# '49 DX Field Find



## Clatter (Apr 29, 2013)

Soooo, it's January 2013, And I am up at my in-laws...
They live up near Columbia/Sonora in the Sierras.

Talk turned to politics, or what to do with all this stuff, or some such,
So it was time to take the kids and go for a walk in the woods....

The neighbors house got foreclosed on, and there was this attractive nuisance of a junk-pile next door.
Stuff had been sitting in the rain all winter.

Lo, and behold, A cruiser bike!
My oldest and I dug it out of the pile, and drug it/rolled it over to the in-laws.
My wife was NOT impressed, but I somehow had the feeling it was cool.

(I know a little about motorcycles and cars, but almost nothing about bikes)
So I found this site, got logged on, posted what I found.
People on this forum help a newbie SO much!
http://thecabe.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?37772-Can-anybody-tell-me-what-i-found-here

So away we go!
Will show more soon...


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## Clatter (Apr 29, 2013)

So, after reading and reading everything I could,
And tons of help for forum veterans,
I finally got the guts to tear things down....

This thing was _Rough_!
The chain was rusted solid, the rear wheel wouldn't roll, the bottom bracket was seized, etc.


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## Tin machine (Apr 29, 2013)

*cool project*

I can't think of a better way to get started than on a cool old schwinn dx ....you found something very cool


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## okozzy (Apr 29, 2013)

*Agree*

You've got yourself a great project, great way to get hooked into this hobby.


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## tailhole (Apr 30, 2013)

everybody has a start up story, mine was a '46 Schwinn DX.  Great project, great bike.  Good luck!


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## snickle (May 1, 2013)

Thats a very nice bike! That gooseneck is a keeper!


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## bricycle (May 1, 2013)

If you are so inclined... I have this tank (same year) available with working original style horn...$200/$215 shipped just what I paid. Has cool WW2 style ladies on it also! Have the rear blue fender $25/$35 shipped, and guard $40/$50 shipped, rack...$40/50 shipped. Discount on shipping on multi items of course. Also have a silver repainted fender set....$60/$75 shipped domestically only. bri.


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## Clatter (May 1, 2013)

*The Seatpost Escapades*

Thanks for the comments guys,
I'm really stoked on this!

Bike projects can take weeks and hundreds, instead of years and thousands like cars always seem to.
Nice to actually be getting things actually finished for a change..!

So, the teardown went along smoothly,
A lot of soaking with PB Blaster and a little heat, and everything came apart except... The seatpost!
Now, you saw that there were some kids eventually riding this bike, and me, and mom, so the seatpost HAD to come free.

First, it got soaked with penetrant,
And hit with a hammer to knock it free, and soaked some more.
Repeat 20X over a few weeks.... no luck.

Then, it got twisted with the pipe wrench, until it folded up and twisted like a churro!

So, I read up here on this great site, and started in using some of the techniques described here.

First, I got a big bolt, ground the head to fit in my slide hammer, and welded it to the end of the seatpost.


 
Wailing away, cussing, pinching my hand in the slide, tearing a flap of skin loose, bleeding, and more foul words...
No luck.

Then, I abandoned any hope of OG paint, and rat-rod style, and started heating it up with a torch.
just a MAP-gas torch, so as not to have the welds flow, but it sure ruined the original paint.

Still NO luck!
It was way past lunch, my hands were hurt, and wailing away with the slide hammer until I tore the post clear off at the frame, only an inch or so sticking up...




Only because I had already bought a few parts for it, did it not all get tossed straight in the trash.
A whole beautiful Saturday wasted with loud swearing, bleeding and generally scaring my family into hiding.

So, after sleeping on it, an idea came to me.
I tried to find a small enough sawzall blade to fit in the center of the post.
Nothing available was long and skinny enough at the same time.
Then it came to me!
Modify a hack-saw blade!
I had some really nice Starrett brand hacksaw blades, and they got a hole drilled in them and a shank ground to work in the Sawzall chuck. 


Slowly, with the determination of a madman, folding up the blade again and again, only to make another,
I spent the whole day zeroed in on slicing that $&*I$&%$# seatpost along it's whole length from the inside.



