# Finally finished my 53 Indian Scout mild restoration



## Shogun (Jan 28, 2020)

Been a while since have posted trying to get to the bottom of some health challenges. And I should have posted when I started the project, however it was not suppose to be a mild restoration. I was just pulling to down to regrease the bearing and also clean up the SA 3 speed hub. Famous last words  I got it partly pulled down and kept going because I could not ride any of my bikes human or motor, had some bad balance issues. Anyhow I figured it would be a quick pull down respray, as my brother had "RatRoded" it before he gave it to me. that was about a 2 years ago. The mild restoration started a year ago. I started with the chrome or should I say the rust covered chrome. After I got it pulled down I noticed that the top and down tubes were bent. I feel bad for who every was riding it when it all happened as the stem is bent also, based on the damage it had to have really hurt. That damage set the baseline for the resto., minimal monies were spent for parts and Paint is cheap. I used a bunch of buffing wheels, sand paper, metal polish and LimeAway to remove the rust and some of the deep pitting. all of the natal steel parts were clear coated to keep them nice. the frame had about 5 sets of color sand and  paint, before the new decals were played down and then clear coated. Based on the period it should have had black fenders and chain guard. but they were missing when my Brother got it and he had the chrome ones and I have a hard time painting over chrome . The wright's saddle is original, I did pull the rivets and paint the seat frame and then repadded it be fore putting it back together. Attached are some before and after photos.


----------



## New Mexico Brant (Jan 29, 2020)

It is looking great!  How does it ride?


----------



## bricycle (Jan 29, 2020)

Nice work!


----------



## Shogun (Jan 29, 2020)

New Mexico Brant said:


> It is looking great!  How does it ride?



It rides pretty nice, on it maiden voyage it snapped the end off the shift cable, the only cable I did not replace. So I was in 1st gear the whole time. I did get a lot of weird looks from people. Most people are use to seeing full on road bikes not vintage cruisers. 

On the cable matter I have a new one just did not install it and when I needed it could not find it in the garage. So I just soldered a new end on it and shaped it to fit the shift lever.


----------



## Hammerhead (Jan 30, 2020)

Very nice work.
Hammerhead


----------

