The Barn Find Boardtracker

[ZephyrSpeed]

I picked this bike up this past January at a swap meet for a deal I couldn't pass up. It was in a pile of parts that were all strapped together with rusty bailing wire, but it was almost all there except for the front wheel. The man said he found it in the rafters of an old barn in CA, and his son wanted to restore it but never got around to it thankfully! It is a 1938 Schwinn according to the date on the crank and the crooked prewar stamping letters/numbers. The paint (or what I could see) was still somewhat still there, so I busted out the WD 40 and some heavy grit scotch brite and started sanding away to revive the paint. To my amazement, under all the heavy surface rust (you could hardly even tell the frame was black) there was still quite a lot of the original paint left including the cream scallops along with bits of the red pinstriping outlining them. The wheels were an ebay score intended for my other pre war project, but the patina on them was perfect for this bike instead!

The once chromed pieces were ligtly hit with a wire wheel to bring some of the chrome back, and thats about all. I have some really cool pre war tear drop pedals with wooden pads, some rusty girls curved half moon bars that will be flipped down in racer fashion, bobbed original rear fender, bullet grips, and a matching black and cream number plate. Its going to be a really simple stripped down racer.

Here is the frame and pile of parts that I'm starting with right after I revived what was left of the paint

Here are most of the parts that I'm going to be using..most of them original to the bike!

The locking front fork...

Just a couple of my all time favorites from my large collection of board track pics..will look along the lines of these..

 

[sensor]

as pretty much everyone here knows....i love boardtrack inspired bikes so im looking forward to seeing what you do

 

[ZephyrSpeed]

I found some time today to do a couple of more things to get it in a somewhat mockup stage...took the old sproket and cut off every other tooth, put on the coaster brake caliper that has been soaking in water and salt for the past 2 weeks, found some old rusty bolts for the trussrods, and stuff like that. I hope to bob and flare the end of the rear fender tomorrow, as well as heat up and get the old pedal off to replace it with the teardrops. This is a really fun, cheap, greasy build, I love it!!

 

[karfer67]

the pedals are amazing i want i want.

 

[Boardtrack fan]

Great looking start! Keep us posted.

 

[Rat Rod]

Just the right amount of wear and grunge....very cool bike for sure!

 

[ZephyrSpeed]

the pedals are amazing i want i want.

Hahahaha thats what I said when I saw them..the lady said they were tricycle pedals! And even better was the price, $15!!!! The wood is actually some type of hardwood, sorta like the same type of wood that was on the B-pillars of my model a, and even after all these years of being covered with grease they wiped clean and it gave them a nice darkish stain/tone to them!

Well tonight after work I got to work on it some more. One of the pedals was rusted HARD into the crank arm, so out came the penetrating oil, my oxy acetaline torches, and a wrench with a big steel pipe for leverage. I have never seen anything like it, I heated the crank arm/pedal cherry red hot, and the Craftsman 9/16's wrench was practically bending while getting the pedal off, yet that good old 1938 Schwinn steel didn't even strip the threads out!!! I was super thrilled, so right on went the tear drops!

Took my small wire wheel to the smaller parts of the sproket to bring back more of the chrome, packed the bearings with some good ol traditional Sta~Lube, and on went the cranks, and ready for the chain tomorrow. I also found some cool looking bars on the net that have the perfect arched bend and just the right amount of patina on them..Man I love this old stuff!!

This is my first skip tooth project..actually this is the oldest Schwinn that I have, but I like to keep all of my bikes with the original paint and patina that they have earned over the years. It is so cool to see the old paint and chrome resurface and shine again after being covered with rust for so many years. It just gives it that unique character that can not be duplicated except for over time. I'm glad to give these bikes a second chance to be ridden in all their glory, sorta like my hot rods

Just in case some of you didn't know this was my first board track project that I did a couple of years ago..my Grandmas uncle had a bike and lock shop during in the late 30's until the 70s/ish and has been in the family since then..I love this bike and riding it too, but I really wanted to do something super early and traditional!! Have fun!

 

[2WheelFlyer]

That first red tired bike of yours is one of my favorites and very inspirational!! looks like this build is going to be cool too.

 

[ZephyrSpeed]

Last week before I took off for a nice weekend vacation for the 4th, I had a couple of hours to mess around on the bike again. I dug out an old skip tooth chain that was caked with some really thick grease that I could not scrub off, so I let it soak in some good ol gasoline for 15 minutes. To my suprise, the chain is a really good condition Diamond chain with a slight amount of surface rust on the links, perfect! So I slapped on the chain, took a hacksaw to the waaaaay too long original seat post, and slid a pair of old bars (not the ones I'm going to be using) on, and took her out for a little test spin out the driveway. Everything seemed to work well, so its on the downhill slide! All that is left to do is just some of the small little detail stuff, like put on my new bars that are in the mail, lower and move the seat back more, bob and mount the rear fender, make a number plate, put on my prewar bullet grips, and possibly make a hanging tank.....I just saw the perfect patina'd tank, black and cream too!, on Ebay, but I wasn't about to pay $450 for it :shock: Oh well, I can make one myself with all of the old rusty steel and tin I have around my shop for nothing..Thanks for all the compliments, there is a TON of great looking bikes being built, schweet!!!!!

 

[sensor]

the pedals are amazing i want i want.

ive got ive got