BO15 Dumpster Diamond (Formerly "First Ever Build Off with a Postwar Hawthorne")

[Bike from the Dead]

Welding work is top notch! I like the look you have going, except for the saddle. It has a low, lean, track racer look, until you get to the seat. Just seems too bulky. Do you have another option that might be more 'racy' ? You really are getting this dialed in, I think a different saddle would take it over the top!

I get what you’re saying about the seat. The problem is that I only have about 3 or 4 seats at most to choose from in my personal inventory. The only other seats out of the ones I have that could work are the “Rally” banana seat, which sat too high even when I put it as low as I could, and the Western Flyer seat, which looked good except for the big ugly gap between the seat and fender. I’m sure if I looked hard enough, I could probably find and buy the right seat, but I’ve already dumped more money into this bike than I’d planned, and I’d rather work with what I’ve got. I’ll play around with everything again, but I can only do so much about the seat right now.

 

[Johnny Wolf]

Pretty cool use of the vaportite light, cast guard. Many wont know what it is, but I've been in the lighting industry for 30+ years haha.

 

[SoulGarageOH]

Also, that’s some impressive driveway edging[emoji41]


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[Bike from the Dead]

Pretty cool use of the vaportite light, cast guard. Many wont know what it is, but I've been in the lighting industry for 30+ years haha.

Thanks! I found those 3 at the Darryl Starbird car show in Tulsa last year. As soon as I saw those, I knew they'd make great cup holders/fake engine cylinders.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Sorry for the lack of updates since Monday. After getting my bike back quicker than anticipated, I wanted to try to keep the momentum going, but I ended up falling flat on my face. Aside from mocking up some new Schwinn crank parts and stripping some of the paint and rust off the frame yesterday, I haven't done much to either the Build Off Hawthorne or any of my other bikes.

I've been struggling with a massive case of burnout most of this week (and throughout the entire build,) and I'm just trying to find the energy to continue working on my bikes, or any of my hobbies, for that matter. Between the deadline looming nearer, and the fact that the bike isn't even fully rideable yet, and the stupid Oklahoma humidity that's causing my frame to rust only a couple days after stripping everything down to bare metal, I'm worried that I won't even be able to get my bike fully painted before September 1st.

I wish this post was a bit more upbeat, but this is my status right now. Hopefully, tomorrow will prove to be a new and improved day.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

I meant to post this last night, but since I'm only posting it now, and I've got a lot I want to accomplish today, I'll keep the words to a minimum.

Took these pictures last Tuesday after I got the other two number plates back from my welder.

Small victories from yesterday. I decided to try stripping the paint off some parts using some CitriStrip again for the first time in over a year. Probably unnecessary for everything, but I know that green Monark rack needed it, as it tested positive for lead. I forgot how much I disliked the process, but it does work most of the time.

I took the bearings and bearing cups for the Hawthorne and put them in a jar that was about 1/3 Simple Green, and 2/3 water. I know I should've taken the ball bearings out of the metal races, but I have never done this before, and I just want to see if it works.

After two rounds of CitriStrip, the red spray paint came off the rear fender, but not the original paint that was hiding underneath. The CitriStip also had a hard time removing the paint on the Monark rack (which I'm still working on,) the chain guard that's been modified to fit my Schwinn DX frame, and it didn't do anything to the primer on my Schwinn's original rear fender. It did remove most of the paint on my number plates, though.

After seeing how little progress I was making with the CitriStrip, I took my drill and a brass wire wheel and just worked at removing the rest of the paint from the rear fender that way. After seeing just how many dents, however small they are, on the fender, I started having second thoughts about the whole Bondo, primer and paint plan I started with. I still want to paint the bike, but now that I'm seeing how much of a challenge that could be, especially considering how much time is left to finish the bike, I'm wondering if I should just sand everything down to bare metal, clear coat it, and maybe add some black and orange pinstripes.

I also unintentionally made the small pin hole next to the actual mounting hole bigger. I just dropped off the fender at my welder's this morning to patch it up, as well as the front fork to shorten 1/8 of an inch.

I've got a lot of stuff I'd like to accomplish today, not just on this bike, but a few others too. Hopefully, I should have more to post later this evening.

 

[Dr. Tankenstein]

Go bare metal if time is a concern, can always go back and paint it after the BO is over


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[Bike from the Dead]

Go bare metal if time is a concern, can always go back and paint it after the BO is over


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Yeah, that's pretty much what's about to happen. I may not get the bike done quite like I wanted, but getting the bike done not quite like I wanted is still better than not getting the bike done at all.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

More small victories today! I finally got the fork trimmed down to the right size, and the hole in my fender was patched for $20. Then, I got some satin clear coat for about $5, putting the total budget spent on the bike at about $451, though technically part of that figure includes some work on one of my other bikes, as well as a custom rack to hang parts. I also got all the replacement nuts and bolts I need for my Western Flyer, plus a dollar pack of toothbrushes for an oxalic acid bath test project I'm going to try tomorrow.

At this point, I've decided that I'm not going to go all out and fill, sand, primer and paint this bike. Instead, I'm just going to leave leave this bike bare metal with a satin or gloss clear, and some orange and black details to break things up a bit. I might also return some of the supplies I got before in order to get some money back after spending so much money on repairing the frame and modifying the forks and fender. I'm not going to try doing anymore custom parts for my build unless time permits. I might come back to this bike after this Build Off is over (and I've landed a steady job) and do it all the way I really want, but for now, I just want to get this bike done.

