I've been pretty bummed out lately about the total lack of progress on my Build Off bike, so I figured I'd step away from it and play with something else. I had this rusty and neglected Schwinn Runabout 10 speed sitting in the backyard, so I pulled it out of the weeds to see what I could do with it.
Once I started tearing it down it was obvious that the wheels and cables were shot. Most of the parts looked salvageable and fortunately the frame and fork were straight, which surprised me because the front wheel looked like it took a hard hit.
I was originally going to strip it down to bare metal to prime and paint it, but I really liked the original paint and rust combo. A little WD-40 on a rag and a lot of rubbing took away all of the chalkiness, and I think it came out pretty cool. Easiest paint job I've done in a long time.
I started mocking it up with different wheel and tire combos since the originals were goners. I wanted to run a 26 x 1.75 cruiser rim, but I was worried the tires wouldn't clear the frame, and they didn't. Then I remembered that I had a set of Metro low profile slicks and on the cruiser rims they cleared the frame and fork with no issues. I love the way they look too, like a modern sportbike tire.
I pulled the big chainring and guard off the crankset and cleaned them up, along with the original headset, stem, bars, seatpost and clamp. Spent a few minutes on the seat with some Meguiars leather/vinyl conditioner and it came out pretty good. Spent another few minutes with some tape and a little black spray paint and touched up the seatpan and springs. I found a set of gold sparkle Schwinn grips in my stash of parts and started reassembling everything.
Done. Took it for a spin and it rides pretty darn good...I'll be riding this one a lot this summer. Fortunately I'm short enough that I can run the seat this low and still ride it comfortably. I'm pretty stoked on how it came out for a one day build.
Now to get back on the Build Off bike...
Once I started tearing it down it was obvious that the wheels and cables were shot. Most of the parts looked salvageable and fortunately the frame and fork were straight, which surprised me because the front wheel looked like it took a hard hit.
I was originally going to strip it down to bare metal to prime and paint it, but I really liked the original paint and rust combo. A little WD-40 on a rag and a lot of rubbing took away all of the chalkiness, and I think it came out pretty cool. Easiest paint job I've done in a long time.
I started mocking it up with different wheel and tire combos since the originals were goners. I wanted to run a 26 x 1.75 cruiser rim, but I was worried the tires wouldn't clear the frame, and they didn't. Then I remembered that I had a set of Metro low profile slicks and on the cruiser rims they cleared the frame and fork with no issues. I love the way they look too, like a modern sportbike tire.
I pulled the big chainring and guard off the crankset and cleaned them up, along with the original headset, stem, bars, seatpost and clamp. Spent a few minutes on the seat with some Meguiars leather/vinyl conditioner and it came out pretty good. Spent another few minutes with some tape and a little black spray paint and touched up the seatpan and springs. I found a set of gold sparkle Schwinn grips in my stash of parts and started reassembling everything.
Done. Took it for a spin and it rides pretty darn good...I'll be riding this one a lot this summer. Fortunately I'm short enough that I can run the seat this low and still ride it comfortably. I'm pretty stoked on how it came out for a one day build.
Now to get back on the Build Off bike...
