Chopped Schwinn single speed

I started up this project again on friday, thought I'd post this up to keep me motivated to finish and might be helpful to other members as its getting near painting time.

Started off with on old one of these with a dented downtube...

Next cut out the downtube

and figured put where I want the new down tube

bent a tube and cut and filed it

cut up the chainguard

made a little head badge out of some alloy....

Thought I'd have a little mock up...

Not too happy with the stem/handlebar combo so used some of the down tube and on old quill stem to come up with something different...

Next was the seatube, always wanted an intergrated seatpost/tube like a fancy carbon bike and also wanted to add a little strength...

Almost finished with the welding, just the two sweeping tubes need to be capped...

I saw a paint job here by a spanish fellow who filed and filled his welds for a super smooth finish.
So the last few days I've been getting all the welds smooth, handlebars look great all smooth will post pics later... I sprayed some test cards yesterday to try and get some idea of paint schemes/colour, I think I'm gonna go for a candy red or a black glitter, my friend has been raving about this new "glitter" additive shaped like tiny diamonds that don't need to be put in a heavy gel coat.
Overall its not that bad so far, rode it for a week to see if I could snap any welds but thankfully everything stayed together and feels really solid but not too heavy. I'm only missing a seat now, was thinking of going for a brooks swallow.

I think I screwed up on editing the op again, but it might pop back up...
sprayed a candy blue over silver test card

and spaced out my rear hub to fit..

think I'm gonna weld a tab on the rear stay to attach to the brake arm.

Wut?

no need to weld a tab, just fix it to the stay with a p-clip

no need to weld a tab, just fix it to the stay with a p-clip

yeah I've got that but it looks crude, at the moment the hub in the pic has a little tab I've fitted to bolt onto a disc brake tab.
I'm slowly smoothing out the welds this afternoon

Got some of the stem and handlebars smoothed out this afternoon, went pretty well I reckon..
before...

after....

the idea is to use as little filler as possible, so its a case of putting a load on then sanding back as close as possible to the weld.

This is cool. I love pictures of stuff being welded. New frame looks heaps better, somehow faster, you should paint it red to get faster still. Actually it looks pretty good raw, also raw is so hot right now.

..... I think I'm gonna go for a candy red or a black glitter, my friend has been raving about this new "glitter" additive shaped like tiny diamonds that don't need to be put in a heavy gel coat.

... was thinking of going for a brooks swallow.

AWESOME!

Really, really love this build.

On the colour, I'd say do both. Black on the very bottom 1/3, running horizontally fading upwards into a candy red. Plus if you matched the rims to the bottom black I recon it would look awesome.

As for the brooks, I'd go for something like a black flyer. Sprung but not too sprung...if that makes sense.

Are you using TIG?

This is cool. I love pictures of stuff being welded. New frame looks heaps better, somehow faster, you should paint it red to get faster still. Actually it looks pretty good raw, also raw is so hot right now.

thanks Harold, I def. going for red of somesort, I'm doing the work at my mates car restoration place so he wants to do something special with the paint so no go with the raw look.

AWESOME!

Really, really love this build.

On the colour, I'd say do both. Black on the very bottom 1/3, running horizontally fading upwards into a candy red. Plus if you matched the rims to the bottom black I recon it would look awesome.

As for the brooks, I'd go for something like a black flyer. Sprung but not too sprung...if that makes sense.

I'm not a big fan of the sprung seat look, was thinking something "faster" looking. I'd like to of painted the rims but unemployment and lack funds is holding me back (I'm having trouble just getting enough cash to lace up the rear wheel.) I tried a fade on the "garage" bike used for going down to the postbox (its close by the way). And also was thinking of using a "harsh" fade on a TT bike I'm restoring so was thinking of keeping the cruiser simpler.

Are you using TIG?

yep TIG, I practised on the mini bike above as it needed repairs and strength for the weight of some of my friends, its been tested at 25 stone so far with the all new intergrated layback flex of the handlebar seatpost...

Just dib'sed a new solid chaninring from mdcc so might try filing out a logo in it or painting it frame colour as the current one looks too "off the shelf"

How do you find riding that bike. I got bored of ending up on my arse so made this - http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/307453_10150328016326724_651611723_8299264_1238850595_n.jpg

Nice work. I'm surprised at the lack of replies, maybe the thread title doesn't quite match the ambition of the project.

How do you find riding that bike. I got bored of ending up on my arse so made this - http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/307453_10150328016326724_651611723_8299264_1238850595_n.jpg

Thats looks like a lot of fun O'Shane! I was thinking of welding on a wheelie bar at one point in time but instead found that putting on wider handlebars helped keep the weight forward

Nice work. I'm surprised at the lack of replies, maybe the thread title doesn't quite match the ambition of the project.

Thanks Lolo, I reckon this kinda project isn't really that interesting to most users of this forum although I might change the title to "Gold Ciocc panto'd NJS track bike, with spok" for some more replies
But all joking aside if your interested in trying something different like this, its not as hard as you'd think, all you really need is a hacksaw, set of good files, welder and a bit of time. For the next project I'm making a frame jig as its completely from scratch, but with the schwinn it has just been a case of eyeing it up and tacking it in.

Bump.

Any progress over the weekend?

Really nice - the new downtube looks great.

I'd like a bike like this, when I have the space. Old cruiser frame, arc-shaped bars, springer fork, really knobbly tyres so I could pretend to be Gary Fisher in 1970.

thanks for the positive comments, got the bars finished over the weekend, took for ever but managed to use just a tiny bit of filler and filed the welds nice and smooth. A good method I found was to use a light coat of etch primer so I could see roughness of the weld,high points and was able to smooth it all together..

I'm looking forward to getting the painting started, I'm trying to convince my mate that it might be a good side avenue of work instead of classic cars as he's one of the best hot rod car painters in the UK and a stickler for detail.

Who is your mate?

Damn this thread is full of Win

Who is your mate?

Its Ed! an american fellow who moved over here in the 80's, the next event he's showing at it Wheels Day in Aldershot, well worth a day out just for the paint jobs and we always seem to get wasted by the end of the day.
Next job is to see if we can buy the alloy polygons used by Cadillac in their black paint. The paint was used in that tv show American Chopper when Paul Jr made the Cadillac Bike, the idea is to mix a bag of the polygons in the laquer or the candy coat for a really nice and deep sparkle effect.

Damn this thread is full of Win

Cheers Vinyl, gonna try and fab some 'bullet" shaped end caps for the frame today and weld them in.... then she's ready

awesome project, love the intergrated bar.

Radical.

Best thing I've ever seen

Crumbs, I glossed over this thread but glad I read it now.
Amazing work, what a great project!

Its Ed! an american fellow who moved over here in the 80's, the next event he's showing at it Wheels Day in Aldershot

Yeah I've been to wheels day a couple of times, it's great. Are you on Retro Rides? You should put this bike up on there, they'd love it!

Thanks for the comments guys, much appreciated, makes me wanna do some more work on her today...
Nope on Retro Rides yet.