Prewar Roadmaster Delivery

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ozzmonaut

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Feb 9, 2011
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Mount Airy, NC (aka Mayberry)
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Unfortunately, I have already stripped this thing down and removed the paint. I wish I had a decent before pic. I might be able to come up with one sometime throughout the build though. It was covered in lots of green house paint. Underneath that, the original paint was pretty much gone. I did find enough to gauge the original color. Looks like it was a very light mint green, with dark green accents. I found the light green in several spots, and the dark green just around the head tube and on the fork over top of the mint green. The fork was very badly bent. I have it straight now, but it looks a bit forward in the pic due to the bearings and cups being out. I think the handlebars had been replaced with period correct cruiser bars, unless cruiser bars were an option on these. I'll have to do more research. Rear fender is good, but braces are bad. Front fender is trashed, probably due to lower basket support missing.
There were some ugly repairs made at the BB, but they are strong welds and I have ground them down to look better, and I filled a couple of small dings in the downtube using JB putty. I will either buy or make a front stand. The bike came with an incorrect seat, but I like the seat for this build, and plan to use it. I'll get a pic of the seat up soon.
I will be replacing the front fender and throwing on delivery style h-bars. I am going to fab the basket supports/clamps. I have a very large WALD basket to put on. The rear sprocket is 14t skiptooth, and too badly worn to use. I will likely go to a smaller sprocket, and use a smaller chainring, both to avoid buying a sprocket, and because I don't like the original chainring. This might not be an exciting build, but I think some folks may find it interesting.
 
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So here is another basket I dug out. Larger than the Wald I have. Also the bars and seat I'm thinking of going with. The basket is just over 23" wide, the bars are 27". They have a lot of rise. Hopefully not too much. I added another bar pic because the first angle makes them look like normal cruiser bars.
 
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The frame in customary red primer. Also, it had been previously repaired at the right dropout. Looks like they had cracked it where the tensioner threads in, and then just brazed all of it solid. I ground it down smooth, and it looks like a very solid repair. My first thought was to cut that section out forward of the dropout and weld in a couple of nuts or an internally threaded coupler. But I decided to leave it alone for now.
While this thing has so much repair work, I have to respect that someone cared about it enough, or relied on it enough, to do the work to keep it going. I have been working on the support for under the basket, and will get a couple of pictures of that part shortly.
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The primer showed some imperfections that, while minor, were easy fixes. So I took care of those and started paint. The base coat is down, but it's getting a little cold for paint. should have a picture tomorrow. Also, worked on the front support earlier. Needs some tweaking for the part that actually bolts to the frame, but it's looking okay so far. Hope to get a pic of that soon as well
 
The coveted "before pic". Notice the graceful geometry of the fork pre-repair. I used a piece of 2"x2" square tubing with a long slot cut in it to place between a car jack set on the fork and the bottom bracket to get it straight.
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I'm still looking for pictures of one of these in original paint so I can try to get the right accents and paint scheme. I have original paint roadmaster fenders, so I can use that as a basis for painting the fenders. The frame is where I'm stuck. I've searched online a lot, but can't find any decent pictures of one of these with the original paint. They have all been repainted or are in too poor shape to see the paint. If anybody has pics or can steer me towards some images, I'd appreciate it.
 
Thanks TRM. Here is my first attempt at basket supports. It isn't correct, original looking, or anything else. But it is straight, level, and I would trust it to hold 40+ lbs with no issue. I still have to make the upper bracket that will wrap around the back of the headtube. I think this setup will be plenty tough enough. Also, you are seeing the mint green I am going with. I have the dark green, but still researching color schemes, details, etc.. It looks strange with no tires and fenders, but I only threw this together to mockup the bracket and make sure it was straight whilt I tacked it. I still need to get the grinder out and clean the welds up.
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I have a pile of rear fenders that would be fine for this build. But I keep glancing at this one. It wouldn't be correct. But it has a curved brace like many of the roadmasters. It came off of a Huffman ladies bike. Similar rack to a dial-your-ride. I might feel bad about breaking up the fender set to use the rear though. But I could drill a couple of holes and bolt a small basket to the rack or something, since it is a solid style one. Seems like the more I think about this bike, the more random parts I start throwing at it.
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So, I'm trying to figure out which chainguard to go with. Right now these are my options.
Top to bottom: 1)Exercise bike guard; I was thinking of using this on a build years ago that didn't materialize
2) Huffman guard; not correct but I like the look
3) Prewar Westfield, I believe
4) Aftermarket maybe, but very Colson looking
5) The one that was on the bike when I got it. Similar to the Westfield, but not as nice
I'd say the top 3 are the best. I'm really interested in opinions on this. Whatever I go with is getting painted, so I only want to do this once. The exercise one I like because it is so full and will fit how it seems a delivery bike uses positive space in the form of carrying capacity, signage, etc. Also painted two-tone with a big Roadmater decal in the center would be cool. The Huffman looks kind of boxy and utilitarian, and the Westfield has great lines and would look awesome in two-tone green.
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Not a lot of progress. In the past few days I have painted the fork light green, and fixed the basket support to tilt upward some. I have been looking at pictures of Roadmaster fender accents, trying to figure out how to paint mine. I am still unsure if I want to pull the wheels apart to properly clean the hoops up, and all of the wheel parts for that matter, or if I would rather try to clean them as well as I can while together. Also planning to check the salvage yard over the next couple of mornings, looking for some cheap sheet metal to make a sign plate, and maybe some channel to make a front stand.
 
Thanks for the link. I was expecting the headtube to be a the color of the fender accents. But it appears that the frame is one color with no accents. I definitely found dark green around the headtube, so I'm curious about that. It looks like the fender accents are pretty much what I expected. Also have to paint some long fork darts.
 
Thanks. If I find original parts later on, I could switch them out. But I'd like to just make this look somewhat original, and have it be useful. The baskets and brackets and parts like that are just too expensive if you find correct ones. Barring a miracle find somewhere, I'd say that if I had the correct parts, it would be a waste to put them on this frame. Better condition CT frames are out there for reasonable prices. But I think this will be a good bike when I'm done.
 

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