As the sun was sinking in the West, Victory!!!!
The post was out, and I had won!!!!



There are a few scars form the hackage, but it should be bodyworked pretty easily...



The project survives, and it's time to get rolling.

Everybody brings something to the table, I hope that this little tidbit of inspiration can help someone some day....


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## m_fumich (May 1, 2013)

I wish I had known you were having trouble getting that post out. Some JAFE Juice and a little more time would have saved you a little blood and sweat.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2


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## Clatter (May 1, 2013)

*Hub Adventures*

OK, so as far as I can tell, the wheels are OG to the bike.

First thing I did was take them all apart for inspection.
Found missing pieces, wrong stuff, broken stuff, and a bunch of rust.






Bought another couple of hubs for parts, hopefully to piece together a set of working hubs, using the original hubs as a base.



Posted to the site, and figured out what is going on.
http://thecabe.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?39445-Post-War-Hubs&p=218025#post218025
Gave everything a gas bath, then a few nights in the Carb Dip can.
So nice having everything small enough to not need the solvent tank!



Laid it all out, and tried to figure out the best plan of attack.



Now, I'm not really trying to preserve this thing to be 100% OG,
It's really way too far gone, this is my first bicycle resto, and, well, we live in Santa Cruz, which is cruiser city.
it doesn't really appeal to me to have a tank, chain guard and fenders.
I love that stripped-down cruiser style.
Can always add tank and fenders later.
The idea is to build a period-correct bobber style, with everything correct and all the tabs still on it, etc.
At least to the best of my little abilities.
So, in the interest of preserving what I have, the original hubs will stay.
Even though I have gotten a better set of hubs,
with good finishes and all the right parts, it is somehow cool to me to leave the parts there that came on the bike when it was new.
Now, the hubs were originally cad plated on this bike.
Not triple chrome.

Don't know why, but I want to use the OG hubs,
But, somehow, the idea of show-chrome on the hubs excites me.
So OG hubs with the wrong finish... Dorky, right?
I'm new, so forgive me...


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## bricycle (May 1, 2013)

Clatter said:


> OK, so as far as I can tell, the wheels are OG to the bike.
> 
> First thing I did was take them all apart for inspection.
> Found missing pieces, wrong stuff, broken stuff, and a bunch of rust.
> ...




we could use more folks with your drive!


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## Gary Mc (May 1, 2013)

Excellent thread so far!!!!!!!!!  Two-thumbs up.


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## Clatter (May 1, 2013)

*Powder Adventures*

Ok, I admit it, I love powder coat.
Something about how static electricity draws the powder into all those nooks and crannies.
Paint just misses holes and cracks, unless you can flow it in.
And even then...

These rims on this bike, with their white finish and black stripes just really do it for me.
Even though they are rusted almost to oblivion, there is hope!
The local independent Saab shop here - Pierce (shameless plug) does powder coating a step above the regular places.
They have this sand-able filler they can bake on, sand down, add to, sand some more, and then coat over.
So, these rims got the treatment.
Even though, after blasting, they looked like Swiss cheese...
I didn't really get good pictures of the rust in the rims.
Want to accentuate the positive, keep it up-beat, have good karma, etc.
(there's a lot of hippies here in Santa Cruzp





The rims ended up going in and out of the oven like three or four times before they were done.

Looking at these, they aren't S2, because those have knurling down both sides, right?
Anybody know what these are?
They must be original, because they match and all, double-butted spokes, etc...

Anyways, I also got the frame and fork powder-coated the cream color that the front of the frame and rims will have.
the paint will be added later.
You can use powder-coat as a primer if you scuff it with a Scotch-Brite pad.
You use the red (coarse) pad for under paint, and the Gray (finer) pad under clear coat.





My helper here was instrumental if getting things scuffed up for paint and clear...


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## bricycle (May 1, 2013)

look on the underside, you may be able to see the knurling better... Should be S-2's.
Some of the real early S-2's had almost no discernable knurling.


