# '39 Firestone Twinflex



## ohdeebee (Mar 12, 2012)

I've had this for a while and was somewhat undecided as to the route I wanted to take with it. Originally the bike was to be painted and then aged to look original but the more I thought about it the more I really wanted to go all the way with this one. The hard parts to a restoration (for me at least) are all of the soft parts. The seat was toast, no tires and no grips. I was able to get my hands on some NOS condition Firestone High Speed tires and my mind was made up. 

I sent the seat to Josh McRell in San Diego who did an excellent job on the seat. I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out. I tracked down some grips in NOS condition and put them on a set of very nice original chrome 28" crossbrace bars. The wheels were built today after I found a distributor for the correct size double butted spokes. 

I'm still looking for a tank and fenders but I plan on having the parts I have sandblasted early this summer so that I can start the paint process and get this bike on the road!

Here's the bike when I got it.





Here was a second one I came across and robbed a few parts:




And here is the bike today:




Firestone High Speed tires on newly built wheels. Check out the spokes.:




Here is a better shot of the seat that Josh did:




Stamp:


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## OldRider (Mar 12, 2012)

What a beautiful job on that seat!


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## fatbike (Mar 12, 2012)

Boy...that has really come along since your first post debut. From beautiful rust to what it is now. The tires are killer! Good work! Out of all the Twinflex's the 39 Firestone is my favorite, the small guard is used. Dayton by that point was already on a different style guard. But that is the only Dayton built Firestone badged bike I enjoy, the rest for me needs to be Dayton badged.


Here's a beautiful example of an original 39 Dayton Firestone bicycle of your bike.


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## thebicyclejungle (Mar 12, 2012)

Nice work in progress! Love the seat..


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## John (Mar 12, 2012)

*Great bike!!!!*

Great bike!!!! One day..
Thanks for posting


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## ridingtoy (Mar 12, 2012)

Beautiful transformation on that bicycle! Does Josh hand sew his seat recoverings? The stitching looks so even it's hard to tell...

Dave


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## ohdeebee (Mar 13, 2012)

ridingtoy said:


> Beautiful transformation on that bicycle! Does Josh hand sew his seat recoverings? The stitching looks so even it's hard to tell...
> 
> Dave




All stitching was done by hand and it looks great!


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## AsenathPaneah (Mar 14, 2012)

Where did you get the tires? A pair would be great for a Firestone Deluxe Cruiser I'm restoring.


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## bricycle (Mar 14, 2012)

That is really coming along nicely....


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## ohdeebee (Mar 14, 2012)

AsenathPaneah said:


> Where did you get the tires? A pair would be great for a Firestone Deluxe Cruiser I'm restoring.




The tires came from another Cabe member. I had another set which I sold and I found another single NOS tire with the tag that I passed on to another member here.


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## supper15fiets (Mar 15, 2012)

...it sounds dirty ,but i love the long nipples...got them too on my dayton/national!
and the tires are also killer!!!!


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## twjensen (Mar 15, 2012)

*Which route*

I really think the route you should go , would be to sell it to me.




ohdeebee said:


> I've had this for a while and was somewhat undecided as to the route I wanted to take with it. Originally the bike was to be painted and then aged to look original but the more I thought about it the more I really wanted to go all the way with this one. The hard parts to a restoration (for me at least) are all of the soft parts. The seat was toast, no tires and no grips. I was able to get my hands on some NOS condition Firestone High Speed tires and my mind was made up.
> 
> I sent the seat to Josh McRell in San Diego who did an excellent job on the seat. I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out. I tracked down some grips in NOS condition and put them on a set of very nice original chrome 28" crossbrace bars. The wheels were built today after I found a distributor for the correct size double butted spokes.
> 
> ...


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## STRADALITE (Mar 15, 2012)

I asked Jason to put in a good word for me if he was happy with this seat that I restored for him. 
Thanks so much for the praise and the pics that you posted.
The bike is lookin good.
JOSH


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## ohdeebee (May 21, 2012)

*Tank*

Getting closer...


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## supper15fiets (May 21, 2012)

nice,nice,nice,Keep up the good work!


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## axsepul (Jan 18, 2013)

very nice!!!!


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## GiovanniLiCalsi (Jan 18, 2013)

Are those double-butted spokes ?
Very nice before and after images!


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## ohdeebee (Jan 26, 2013)

GiovanniLiCalsi said:


> Are those double-butted spokes ?
> Very nice before and after images!





Those are double butted and the butts (for lack of a better term) are very long, just like the original spokes on these old bikes. If anyone is interested, I can sell them or offer them on wheel builds.


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## ohdeebee (Sep 9, 2013)

*Progress!*

I took some time today and mocked up the bike. Fenders still need to be modified and then its off to the sandblaster.


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## bricycle (Sep 9, 2013)

Nice!!!
I especially like the headlamp mount.


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## ohdeebee (Sep 9, 2013)

bricycle said:


> Nice!!!
> I especially like the headlamp mount.




I believe this "zip-tie" mount to be one of the earliest known. Prototype perhaps? The only thing more rare would be the elusive zip-tie mount on a Huffman Death Bike.


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