FAT TIRE...
Wow... So much to get caught up on... been slacking on my blogging duties for far too long now. Just got back from LA, but before I get in to any of that I want to do a few posts to get you all caught up on a few of the projects I've been working on over the winter. I've had a bit of time off and had a chance to focus on a few non-animation projects. Since moving out of the city to the Hudson Valley I've found myself more and more picking up new projects/hobbies, just for the simple fact that now I finally have space to work on them. The most recent of these hobbies is bike restorations. I was lucky enough to come across a few great old tank bicycles over the past few months and figured it would be a fun project to restore them. I had no idea how much I would actually enjoy it! I am learning quite a bit, not only about how these bikes work but also about their history. My most recent acquisition was this beautiful early 50's Schwinn Streamliner... Here are a few pics of the restoration...
Here it is in it's original condition before I restored it. At this point I had already taken off the horn tank and the handlebars...
Here I started to mask off and paint the horn tank...
As you can see the bike didn't have fenders when I got it so I had to order some new reproductions which came in solid black. I repainted everything myself using pinstriping tape for some of the tight details...
The seat was pretty destroyed once I started to take it apart...
I wanted to give it new padding and I actually reupholstered it myself using a nice faux leather fabric and some seat foam...
I was without a camera for a good chunk of the restoration, so I'm going to jump straight to the after pictures...
The bicycle was missing a few parts like the rear rack. I tracked down an old 26" Schwinn Ladies Hornet rack which is the same make as was on the Streamliner and painted it to match...
Here is a pic of the chainguard with new paint and decals. I was able to clean up and salvage the skiptooth chain, so I was pretty stoked about that. I swapped out the old beat up pedals with these sweet teardrop ones...
Here's the painted horn tank complete with Schwinn decal...
I was also able to salvage the rims, but it took a ton of work to get them to look this good... there was so much rust and paint that needed to come off...
Flipped the handlebars to give it more of a motorcycle look. The handlebars I swapped out as well because the original seemed to have a bend in them. The ones on the bike now are used and I really had to clean them up to get all of the rust off and give them that shine. The truss rods and clamp are new as well, I believe they are reproductions. Headlamp also new.
Added new grips to top it all off. Once I finish painting the Schwinn headbadge I can throw that on as well
