patrick's Day anyway!) As I do on one, I pull it off once completed and do the other one as well. Presently, both are in the same state of assembly, except the slimline one has already got a kickstand. I have to fnd the stand for the B6.

More to come, photos included.

 

[rat royale]

As things turn, this bike has not come into being as of yet... and may not at all.

I've gotten this far, but in the course of building this bike, and after getting the shed set up, I've kind of taken a second look at what I have sitting around, and what I want to rebuild. I love the color of this, and still think it will make a nice ride, I am leaning more toward using the parts I have as well as the money reserved for it, to complete the '46 frame that is hanging on the wall in the shed.

The real problem seems that I have several other projects that are more in line with my original intent, and there is already one of this type frame sitting ready to ride. I want the '46 more than I want this one, so I guess that is part of the lost desire, as well as not having a need for three of them. The original goal was to try to get at least one frame design of each of the balloon and middleweight frames (26" ones that is), and at present, it seems that the number has gotten larger than one of each. I now have two of several of them. There were three straightbar frames, of which one of those has been sold.

As well, I've re-evaluated the middleweights too, as they were becoming "too" many. I am still missing three frames to complete that group. Recently, this group was cut down a little, as I sold the first Schwinn Typhoon that started this insanity, bought several years ago.

There was another group that I was playing with too, and that was the electro-forged and filet brazed lightweights (non-lugged frames), which I also have three more in the wings awaiting a trip to the stand. One of those frames has also left to live elsewhere, again due to too many of the same thing sitting in wait.

In the last year I have found a sickness of another type (still bicycle related of course), in the way of Cycle-Trucks. As things go, you always have to make way for different stuff that suits your "fun factor" at the time, and I am having quite a good time with them. These have become a mild obsession it would appear, and I have noticed that the "rule of two" has fallen by the wayside. I've found that there are different frames for them too, and so here we go again..

As the next few days go by, I guess I'll be figuring out just how much I want to keep this bike, or if it too will be leaving to live elsewhere. I'm thinking the term "too many irons in the fire" has become a reality here.

 

[rat royale]

No, I didn't fall off the face of the planet, wasn't abducted by aliens, and in reality, probably was not even noted as missing!

The bike is done to a point of being rideable, and when I get the time to take some photos, I will. It doesn't look alot different than when it was on the stand, but there were some necessary changes.

I have been preoccupied with a lot of other stuff, and the bicycle projects have taken a turn for the .... off. Over and above all of the fun faamily stuff, it seems that my trusty (as in paid for) Crown Victoria has departed by way of smoke and smell... electrically ignited. Unfortunately, it didn't do enough damage to total it, but it did enough to make me get rid of it. Bad part - it did this 2 days after the cash for clunker thing ended. Arrgh! To top that, my wife's car also started to crap out, so it wasn't a one car event.... Bought her what she wanted (and I think the reasons for that are pretty easy to understand!), a Beetle. For me, I wanted to try something a little different. I had been looking at everything I could find to reard on the new Ford Transit Connect van that was introduced as coming to this country well over a year and a half ago. At the time my car died, there were only a handful of them on dealers lots locally, so I had to find one as close to what I had in mind as I could. I wanted something other than white, but that didn't happen. (Though the morning after I bought the white van, one of the other dealers called and told me the silver one I had been waiting for had just been unloaded from a truck.) As I had not wanted to walk home the night before, I bought the first one that I found with the package I wanted. I had a choice of two that were close to identical. Anyway - I now have a fuel efficient little van instead of a "traveling couch with a kick." The bikes fit in the back - though the stretched ones are a one at a time deal as they have to go in at an angle. It will hold more regular length bikes though.

When this all occurred, I was also in the middle of re-doing a cycle-truck, which also came to a screeching halt - other than I had the fenders, plate and chainguard with Tom Terrific being painted. I will be picking them up when he is done, but am out of the game after that until we have a little more "cushion" back in the bank.

So, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. This is the first time I've sat down to a computer long enough to get into this newsgroup in a while, but see that all is well. (Why would it not be?)

Glad to be back to at least having a good read!
Rat Royale
REC Elsewheere