- Location
- Western Massachusetts
So my neighbor was having a tag sale today, so Allisonn and I went over while Gus was napping to see what they had. At first I didn't see it, but then I almost tripped over the wheel of a sweet old bike that was just laying on the side of the yard. I immediately asked how much she wanted for it, but she couldn't name a price. She said if it didn't get sold today, it was going on the side of the road for free. Allie and I walked around some more, grabbed some things, but I just couldn't get my mind off the bike. I went back over to it at least 3 times before my Allisonn started joking about how hooked I was on it. My neighbor said $10 and it's yours". "Wow", I said, "I was going to offer $20". So $20 it was, I snatched it up and walked it back to my yard. I don't yet know what year the bike is, I haven't done a ton of searching and the little bit that I did do didn't turn up many results.
Not even an hour after I grabbed the bike, a pickup showed up and grabbed every single piece of metal from the free pile, clearly headed to the scrap yard. I guess I really did save this old ride!
It's in surprisingly good shape. My neighbor said it was in the attic of the garage since they bought the place, which means my father-in-law knows the original owner; which is cool. The frame has just a few small, light rust spots, the chrome is pitted but not terrible - I was already able to bring back the crank and the handlebars. The wheels are probably the worst part of it, they're very pitted, but coming along nicely. One leg of the fork was bent slightly, which I already took care of. The runners on the fenders are a little tweaked, but they should bend back into place nicely. The tires and tubes are shot, and it needs new rim tape as well; but that's all to be expected. All of the bearings may as well be brand new. The bike is already completely stripped down in the garage, I'll be replacing all the nuts and bolts and I'm going to continue working on bringing back the chrome.
As far as paint, I'm not yet sure which way I want to go with this - I'm sort of leaning towards ratrod, as far as I can tell the bike is from the 1950's so it only makes sense.
Anywho, on to the pics!
Right now I'm looking for tires with the fattest, widest white walls I can find, and I plan to leave the chain guard alone. I'll clean it up and straighten some bends, but there's no way I can recreate that paint so I'm going to leave it be. The pinstriping on the fenders should be very easy to re-do, so I'm not worried about painting it all. I'm very excited to get this bike back up and running, with a ding-ding bell and some baseball cards in the spokes.
Not even an hour after I grabbed the bike, a pickup showed up and grabbed every single piece of metal from the free pile, clearly headed to the scrap yard. I guess I really did save this old ride!
It's in surprisingly good shape. My neighbor said it was in the attic of the garage since they bought the place, which means my father-in-law knows the original owner; which is cool. The frame has just a few small, light rust spots, the chrome is pitted but not terrible - I was already able to bring back the crank and the handlebars. The wheels are probably the worst part of it, they're very pitted, but coming along nicely. One leg of the fork was bent slightly, which I already took care of. The runners on the fenders are a little tweaked, but they should bend back into place nicely. The tires and tubes are shot, and it needs new rim tape as well; but that's all to be expected. All of the bearings may as well be brand new. The bike is already completely stripped down in the garage, I'll be replacing all the nuts and bolts and I'm going to continue working on bringing back the chrome.
As far as paint, I'm not yet sure which way I want to go with this - I'm sort of leaning towards ratrod, as far as I can tell the bike is from the 1950's so it only makes sense.
Anywho, on to the pics!
Right now I'm looking for tires with the fattest, widest white walls I can find, and I plan to leave the chain guard alone. I'll clean it up and straighten some bends, but there's no way I can recreate that paint so I'm going to leave it be. The pinstriping on the fenders should be very easy to re-do, so I'm not worried about painting it all. I'm very excited to get this bike back up and running, with a ding-ding bell and some baseball cards in the spokes.
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