Or alternately... "Who stole all my rust?"
I'm really bad about taking progress pictures (getting better about that on my next build though) so all I have for this one are some before/after shots. This is an old Firestone Cruiser that was originally intended to be a decoration in one of my mother's flower beds, but I recently built up an old JC Higgins for my Dad and she was pining for a bike of her own. So out came the WD-40 and pipe wrenches (and the hot wrench at one point.) I tried to save as much of it as I could but the wheels were beyond salvaging, so was the headset, crankset, handlebars and saddle. It had a dog-leg crank on it that I really wanted to salvage but at some point someone utterly destroyed the threads for the right side pedal and ended up brazing it in there permanently.
What parts I couldn't salvage I scavenged off an old Hawthorn I found at a yard sale for $30. It willingly donated it's wheelset, crankset, headset, handlebars, chain, and saddle to bring the old cruiser back to life. The only new parts on the bike are the tires, tubes, and grips. The seat was re-upholstered with some vinyl I found in the remaindered bin at a local sewing and crafts store, but I couldn't find any foam that was the density I wanted so I ended up using some firm grout sponges for padding and it didn't turn out very well. I have plenty of extra vinyl so I'll probably redo it as soon as I can find some better foam. She was in a bit of a rush to have her bike done at this point so after stripping it down I ended up foregoing the bondo or finding someone to do a real paint job and just pounded out the dents as best I could, and did all the paint with spray cans.
Anyway, I've still got a few finishing touches to do but I had the itch to take some photos this evening so here we go...
The "BEFORE"
The "AFTER"
I'm really bad about taking progress pictures (getting better about that on my next build though) so all I have for this one are some before/after shots. This is an old Firestone Cruiser that was originally intended to be a decoration in one of my mother's flower beds, but I recently built up an old JC Higgins for my Dad and she was pining for a bike of her own. So out came the WD-40 and pipe wrenches (and the hot wrench at one point.) I tried to save as much of it as I could but the wheels were beyond salvaging, so was the headset, crankset, handlebars and saddle. It had a dog-leg crank on it that I really wanted to salvage but at some point someone utterly destroyed the threads for the right side pedal and ended up brazing it in there permanently.
What parts I couldn't salvage I scavenged off an old Hawthorn I found at a yard sale for $30. It willingly donated it's wheelset, crankset, headset, handlebars, chain, and saddle to bring the old cruiser back to life. The only new parts on the bike are the tires, tubes, and grips. The seat was re-upholstered with some vinyl I found in the remaindered bin at a local sewing and crafts store, but I couldn't find any foam that was the density I wanted so I ended up using some firm grout sponges for padding and it didn't turn out very well. I have plenty of extra vinyl so I'll probably redo it as soon as I can find some better foam. She was in a bit of a rush to have her bike done at this point so after stripping it down I ended up foregoing the bondo or finding someone to do a real paint job and just pounded out the dents as best I could, and did all the paint with spray cans.
Anyway, I've still got a few finishing touches to do but I had the itch to take some photos this evening so here we go...
The "BEFORE"
The "AFTER"