In the meantime, my grandma's 80th birthday is coming up, and I want to do something special for her. I've had her 1965 Schwinn Hollywood sitting here since the start of the year, and I have been wanting to give it an oxalic acid bath since I first learned about the process earlier this year. Well, the weather looks good for giving this OA bath a try tomorrow, but before I test it out on my grandma's Schwinn, I want to practice on the super rusty... Flightliner, or Spaceliner bike I have in my "sell/trade" pile, as well as a few other parts. Before I start tomorrow morning, is there ANYTHING I SHOULD KNOW before I begin this process? Here's an earlier post I made on thecabe.com regarding my understanding of the process, as well as asking for advice, since I don't want to type or copy/paste everything from that all over again. : https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/oxalic-acid-bath-help.169308/#post-1153645

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Well, darn. Looks like I won't be doing an OA bath today after all. It apparently rained last night, and it's bound to rain again later today. Looks like I'll be working on something else today.

 

[kingfish254]

Frame and parts are looking good. Just keep pluggin away and you'll get it done.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Frame and parts are looking good. Just keep pluggin away and you'll get it done.

Thanks Kingfish. I haven't given up on this build yet, I just have to save a few of my ideas for later.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Bad news: I didn't get much of anything done on any of my bikes today due to the weather.

Good news: I just figured out how to make a custom component of my bike happen without breaking the bank or sending anything off to the welders again, and I'll be working on it and some other stuff tomorrow when the weather's dry!

 

[Bike from the Dead]

I'll keep things short, as I'm currently trying to sandblast, wire brush, and clear coat my bike parts right now.

Yesterday night was sort of a "proof-of-concept" event. I wanted to try to make this fork modification I'd been thinking about for months now, and while I now know it's possible, I'll have to try to make it happen after I get the rest of the bike done. Basically, it involves taking some small pieces of 1/2" conduit, and 2 steering tubes cut at roughly 6 and 5/8", hammering them into shape, and jamming them into the holes on top of the forks.

And here's where the idea started to derail. I couldn't use the vice to squeeze the steering tube into an elliptical shape at the base, so I took it over to my dad's anvil, grabbed a big sledgehammer, and started bashing it into shape...

...When the darn piece developed a crack before I could go any further. Turns out, I need to heat this piece in order to form it without cracking it. There's a problem, however: I've never used a torch before, Dad doesn't know how to use one either, and neither of us can find that small blue propane torch that we've used before. It seems my best option would be to either spend money on a cheap torch set to do this myself, or go to Welder Joe again and pay him to modify this part for me. I really don't want to do either thing, so I'm not going to use this idea until I find out if I have enough time after I paint and assemble the bike.

Won't lie though, I really want to make this happen if I can.

Well, I need to get back to work on my bike. This would be going sooooooo much easier if dad's sandblaster had a stupid nozzle so I wouldn't be limited to only a few minutes of use at a time...

 

[Dr. Tankenstein]

Do you HAVE to oval those steer tubes? I think they’ll look fine round.
Did you plan on tying the three headtubes together with a three holed yoke of some sort? It could easily be heals down with three standard top nuts...sorry, not trying to design for you.
I think you could pull it off and it would definitely have a boardtracker look to it


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[Bike from the Dead]

Do you HAVE to oval those steer tubes? I think they’ll look fine round.
Did you plan on tying the three headtubes together with a three holed yoke of some sort? It could easily be heals down with three standard top nuts...sorry, not trying to design for you.
I think you could pull it off and it would definitely have a boardtracker look to it


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Yes. I want the extensions to look like they are part of the fork, not just slapped on, and the best way to do that is to make the base of each extension match the oval shape of the top of the fork tubes. If I just left the bases round, they'd stick out like a sore thumb. I want this modification to blend in as seamlessly as possible. As for keeping the tubes together, I have thought about using a custom 3-hole washer to keep everything in place, but I might be able to do without. Either way, I'm putting this idea on the back burner for now.

 

[kingfish254]

New meaning to the term triple tree forks.

On a different note. You may want to start thinking of a build name. Otherwise your entry in the voting poll will be "First Ever Build Off with a Postwar Hawthorne"

 

[Bike from the Dead]

New meaning to the term triple tree forks.

On a different note. You may want to start thinking of a build name. Otherwise your entry in the voting poll will be "First Ever Build Off with a Postwar Hawthorne"

Thanks! It's based heavily on the triple tree forks I've seen on old board track Harleys and Indians.

As for the build name, yeah, I know. I've been thinking something along the lines of "Hawt Diamond" or "One Hawt Diamond," but I haven't made up my mind just yet.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I was too focused on getting some parts sandblasted, wire brush wheeled, and clear coated yesterday to really worry about taking a ton of photos.

I spent way more time than I ever should sandblasting and prepping my forks and chain guard for clear coat. I wasn't taking my sweet time or anything, it's just that my dad's sandblaster doesn't have a nozzle, so all the compressed air gets used up in all of about two minutes, if I'm lucky. That made what could've been a 15-minute task into a 2-hour chore! Add wire brushing the areas I want to be shiny, and VOILA! You've got an incredibly inefficient way to prep parts for clear coat! Turns out, applying the satin clear coat was the quickest and easiest part of yesterday evening's progress.

I was going to continue my sandblasting and clear coating today, but I'm saving all that for tomorrow since I had a few things come up today.

Oh yeah, here's the revised paint scheme for my build. I might revise the tank design later, but this is how I'm going to dress up my bike: gloss black over satin clear.

Say tuned! More progress to come tomorrow!

 

[kingfish254]

I like those schemes.
What about "Hawtracker"?