# Viking Streamline



## Jay81 (Nov 5, 2016)

Picked up this Westfield built Viking Streamline today, going to be my next project. (Guess I better hurry up with the last project that I haven't worked on in months) Looks like it should clean up pretty nicely. I'd like to get a working delta horn-lite, pedals and grips for it. Definitely one of my favorite bikes that I own. I'll post more pics once I get it cleaned up.


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## Jesse McCauley (Nov 5, 2016)

Ya beat me to it by just a few minutes! Glad it went to a caber anyway and not somebody who will sand blast it.

How bad is that crack?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Jay81 (Nov 5, 2016)

Jesse McCauley said:


> Ya beat me to it by just a few minutes! Glad it went to a caber anyway and not somebody who will sand blast it.
> 
> How bad is that crack?
> 
> ...



Actually, I contacted the guy a few weeks ago when he first posted it, and today he started contacting people that had made offers on it. I was lucky, as I was the second person to physically go look at the bike. The crack goes pretty much all the way around. It sucks, and normally I would stay far away from a bike with frame damage, but this one definitely needs to be saved. I know a guy that I think can braze it so I'll be in contact with him and see. At least the repair will be somewhat hidden by the tank.


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## Dave K (Nov 5, 2016)

I would make it sound and ride it.  That patina and dirt could not be replicated.  

Great bike looking forward to seeing it go back together.


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## New Mexico Brant (Nov 5, 2016)

A very sweet bike!  Congrats!  I would be very proud to own it....


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## cds2323 (Nov 5, 2016)

Jay81 said:


> . The crack goes pretty much all the way around. It sucks, and normally I would stay far away from a bike with frame damage, but this one definitely needs to be saved. I know a guy that I think can braze it so I'll be in contact with him and see. At least the repair will be somewhat hidden by the tank.




Love that bike!

I don't think the frame crack is as structurally unsound as it looks ( I hope). Here are the Westfield patents that show how they constructed their frames at the time. You can see that there is a piece attached inside the head tube. The frame tube slips over it and is brazed on. The crack appears to be over that piece so there is something underneath to attach the tube to. I hope you can have it done without damaging the paint too badly. At least a small enough area to distress paint to match.


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## Jay81 (Nov 5, 2016)

cds2323 said:


> Love that bike!
> 
> I don't think the frame crack is as structurally unsound as it looks ( I hope). Here are the Westfield patents that show how they constructed their frames at the time. You can see that there is a piece attached inside the head tube. The frame tube slips over it and is brazed on. The crack appears to be over that piece so there is something underneath to attach the tube to. I hope you can have it done without damaging the paint too badly. At least a small enough area to distress paint to match.View attachment 379261 View attachment 379260



I thought it looked like there was another piece inside the tube. Makes sense now!


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## cds2323 (Nov 5, 2016)

Also curious what year it is. I'd guess it's a higher number A serial number or maybe a B serial number.


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## Jay81 (Nov 6, 2016)

cds2323 said:


> Also curious what year it is. I'd guess it's a higher number A serial number or maybe a B serial number.



The bike was discussed in another thread the other day, before I bought it, and someone said it was a 1935, but the fenders, fork and truss rods looked like 1936. On the bottom bracket, there's what looks like an oval, or sideways 0. Below that it has D8. And the serial # is B81921.


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## cds2323 (Nov 6, 2016)

Jay81 said:


> The bike was discussed in another thread the other day, before I bought it, and someone said it was a 1935, but the fenders, fork and truss rods looked like 1936. On the bottom bracket, there's what looks like an oval, or sideways 0. Below that it has D8. And the serial # is B81921.




That's a 1937 serial number. Makes sense as the truss rods are the curved type that show up in later 36. And the fork doesn't have the built in truss rod arm supports seen in 35-36.


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## Jay81 (Nov 6, 2016)

cds2323 said:


> That's a 1937 serial number. Makes sense as the truss rods are the curved type that show up in later 36. And the fork doesn't have the built in truss rod arm supports seen in 35-36.



Thanks, I figured it was right in that time frame, but I'm better at dating Schwinns than other bikes.


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## Jay81 (Nov 8, 2016)

Made some progress on the Viking. Sunday I took it apart and yesterday I washed the frame, fork and rack. When I bought it I could tell there were areas that looked like the paint had been touched up. After cleaning years of dirt, dust and grime off, I am disappointed to find that most of the bike has been repainted, although it was done carefully, and they took the time to paint around most of the white accents on the frame. And the other problem is all the paint is dull. I was originally going to try goof-off on the areas that looked like they were touched up.
Now that I have it cleaned up, and can see most of it has been painted (a very long time ago) I'm not sure what direction I want to go. Here's my dilemma:
I love this bike and bought it with the intention of keeping it, but I like to collect only original paint bikes. There are areas that look like nice original paint under the house paint. BUT, there are areas of the frame where all the paint is worn off to bare metal. I'm worried about how much original paint is left if I remove the house paint. Full restoration is out of the question, and I will not repaint any of the painted parts because it won't look right with patina on the rest of the parts.
I could try removing the house paint, and hope that the original paint is halfway decent, and hope there's no other bare spots other than what I can already see.
I could leave the house paint and try to shine it up and just figure its part of the bikes history.
The tank appears to be all original paint, and in nice condition.







 here, you can see some original paint where the kick stand was.


 


In this pic, you can sort of see the white accent on the top bar showing through the house paint.


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## redline1968 (Nov 8, 2016)

Oh ya that is a serious looking frame crack to me.  Repair it? I think you can but the original paint idea will be tossed out the door and it's possible the lower tube is bent as well with that type of damage. Fork damage is probably the culprit on this one.


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## Robertriley (Nov 8, 2016)

I'd repair it and just touch up the paint where you can and carefully repaint the top darts.  You can still see the outline through the faded red paint.   I'd also add some rain gutter fenders, correct chainring, maybe some triple drop wheels and ride the crap out of it.


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## cds2323 (Nov 8, 2016)

I highly doubt that bike was equipped with either rain gutter fenders or triple step wheels when new. By 37 Westfield was using drop center rims on the bikes I've owned/seen. I've seen triple steps on some 37 low budget base models sold as Elgin's.
I just sold a 37 Westfield #B53715. It had dropcenters. It also had gothic fenders which were new for Westfield in 37. Your bike may have had the crescent fenders used in 36 and early 37, or the gothic style. I've seen aluminum and steel gothic style but the crescent was also sometimes stainless.
Your fenders look to have been replaced. Besides the screws for the braces they are also spaced far apart. Westfield fender rivits are about 1 3/8" apart.
Check with Mr. Columbia to see if he has an image from a 37 Westfield catalog. Should find answers there.
I'd use goof off on the red on the upper bar. You should be able to reveal the white underneath easily.


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## Jay81 (Nov 8, 2016)

redline1968 said:


> Oh ya that is a serious looking frame crack to me.  Repair it? I think you can but the original paint idea will be tossed out the door and it's possible the lower tube is bent as well with that type of damage. Fork damage is probably the culprit on this one.



One good thing is the tank will partially hide the frame repair so hopefully it won't look too bad.


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## locomotion (Nov 8, 2016)

that frame is done IMO, the fork is badly bent as well
you need a serious blow sideways to rip a tube like that .... never seen that before

if you stand behind the frame, is it aligned, is the headtube perpendicular to the ground?


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## cds2323 (Nov 8, 2016)

I still think the frame is repairable. You do need to check the frame alignment to be sure it's not twisted. The repair can be painted over and distressed to match.The fork can also be straightened. 

I see you posted a wanted ad for a horn-lite. Looks like all you really need is a cone and horn. I have a correct horn w/tabs for the horn-lite you can have if you go to the trouble to fix the frame and bring this bike back to life. Not many of these later streamlines around. I'm sure you've had PMs on parting it, especially the tank.


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## bikewhorder (Nov 8, 2016)

Repairing the crack looks like an easy fix to me. It might take some tweaking if the alignment is out, and that can get more challenging, but I don't see any wrinkles in the tubes so that's good.


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## catfish (Nov 8, 2016)

You need to find someone who is very good at brazing. The frame is savable. The paint not so much.


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## Jay81 (Nov 8, 2016)

cds2323 said:


> I still think the frame is repairable. You do need to check the frame alignment to be sure it's not twisted. The repair can be painted over and distressed to match.The fork can also be straightened.
> 
> I see you posted a wanted ad for a horn-lite. Looks like all you really need is a cone and horn. I have a correct horn w/tabs for the horn-lite you can have if you go to the trouble to fix the frame and bring this bike back to life. Not many of these later streamlines around. I'm sure you've had PMs on parting it, especially the tank.



Surprisingly, I only had a pm on the whole bike, and another for one of the plates. I'd be open to repairing the horn lite, but what's left of the current one has several cracks in it (starting to become a theme with this bike) so I wasn't sure if I should locate the missing parts or just replace it. Ultimately, I would like the horn lite to work. I need to find a horn button as well. I have the light switch.


