My first rat rod, a Murray cruiser, unknown model & year. It probably had several previous owners and was first purchased to be nothing more than a beater. The back rim was shaped like a pringle's chip. It's sitting in the "before" state in the middle of my custom bike rack (the back of an old futon re-painted and re-purposed).
Stripping it revealed at least 3 layers of spray paint. Up until this time I thought I might have an old Schwinn because the serial number couldn't be read due to the layers of paint:
A lot of the decorative pieces came from a local crafts store:
The best piece came from an old belt of mine. It's amazing what you can get away with wearing when you're younger and 230 pounds of ripped muscle. Needless to say those days are past, but I can still put the belt to good use. And although the standard rat rod color for rims is red, I went with orange to match the speedometer graphics and to convey a more light-hearted, humorous approach:
I used colored electrical tape in the mock up stage to get an idea for the color before committing to paint. And you also get another look at my "custom" bike rack, which is a little dusty. This was before I got sick:
Out with the old:
In with the new (a pair of krate replicas):
My first pedal upgrade! A minor victory, but I was happy....
A lot of other stuff and the finished product is:
Something tells me I can't leave this one sitting around outside like I could the old beater. This is now going to be my parade and social ride bike.
It's got a lot of hidden details and color accents:
And the skull embellished grips, but that pic didn't turn out.
It had a horrible after-market chainguard on it with big 90 degree angles so I shaped it to go with the flow. I can't weld yet, but I'm pretty good at cutting metal:
Annnnndddd SCENE!
All in all building the bike was a great experience. I was amazed at how you can build a bike according to a certain theme and yet still infuse it with a ton of your own personality.
Stripping it revealed at least 3 layers of spray paint. Up until this time I thought I might have an old Schwinn because the serial number couldn't be read due to the layers of paint:
A lot of the decorative pieces came from a local crafts store:
The best piece came from an old belt of mine. It's amazing what you can get away with wearing when you're younger and 230 pounds of ripped muscle. Needless to say those days are past, but I can still put the belt to good use. And although the standard rat rod color for rims is red, I went with orange to match the speedometer graphics and to convey a more light-hearted, humorous approach:
I used colored electrical tape in the mock up stage to get an idea for the color before committing to paint. And you also get another look at my "custom" bike rack, which is a little dusty. This was before I got sick:
Out with the old:
In with the new (a pair of krate replicas):
My first pedal upgrade! A minor victory, but I was happy....
A lot of other stuff and the finished product is:
Something tells me I can't leave this one sitting around outside like I could the old beater. This is now going to be my parade and social ride bike.
It's got a lot of hidden details and color accents:
And the skull embellished grips, but that pic didn't turn out.
It had a horrible after-market chainguard on it with big 90 degree angles so I shaped it to go with the flow. I can't weld yet, but I'm pretty good at cutting metal:
Annnnndddd SCENE!
All in all building the bike was a great experience. I was amazed at how you can build a bike according to a certain theme and yet still infuse it with a ton of your own personality.
