# 1938 Elgin Robin-Another Crossed Off My List!



## Freqman1 (Sep 27, 2012)

FEDEX delivered a box last night with my latest acquisition. This bike was a barn find and is amazingly complete and original save the headlight lens and the house paint. The bike was originally brown and cream and I'm going to attempt to remove the house paint and save the original paint. If I can't do it then it gets a resto/color change to red/cream. I lubed everything and put an old set of white walls on it and rode it tonight and it is one sweet riding bike! Serial # is D8 on one side of crank hanger and 158641 on other side. If anyone has one of the little Alemite grease guns I'd be interested. V/r Shawn


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## Gary Mc (Sep 27, 2012)

Sweet!!!!!!!!  Glad you got it & glad it's in GA, maybe I'll get to see it one of these days!!!!!!!


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## slick (Sep 27, 2012)

Ok Shawn, RUB IT IN that some of were still sleeping when the post went up.   Haha!! Gorgeous bike man. Glad it went to a good home! Thanks for posting up the picture of the tank opened up. Very kool. Never seen one in person. You should probably spray some type of rust neutralizer in there since it does open up. Just my .02


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## Freqman1 (Sep 27, 2012)

slick said:


> Ok Shawn, RUB IT IN that some of were still sleeping when the post went up.   Haha!! Gorgeous bike man. Glad it went to a good home! Thanks for posting up the picture of the tank opened up. Very kool. Never seen one in person. You should probably spray some type of rust neutralizer in there since it does open up. Just my .02




Sleep--when do you find time for that? Seriously though I just lucked out that I happened to take a day off work when it got posted. Inside the tank is just a surface rust which I will clean out but the bike is in the house now so the elements aren't an issue. The insides of most tanks were never painted so most will have some surface rust after 74 years! I'm really hoping I can save the original paint though. V/r Shawn


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## Balloontyre (Sep 27, 2012)

*Brown Bomber*

Great bike, hopefully you can save the OG undercoat. The Brown/Cream is a killer classic combo.


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## Freqman1 (Sep 27, 2012)

Gary Mc said:


> Sweet!!!!!!!!  Glad you got it & glad it's in GA, maybe I'll get to see it one of these days!!!!!!!




Hey Gary,
    If you ever get close to Augusta let me know and I'll show ya all the toys--you can even ride'm if  ya want to! V/r Shawn


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## miller32 (Sep 27, 2012)

Freqman1 said:


> Sleep--when do you find time for that? Seriously though I just lucked out that I happened to take a day off work when it got posted. Inside the tank is just a surface rust which I will clean out but the bike is in the house now so the elements aren't an issue. The insides of most tanks were never painted so most will have some surface rust after 74 years! I'm really hoping I can save the original paint though. V/r Shawn




Great find!!!!!!  Beautiful bike! Nothing like taking off work to find a Robin in your tree.  Would love to find one of those.  Keep pictures coming of your removal of paint or resto.


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## scrubbinrims (Sep 27, 2012)

Nice catch...I was minutes late on it.
I do have an extra alemite oil gun of the same size, but has a wooden handle (the one in my bluebird has a metal triangle handle).
No place to put it on a skylark.
35 shipped.
Chris


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## Nickinator (Sep 27, 2012)

Congratulations Shawn! I wish I would have gotten up sooner but, I know its in good hands now!
So I have to ask how do you plan on getting the original paint back out and for that matter what is the original paint?

Nick.


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## Freqman1 (Sep 28, 2012)

Hey Nick,
     Balloontyre (Ivo) suggested I use Goof Off to try and save the original paint and I am going to follow his advice. This thing is completely (to include underneath the fenders) painted with what looks like some type of enamel back in the day so I'm not real optimistic at this point. As with most of these the original colors were brown and cream. Black and cream was the other advertised option. It is generally accepted that some of the later bikes were also offered in red and cream although I have not seen this listed in any sales literature. There has been a Robin on Ebay for the past few years painted in a reverse cream/brown but the brown color does not look accurate and I've never seen a factory reverse colored bike--but I'n no Elgin expert either! I'll keep everyone posted--will move to the Project section of the forum when I get going on this. V/r Shawn


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## 46powerwagon (Sep 28, 2012)

*Nice Catch!!!*

Shawn,

Nice bike and a GREAT find. Go to tractor show/swap meet you will find Alemite grease guns from small to big sizes. Some of the old garden tractors had the small Alemite guns.

