BravoXray
Elite Member
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
- Messages
- 3,666
- Location
- Nothern Indiana
- Tractor
- Kubota BX2230, John Deere 430 Diesel
I have another old Schwinn bike to restore for a friend. It's a 20" Schwinn Fair Lady Sting Ray from the 80s, I believe. It was in a garage in Wisconsin for the last 20 years or so, and while the frame, fenders and chain guard have only a little rust, all the chrome parts have a lot of surface rust and looked really bad. With a lot of elbow grease and 00 steel wool, most of the parts clean up pretty well and don't look too bad. I'm working on the rims now, and I think I'm going to have to remove the spokes one or two at a time to get the rust scrubbed off the inside of the rims. I did that on the last bike, and it took a couple of hours per rim to get them cleaned up. The tires were totally rotted out, so I had to order new ones at the local bike shop, all they had were knobby tires, no street tires. But I did get new tubes, tube protector and chain for it.
The frame is in good shape except for the badly faded paint, as are the fenders and chain guard. I'm going to look around for paint that matched the pink that's on it now, or might visit a shop south of here that can powder coat all the parts.
Over the next few days, I'm going to finish cleaning up the rims, check and repack the front wheel bearings, disassemble the coaster brake and lube it up also.
Looking online, It appears I can still get a new Schwinn decal for the chain guard, so I'll get one of those coming.
The seat is in pretty good condition, so other than a good cleaning it's good to go. I was also able to get the original grips off the handle bars, but they need a good cleaning before they go back on.
I'll post more pictures as the project progresses.
Sorry the pictures are blurry in places, something's wonky in my cell phone camera.
The frame is in good shape except for the badly faded paint, as are the fenders and chain guard. I'm going to look around for paint that matched the pink that's on it now, or might visit a shop south of here that can powder coat all the parts.
Over the next few days, I'm going to finish cleaning up the rims, check and repack the front wheel bearings, disassemble the coaster brake and lube it up also.
Looking online, It appears I can still get a new Schwinn decal for the chain guard, so I'll get one of those coming.
The seat is in pretty good condition, so other than a good cleaning it's good to go. I was also able to get the original grips off the handle bars, but they need a good cleaning before they go back on.
I'll post more pictures as the project progresses.
Sorry the pictures are blurry in places, something's wonky in my cell phone camera.
