Not related to the Old Truck…but I have gotten down my old BMX bike I had in Florida and am restoring it. Its about time to do it. Not sure if I will keep it or not but am going to redo it as best I can. I have it broken down and will be getting the school to repaint the frame and other components as close to original as they can match. I found reproductions of the old stickers online. I am in the process of cleaning up the old bearings to see if they can be re-used. I plan on using as much original as I can.

The wheels are in the garage and I will get pics up of these soon. I am going to try and restore them myself. Although I can’t true them up. I don’t have the equipment or the knowledge. Here are some pics of the broken apart bike. The forks are already at the school to be sandblasted and repaired. I will update more when things get done. This is not a rush project though.

Well the Handlebars, goose-neck, forks and the frame are at the school ready to get sandblasted and repainted. Told them not to rush so it could be a few weeks until they get to it, since they are busy with cars. But, I have tried to clean up all the parts I have here at the house. I worked on the chain sprocket tonight. This is just a first cleaning. I will try and polish it with super fine steel wool tomorrow. Compared to it uncleaned its a lot better. But I am still not sure I will be able to save it.

Update: See Below: Headset Bearings can’t be re-used. They are in to bad of a shape and will not run smooth. Couple Bearing Balls are missing and the races are warped. This was due to the forks not being true at the top. Hopefully the welding shop at the school will be able to fix that. So I will need new bearings. So…I will measure and try and find.  

Update: As stated below I will be using the NOS Ashtabula forks instead of the ones I had. They were welded wrong years ago, and not true at the top. They have been disposed of. 

Update See Below: These are the Crank or Bottom-set bearing. I think I will be able to re-use these. 

Update See Below: Well…this speaks for itself. These are the headset bearing cups. Pretty much too rusted. Left one…..might be ok. Right one too far gone. They could be restored…but that is not cost effective. It would cost too much to re-chrome such a small piece. Chroming has gotten real expensive….THANK YOU E.P.A.! But I might gather up all my salvageable parts and see if a local re-chroming place could do them with a lot of other peoples small parts and then it could be reasonable. 

Well…got the wheels out and removed the old dry rotted tires. They are in pretty bad (rusted) shape, as you can see by the pics. I will have to see about getting them stripped and re-chromed. Disappointing that I can’t do it, but the chrome is flaking off. I will update as I get info. 

Update: Found out today that a re chroming place will do these wheels for $65 for each wheel. That is just for the wheel rim,  I will have to remove the spokes. But getting new ones anyway. It is recommended if you ever take spokes out that are this old….replace them due to metal fatigue. Also have to tell them they will have to be completely stripped down to bare metal. Will see what their process is and update everyone. 

Right now I just want to get the frame done. I have new decals coming and the school is going to re-paint, install decals and clear over them so they never come off. Can’t wait to see it when its done.

Update: The frame has been sandblasted. They are trying to get a good paint match to the original color. I have gotten my decals…see below. Unfortunately I won’t be able to get the decals clear coated over. The type of material they are made of will not allow us to do that. But, hopefully they will stick as good as the originals. 

Reproduction decals: 

Update: Frame getting sandblasted (at school) in preparation for new paint and stickers. Two layers of paint coming off, the left side of the frame is bare metal. It looks kinda satin like due to the sandblasting process. A little steel wool and it will look more like raw metal. Then I will check the frame for cracks..none seen so far. I believe the frame to be in excellent shape. Then it will be painted and stickers (above) put on. Then some new parts (bearing cups) and the foundation will be there. Next will be wheels, I am going to get a spoke key and remove the spokes from the wheels so they can get re-chromed. Update you soon. 

Update: Got the spoke key but spokes still will not come out. I think I need another tool. Right now, just want to get the frame and forks done. 

Update: The frame has been painted. See picture below. Just waiting for the decals to be applied. Looks good, can’t wait for the decals to get on. 

Below you will see the new (NOS) stands for New Old Stock Ashtabula (forge name) forks I bought. New Old Stock means that these forks were never sold, but manufactured back in 1978, date stamp is on them. This is actually the correct year for my original bike. So….they are New (never used) Old (manufactured long time ago), Stock…someone had these in stock at a bike shop or somewhere and they never got sold. They have never been installed to a BMX bike. This is a great find…but they are not exactly as mine where on my bike originally. But I have a plan. Here is the ones I just bought.

The little white specs are actually sparkles in the finish. The Ashtabula forge that made these used this finish. Its was called “Black Magic”. Ashtabula made bike parts for years…mostly Schwinn but a lot of other. Sad they shutdown in 1982 after decades. They used to make forged metal bows for the top on horse drawn carriages and later convertible tops for the early cars. 

These are the ones they made for BMX bike with the extra gusset at the top for strength, since most Schwinn’s did not go off road at the time this was needed for the BMX bikes.

These forks are built really strong and that finish is really durable. But…to care for them its a little weird. You need to oil them…yup rub motor oil on them. The sparkle will diminish, but they are protected. These forks I just bought are sparkling a lot…so they need some oil. I will do that after I get the milling work done on them. 

This is what my originals looked like (not mine, found pic on Internet) see the Ashtabula stamp. I am going to get the machine shop at the school to try too duplicate this stamp that is one each side. I hope it will turn out. Very hard to find a stamped Ashtabula fork in the first place and one that is not super over priced is even harder. 

Hopefully soon I will be able to update you with a picture of the completed restored frame with the forks mounted. Then it will on to the wheels. I am still looking for correct handlebars like I had. I made a bid  on some on E-bay but lost the auction.