SoCal rusty pubber

[Blackwell]

Hey! I posted pieces of this in the Intro section, but it's finally all put together and rideable. The basic bike was a dumpster-rescue Schwinn cruiser that had been painted primer gray. My mtn. bike buddy that found the bike threw some whitewalls and a new cruiser seat on it and gave it to me. I saw a shot of a rusted mtn. bike frame in a magazine, and decided to do the same to this. I stripped the frame to bare metal, sprayed it with salt water every day for about a month and a half, and then clear-coated the rust. The seat was replaced with a Brooks I found on ebay. All the chrome (and the white walls!) were painted with a Rustoleum Dark Bronze. The grips are bike chains that I wrapped around the handlebar and then dipped in clear Plasti-Dip; not real happy with the final on those, though. I was hoping the Plasti-Dip would dry completely clear, but it's a bit cloudy. I might end up re-doing them sometime.
I also added a few flattened bottlecaps as accents; Guinness as the headbadge, and a Fat Tire for one grip cap and Newcastle for the other.
Oh, and I borrowed Ed_Straker's_Rat's idea for the gas pipe seatpost; awesome idea, Ed: http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/viewto ... =25&t=9746
I should have taken some before shots, but here's what I ended up with:

Here's a closeup of the rust finish:

and a closeup of one of the grips:

 

[texasbigjon]

very nicely done! like the use of dark tones! you really got that finish in 6wks? dang, i might just have to try that on my motorized boardtracker build! 8)

 

[deorman]

Great idea on those grips. :!: 8)

 

[Wave?]

What a nice finish. I'll try that on a bike one day. I'm pretty new to ratrod so how/with what do you clearcoat rust? just with some lacker?

 

[aka_locojoe]

Very nice. Is there anything holding the grips together other than the plastic stuff?

 

[iRide Custom Bicycles]

Great idea on those grips. :!: 8)

Might be the coolest ones I have ever seen.

 

[user 135]

Nice job. Simple but very cool build.

 

[Borlaxx]

Those grips are aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawesome

 

[Blackwell]

texasbigjon -- thanks! Yeah, six weeks of spraying maybe 30 seconds every morning. It was pretty dry out here, too, so out where you are, the humidity might help rust it out quicker.

deorman -- thanks! I was hoping it was an original idea. This is my first try at customizing a bike. Ran across a spare chain when I was tooling around in the garage, and it was already kinda coiled up, so I thought it might look good as a grip. Next time I might try having my brother tack weld it on, and not coat it with the rubber. It looked really cool just wrapped on the bar before I dipped it.

Wave -- It was pretty easy to do; did a light washing to rinse off the loose, dusty rust, and then sprayed it with about 1 1/2 cans of Rustoleum clear matte. I thought it was gonna be too orangey, but the clear darkened it up perfectly.

aka_locojoe -- yep, the rubber is the only thing holding it on to the bar. There's a little bit of rotation flex, but only if I try to turn it. I don't notice it while I'm riding.

iRide Custom Bicycles -- thanks, man! I was hoping you guys would like it.

cman -- thanks a lot! It's my first build; I'm pretty happy with it. Took it out for a ride at Doheny Beach in Dana Point a little while ago. A bit squeeky, and I have to true the wheels, but it was a lot of fun.

Borlaxx -- Thanks! I might have to figure out a way to market these....

 

[bikeriderx]

Hey Blackwell...Could you post a close-up of that seat post? I tried to make one out of copper pipe but wasn't strong enough...

 

[roadmaster]

sweet pub crawler!!! never heard of the "make a bike rust on purpose" technique, but i gotta say i like how it turned out.

 

[DesignIt]

Awesome build! The clear coated real rust finish with the dark bronze parts is a great look. The beer cap theme is perfect for the style of the bike. I'm already envisioning a Shiner Bock / Lone Star special.

 

[Blackwell]

bikeriderx -- looks cool, too bad the copper didn't work out. I took a shot of my post, but it looks like my web server is down. But I borrowed the idea from Ed_Straker's_Rat, and you can see a closeup of his post if you scroll down a bit on this page:
http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/viewto ... a&start=15
I just rusted mine to match the rest of the frame.

roadmaster -- thanks man! Glad you like it! I'm happy it turned out as nice as it did.

DesignIt -- thanks! Get going on yours -- I'd love to see what you come up with!

 

[bikeriderx]

Got it!
Thanks Pal!!

 

[rustyspokes21]

NICE work.......NICE work...........very clever and keep up the awesome work........thanks for showing.......

 

[nomoregears]

Very lazy ´n´ cool! The replaced saddle is a must, it stretches the whole line - my opinion . . .

regards, Paul

 

[Ed_Straker's_Rat]

Blackwell - Love the look of this bike, makes me feel kinda dumb for spending two days grinding the rust OFF my frame

Here's a quick tip on the seatpost idea, once you have the length and angle sorted out, take it apart and hit all of the threads with some good quality epoxy and tighten it all up again. When I first did mine, I used friction only and the seatpost started to spin off after the first ride.

Gonna have to try the rust look on my next build

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

great bike!

 

[nomoregears]

All my seatposts are made of fullmetal roundsteel and warm bent (or bended, don´t know the simple past of bend :roll: ). That lasts 8) . . .

regards, Paul

 

[stretch]

nice man! looks like it was left in the woods for 35 years! :wink: