# 1961 Monark build thread



## partsguy

Well, I finally got around to this thing this past weekend. I plan to just do some minor work. Knock some dents out of the front fender, chaingaurd, clean it up, possibly replace that awful seat. Its very comfy, but looks silly on this bike, but maybe it might grow on me.   The paint looks a bit faded in some areas,so I might buff it too. Well, I have delayed posting pics of the progress and I'm almost stopped dead in my tracks now. You'll see why:

The night I bought it:











First, the dents! I should probably find a fender roller, but I haven't screwed up a fender yet! The front fender did have a light, if anyone knows what kind maybe I should be looking for, that would be great!










Straighten this out:




Now to get him on my work stand and take him apart...


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## partsguy

This has to be the CLEANEST tank I have taken apart to date!







After some wrangling, some gentle work, and saturation of Liquid Wrench, I manage to BREAK THE THE FRICKING FENDER SCREW! The head just snapped right off! The threads are STUCK in the fork and I DON'T have anything to grab onto. HELP!







I had a similar problem on a taillight for a '64 T-Bird and I got a special drill bit fom the harware store to the get the crew out-and it failed miserably. The bit disintegrated itself! Ona Hawhtorne I was parting out, I did manage to get the parts off with a regular drill bit but the screws were still stuck in the frame at the time of it's demise. HELP!

I'll have to work around it I suppose. So onto the dents...













Progress:


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## partsguy

I'll finish it later, most of the dents are gone, but there some details I need to do later. I now move on to the fender. The fender is pretty much done except for some small pings in it:
















More to come later!


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## Schwinndemonium

If that were my bike, which it is not,(a very nice one at that, though), I would remove the fork completely from the frame. Then I would rethread the steer tube lock nut back on. Then I would clamp it by the steer tube in a solidly mounted bench vise in between the fork crown, and the steer tub lock nut vertically. That way you do not squash the steer tube threads out of round at the top of the tube. Then take a hardened drill bit, and drill it out. Even if you have to go oversize, you could still retap the hole, and put a larger bolt in it, then.

OR you could try soaking it with Kroil for a couple of days, and try to tap it out, if the surface on the broken end of the bolt stub is uneven enough that you could use a very small awl, or fine chisel, to tap the thing out counterclockwise. 

Alot of work, but you will save that very nice fork!!

Just my two cents.

Jim.


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## partsguy

Oh, no doubt! This thing will come out one way or another. Thanks for the advice!


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## Adamtinkerer

Sometimes you can size a drill bit to the diameter of the bolt, not counting the threads. Then use a tap, and it may clean out the threads.


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## partsguy

I'm now down to the bare frame and washing it down and cleaning it up. I've got a question on the seat decal and how to preserve it. Please see my thread in Restoration Tips for more details.


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## partsguy

Well, I keep putting off the trip to Huber Heights to get some Dr. Dronners soap (only Target has it).

I tried to remove the busted screw from the fork, but I busted drill bits trying. I'm about to screw it (no pun intended) and take it to a machine shop!

For now, (yesterday really) I'm moving onto the wheels. First, I started with removing the front hub guts.










Anybody got a spare bleeder screw for a Komet Super?








I felt something weird and I noticed something. The previous owner to ride this had way overtightened the bearings and they got scored and shredded! Nothing is ever as easy as it seems!


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## RZ94

Nice Monark. Here's a couple of mine.


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## partsguy

I've been busy finishing my Eagle Scout-which gets priority over everything else. My copier is working as a I type. I need to oil this dumb chair today, everytime I bend over to get the next thing, it creaks like an old door!

I have made progress. I found some Dr. Bronners soap at Target and the decal is looking awesome and is about done. The frame will then be ready to polich and I can start to reassemble it. I'm almost done washing the bearings and hardware, and most of the body work on the fenders and chaingaurd are done. I have given up on the fork as I have destroyed enough drill bits. I hate doing this, I rarely do it and I only do it with wheel truing, but I need to outsource this one to somebody with the proper tools before I really screw it up. If the fork wasn't so nice, I wouldn't mind taking a gamble.


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## chucksoldbikes

just   start  with    a  small  drill bit    and  go  biget till  u  get it  drilled out  with ut     hurting the  threads   then pick the    pieces out  of the thereds i don it a million times  on the   fork  bolts    then  re thread  the   hule  with a  thread  chaser   works every time  or a  thread  tap
 chucksoldbikes


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## partsguy

Well I'm done busting drill bits. I tried that.

After my bits broke, the cord my drill also frayed and now the drill works whe it wants to. So its either a new cord or a new drill. So, this summer, I've managed to snap nearly all of my smaller drill bits, frayed te cord on the drill, busted 3 flat head screw drivers (one was my mistake, one was a jewelers and it chipped, the other I forget). I remember a wrench last summer flexing from a bicycle pedal. My junkyard toolbox is ready for the junkyard itself, my wire strippers are shot from scrapping wires, I think Its just time for a whole new fleet of tools at this rate.

I think some of my sockets are even stripping out.


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## partsguy

Oh, and last fall, one of our soldering guns died.

I'm not buying more of these special drill bits. They have not worked on this fork, nor have they worked on that tail light bucket a few years ago.

Just to be clear, I'm NOT replacing the fork, I'm only looking for a machine shop.


Why doesn't anything ever some apart easy in this hobby? LMAO!


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## partsguy

*Been a LONG TIME time to post more pics!*

Well, I have been working on and off of this bike for the last couple of months. After I found the Dr. Bronner's soap and got the decal cleaned, it sat...and sat....and sat. All until my Eagle stuff was finally all in and done. :eek: It sat from most of June and July. This month has been tied up in house renovations, car cleaning (Oh Lord, did it NEED IT!), and.....preparing for college. That is why this bike WILL be done by next week (with or without the wheel truing), so help me! If it is done, then it is one less distraction.  I've finally got it in high gear! I'm now down to my favorite part of the game...putting it all back together! I also love buffing the paint, yes, it is labor intensive at times, but seeing that old and fadded red turn to it's bright, gloss, cherry red color was worth every last bit of sweat. 

Here are the pics that have been backed up for weeks...

First, unreleased disassembly pics:

Tear down:














This ugly seat is gonna go!


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## partsguy

In my shed for body work:







Taking the wheels apart:







These things always look like part of a missle or maybe a jet engine-they just look odd to me.





This second round of pics is from cleaning:

First, the careful and delicate cleaning of the seat tube decal. It turned out rather nice and I'm impressed. I probably will not clear coat it...for now. It seems to be very stable-so long as I don't try the dish soap again! :eek: Sorry, some of these are taken with a shotty Canon-I've gone back to Kodak!


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## partsguy

Getting there:













Next comes the daunting task of cleaning-THE RIMS! :eek: Each and every last spoke, nipple, and spot of paint must be as thoroughly has possible, but not so much that it takes off paint, with pinstriping in the way, this was very tricky!







Washing mud off the tank:


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## partsguy

Now for more current pics:

The rear rim was finally done, not bad. The hub works great!













Since the cord on my drill had a break in it somewhere, I busted two drill bits, and I want this thing mostly done by next week, I decided to outsource this repair. I found a machine shop called "T & W Tool Machine" literally on the other side of the tracks, not far away. They did the repair for free as it was simple and the fork looks and threads like brand new. This could have taken me forever but they got it drilled out and rethreaded correctly in minutes.





These fender braces needed a little work-LOL! It just took some heat, a flat metal surface, a hammer, a punch, my small Vise Grips, and a set of pliers.

What I started with on the rear fender:







Almost there...




Gotcha!


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## partsguy

Old, faded, dull, and surface rust red paint was on the bikes, but after some buffing and polishing, here is where I'm at.

The worst spots on the rear fender:











After:







Worst areas on the front fender:










Not bad:




Even hardware is polished-a little perfectionist, yes?


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## partsguy

The fork is all cleaned up.








Got the frame done!




Now I'm getting him all back together! This is where I stopped last night. I felt the headset was a good stopping point.


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## partsguy

Well yesterday, I accomplished little, and today, NOTHING! Yesterday, a simple errand to a garage sale, which mentioned old bikes (I was thinking PARTS!), turned out to be a big disappointment. When they said "old" they meant rusty 10yr old Wal-Mart bikes. All used up and crusher-ready. It was also a bit of a distraction. I ran into a friend of mine and well, since we are going to college in less than a week, we took advantage of this time to have fun. We went junkyarding at the end of the day, and this is where I got sick. Hence, why I didn't get anything done today. My typical picking grounds was our last stop. I got one heck of an allergy attack from the ragweed, which is rare for me. I got a headache so bad it hurt to simply bend over. A throat so sore it felt like I swallowed my propane torch. I'm feeling much better. But tomorrow, I'm going to booking double time to make up for the time I had lost. I'm now almost two days behind. Tomorrow, I need to have my front wheel COMPLETELY cleaned and polished, front bearings repacked, chainring, crank, and bearings/hardware all cleaned, washed and polished, and have a time set up with a local bike shop to get my wheels trued. If I don't do all this, then I'm behind schedule again. I want to have this whole thing done, less the missing mystery item on my front fender, correct seat, and picking up my wheels from the shop. Because installing those parts takes 30min. or less, which I can afford to do. I'm hoping to be at that stage by Monday! That way, I can put anymore un-finished projects up for sale and get them out of here. By Thursday, whatever happens, happens. My beloved Silver Jets will end up parked and others will be up for sale!

I'm doing most of the work in my basement because of all the dang mosquitos! I get eaten alive! So now that I have the luxury of a dry basement, I take full advantage of it. If anybody is wondering, the stuff my shelves is for sale . Those shelves were used for my HotWheels collection back at the old place. The shelf with the vacuum still has a couple of ID tags from the cars.


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## partsguy

It is almost done! I hit some snags, but there isn't much left now! What is remaining is the seat, handlebars, pedals, chaingaurd, rear wheel adjustment, coaster brake hook-up, and a test run. I would love to find out what went on the front fender! An ornament or a light? Or what? I guess I need to find the 1961 Huffy options and measure the holes and find out through process of elimination.


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## jalopyjimmy13

well ur leavin us hangin


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## partsguy

I know, I'm in college now, so uploading pics on photobucket is hard to do (slow, clutered computer, and I'm trying clean it as time allows). It only takes me a minute to reply in text.

I actually have some time, so I'll have pics in a few minutes.


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## partsguy

Back on Sept. 22, I couldn't decide which seat to use. I was thinking about a white seat with silver lining and a chrome crash rail from a '63 Huffy Silver Jet. Well, I thought the Firstone seat was too much red and too much work, as I was in a hurry at the time. The white Huffy seat had a decent size piece of vinyl gone, but then I remembered I had a very similar seat in my boxes downstairs. MOST of which is a Hot Wheels collection.






It got to the point to where I could wheel the bike outside to finish the rest of the job. Here it is before I put the crank back in:








After the crank is back in:








Sadly, September 24 is where I left off. I have not been able to finish it yet!


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## SCHWINNRAY69

Great job on the rebuild! It's looking real good, can't wait to see it done!


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## partsguy

This bike has been done, minus finding that fender light and bleeder screw for the hub. But I have not gotten around to putting in my final installment for this thread. I will do that after I return from Christmas traveling. Merry Christmas!

Funny thing, I resold that ugly seat and I pretty much got the bike for free not counting my time in and money in work.


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## partsguy

*I DO apologize for never adding finished fotos to this thread!*


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## partsguy

@schwinnman67 

There's some close pictures of an earlier crank in here for you.


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