Gary


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## bricycle (Sep 28, 2012)

a beauty!!!  *Elgins Rule!!!!!!!*


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## Freqman1 (Sep 28, 2012)

Thanks for the info. Scrubbinrims has one I'm gpoing to check out. Just to make it clear though--I didn't discover this bike. It was bought off CL in Michigan and I bought it through the CABE. V/r Shawn


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## dougfisk (Sep 28, 2012)

I live out west... I was HOURS late.    Chris, I expected you would have one of your staffers staying up all night to scan the classifieds.


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## yeshoney (Sep 28, 2012)

That particular staffer fell asleep and was promply fired and told to scour barns until another was found.  To this date he is still looking!

Nice ride Shawn.  Hope the paint can be saved.  Half the fun is working on them.  The other half is riding them!

joe



dougfisk said:


> I live out west... I was HOURS late.    Chris, I expected you would have one of your staffers staying up all night to scan the classifieds.


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## catfish (Sep 28, 2012)

Nice score! That was a great deal. If I didn't have one, I would have hit it. I was still thinking about hitting it anyway....


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## cyclingday (Sep 28, 2012)

Nice!

 That has got to be the coolest tank of them all. Hands down.

I've always wanted one of those tanks just to hang from the ceiling of the shop. Kind of like a model Zeppelin flying around.

I was just looking at friends recent find today, and it had been painted over so long ago, that it was all checked and crazed. The bike was a 1917 and it had probably been painted over in the 20s.

We were talking about what should be done with it, and I kind of thought that even though the original finish was long gone. It still showed its age with the weathered repaint.

The blue and ivory Robin is kind of the same way. It doesn't really look that bad, and it does show its age pretty well. I can't imagine that there's much left of the original paint under there.

Sometimes an old repaint can be preferable to a gleaming restoration.


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## dougfisk (Sep 28, 2012)

cyclingday said:


> The blue and ivory Robin is kind of the same way. It doesn't really look that bad, and it does show its age pretty well. I can't imagine that there's much left of the original paint under there.
> 
> Sometimes an old repaint can be preferable to a gleaming restoration.




Exactly what I was thinking...


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## ridingtoy (Sep 28, 2012)

cyclingday said:


> Kind of like a model Zeppelin flying around.




That's the first thought popping into my head when I saw the tank with those horizontal ribs and rounded nose. Terrific acquisition!

Dave


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## Buster1 (Sep 28, 2012)

I like the Robins WAY more than Bluebirds.  I know I may be in the minority.  Nice find!


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## Balloontyre (Sep 29, 2012)

Freqman1 said:


> Hey Nick,
> Balloontyre (Ivo) suggested I use Goof Off to try and save the original paint and I am going to follow his advice. This thing is completely (to include underneath the fenders) painted with what looks like some type of enamel back in the day so I'm not real optimistic at this point. As with most of these the original colors were brown and cream. Black and cream was the other advertised option. It is generally accepted that some of the later bikes were also offered in red and cream although I have not seen this listed in any sales literature. There has been a Robin on Ebay for the past few years painted in a reverse cream/brown but the brown color does not look accurate and I've never seen a factory reverse colored bike--but I'n no Elgin expert either! I'll keep everyone posted--will move to the Project section of the forum when I get going on this. V/r Shawn




Hey Shawn, dig this clip from the 1938 Sears catalog, last color option is Ivory with Brown Accents. The previous catalog only shows the brown or black with ivory accents. I bet, the red/cream color you mention may turn up in a sale flyer or promo, like many odd Sears combos do.
Ivo


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## Freqman1 (Sep 29, 2012)

Thanks Ivo,
     I had never seen that ad before. The Robin is one of those bike I always wanted but never did a lot of research on. That's changing! If anyone else has ads concerning the Robin I'd be interested. As a note I was able to get some of the paint off the seat tube and the paint underneath looks pretty nice. I know some of you say leave the yellow and blue but I just can't do it. Thanks for all the kind words and I'll update progress as it takes place. I gotta lot of irons in the fire--work, school, personal so don't expect daily updates! I do hope to get back on my Five Bar post this weekend though. V/r Shawn


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