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## Clatter (May 1, 2013)

*Paint!*



Sometimes dumb luck comes your way.
See, I'm an IT consultant to small and medium businesses here,
And a local hot-rod shop had some computer trouble...
I'm not going to disclose their name here, because, well, they wouldn't paint your bike.
They do like $200K '58 Cad Eldos and stuff like that.
Only did my bike because I was in the right spot at the right time and made a good pitch.
How much this kind of paint job might have cost is anybody's guess...

Just happened to be in the area, and 'saved the day' so to speak.
The owner was like "how much do I owe you?"
And I'm like, hmmmm......
Thank you Gary! 

I had the powder coat all scuffed up, per his instructions,
And got the stencil kit from oldstuff4yousheepdog on ebay (nice kit)

And after some homework as to the color,
http://thecabe.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?40166-Help-Locate-Color-for-my-49
They found a BMW color that matches the OG maroon pretty well.
Even if it doesn't, I'm digging this combo...
The bike was a throw-away, remember??
They painted the stripes on the rims, when buried everything under a pile of clear-coat.

Pow!
What more to say?
Life sometimes has a way of smiling on a poor fool.
There _is_ such thing as luck, proof right here!


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## bricycle (May 1, 2013)

that 'ol bike never had it so good!


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## Clatter (May 1, 2013)

*Mock Up*

Here we are to the present day.
Those last few posts span from January until now, the 1st of May...

Here are a few pics of what went on last week.

Started trying to figure out the seat;
Got another off 'the bay' and piecing together to see what is what.



Also got a couple sets of truss-rods.
One set was nicer, but a bit long.
Bending it so it worked made it stick too far forward to look right.



Ended up threading the other set to make them work with this bracket.
Apparently this truss rod set is from a Roadmaster?

Had to use a drain snake to 'excavate' the insides of the handlebars!
These seem like the right bars for this bike....?





Got everything mocked up and assembled one time for the chromer.
Have to have everything bolted up once before it goes off for plating, right?
Hate to have to do anything again...
yes, it woulda been better to do all of this mock-up before paint,
but Strike When the Iron Is Hot, right?



Dig my Henderson head badge...
After getting suckered a couple a times on ebay (newbies beware!) finally found a badge that was NOT a re-pop.
Since when is China reproduction crap NOS, anyways?
New _OLD_ Stock People...
NOT NNS...,   NOS...

So anyways, there is a box of stuff here to be dusted in the blaster and sent to Oregon for white cad,
And another box that went to the chrome for the Triple Treatment,
Due home in six weeks or so...
There's an AS seat-post clamp, bars, that groovy high-rise stem, correct post-war cranks, a sweetheart sprocket, etc. etc etc. All actually there now.

The fork is off getting the three stripes laid on free-hand by a pin-striper at the hot-rod shop.

Can't wait for it all to get back, and the fun can _really_ begin!


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## bricycle (May 1, 2013)

those bars are correct.


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## Clatter (May 2, 2013)

*Thanks for your input*

I really appreciate it...


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## Clatter (Jun 4, 2013)

*Cad Stuff*





Sooooo, here we have a box of shiny silver parts in "White Cad"...
WhooHoo!!!
This is, obviously, some car parts, but you might spot some New Departure hub pieces in there too.
This stuff all came from Precision Metal Finishing in Canby OR.
That whole box was $110, including shipping here to CA.
Another Shameless Plug,
But they did me right, and I wanted to pass this along.

The key to success, as in so many things in life, is preparation.
Before, I had some old crusty bolts tanked and wire-wheeled down.
Some of the stains would show through the cad.
This time, I glass-beaded them first.
It really helps to string all of the washers and nuts on a wire so they don't scurry away during blasting.

Anyways, the project continues.

Waiting for the stuff back from the chrome shop is just killing me!!!
AAIIghh!!


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## cyclonecoaster.com (Jun 5, 2013)

*Great thread ... entertaining step by step too ....*

Welcome to theCabe ....The bicycle is looking good ... the commentary along the way will make me come back for more too ... you had me laughing & relating to build .. you never know what you're up against when you start these projects .. For the seat post problem I actually purchased a drill bit that was real close to the size of the seat post & aligned up the drill press & it worked like a charm  ... thanks for keeping us in the loop of your build .... this is how it all begins so you know ... Ride Vintage .. Frank


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