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## cds2323 (Nov 8, 2016)

Jay81 said:


> Surprisingly, I only had a pm on the whole bike, and another for one of the plates. I'd be open to repairing the horn lite, but what's left of the current one has several cracks in it (starting to become a theme with this bike) so I wasn't sure if I should locate the missing parts or just replace it. Ultimately, I would like the horn lite to work. I need to find a horn button as well. I have the light switch.




Those horn-lites usually have cracks some worse than others.  I just thought it might be easier to find a cone and put it back together. Especially since you have to find a button and some other parts.


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## Jay81 (Nov 8, 2016)

Here's a close up, top view of the frame crack. It goes down both sides. Yes, it looks bad, but I see no reason why it couldn't be repaired. I just need to find someone who can do it. (Think I might know somebody, have to get a hold of him) Thinking, as someone suggested, maybe this happened when the fork got bent?


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## Jay81 (Dec 18, 2016)

On the first page of this thread, I posted pics of the frame after I washed it and discovered most of it (except for some of the darts and head tube) was covered in house paint. I have used Goof Off and removed almost all the house paint, except for a few areas where the original paint was heavily worn I left some of it. So here it is, house paint removed from the frame and fork. Frame crack has been repaired, and fork straightened.
I found some model enamel at a hobby shop that was a close match, and touched up the repaired area on the frame, where the lower bar meets the head tube. I also touched up the top tube darts which were almost worn off.
On the fork, I sprayed the top portion just below the steer tube, as the paint had been charred from the heat when straightening the bent tube.
The fork darts were heavily worn also, so I decided to touch those up as well. One side is done, still have to do the other side.
Those little circular parts in the darts were tough, as I had to free hand a few of them where no white paint was left. It ain't all perfectly straight and symmetrical, but neither were the original darts. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the results so far. I have more work to do on it but here's where I'm at now. 




 The darts on the top tube were nearly gone.


 

 



Here's a couple close ups of repaired area.


 





Both sides of the fork looked like this.





Other side, with darts touched up.


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## Euphman06 (Dec 18, 2016)

Nice!


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## rickyd (Dec 18, 2016)

Commendable work all you are doing is adding history!


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## Jay81 (Feb 6, 2017)

More  pics.


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## sludgeguy (Feb 6, 2017)

Looking amazing! Very well done.


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## Jay81 (Apr 16, 2017)

And here it is all back together again. I actually took these pics back in February, but didn't have a chance to upload them right away. Unfortunately after cleaning the rear wheel and rebuilding the hub,  I discovered the front wheel was badly bent.  Not surprising considering the damage to the frame and fork,  but didn't occur to me to check. Thanks to my brother @Dan the bike man for selling me a nice set of wheels for it. There's still a little bit more I want to do to it,  but I got it looking pretty nice and it rides great with new tires/tubes and fresh grease in the hubs and bearings. This one's a keeper for sure!


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## Dan the bike man (Apr 16, 2017)

Jay81 said:


> And here it is all back together again. I actually took these pics back in February, but didn't have a chance to upload them right away. Unfortunately after cleaning the rear wheel and rebuilding the hub,  I discovered the front wheel was badly bent.  Not surprising considering the damage to the frame and fork,  but didn't occur to me to check. Thanks to my brother @Dan the bike man for selling me a nice set of wheels for it. There's still a little bit more I want to do to it,  but I got it looking pretty nice and it rides great with new tires/tubes and fresh grease in the hubs and bearings. This one's a keeper for sure!]



And I went on a ride today, rides as nice as it looks


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## THEGOLDENGREEK (Apr 19, 2017)

Killer job the bike came out awesome for sure!


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## Jay81 (Apr 19, 2017)

THEGOLDENGREEK said:


> Killer job the bike came out awesome for sure!




Thank you!


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## mickeyc (Apr 19, 2017)

Nice job....would love to see it in person.  Ever do anything around the area where we could get together?  I'm local.

Mike


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## Jay81 (Apr 19, 2017)

mickeyc said:


> Nice job....would love to see it in person.  Ever do anything around the area where we could get together?  I'm local.
> 
> Mike




I sent you a pm.


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## HIGGINSFOREVER (Apr 19, 2017)

Hell of a job,First class work.


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## Rides4Fun (Apr 25, 2017)

Love the restoration! Great looking ride!


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