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Could you tell me more about the Saturday night garage crawl? I've never been to one before, so I don't know what to expect.

Here's a link to all the photos I shot of last year's swap meet at Haysville. Hopefully it'll give you a good idea of what to expect.

Thanks! I want to put at least 1 card on every corner! 2 up front, 2 in the back! Make it a 4-stroker!

Rode my 1961 Murray Meteor Flite Shoestring around the neighborhood earlier this morning. Decided to have a little fun and clamp an Ace to the front rack for more horsepower.

It's not "what I picked up" as much as it's "what I discovered" this week. I got this AMF Western Flyer a year ago from my Grandpa, which I then took apart to fix another AMF Western Flyer I got from him years ago. Fast-forward to today. I was going through my stash looking for anything to...

I'm planning on coming to the swap meet again, especially after all the fun I had last year! Not sure if I'll make the Pre-Swap Garage Ride, but that does sound like a lot of fun. Still sorting out what I'll bring with me this time.

Alright, thanks. Would the Schwinn be any less valuable with the handlebar stem removed, or would it really matter?

It would make a nice garden bike as it sits for sure, but it could also make a great rat rod muscle bike too. It's only the wheels that are smashed; the frame seems fine as far as I can tell. Pluss theres a ton of room between the seat/chain stays for a beefier rear tire. There might even be...

Why did you end both statements with "..." ? It feels like you're just leaving me in suspense without finishing your sentence. What would the Stingray actually be worth to you given the condition and the possibility of no handlebar stem? What could I possibly get for the top bike, even though it...

How much would that price change if I removed the handlebar stem and kept that for myself?

I picked up these 2 bikes as part of a package deal last month, and I'd like to figure out what they might be worth, as I'm planning on taking at least the Schwinn Stingray to Haysville later this month. The first bike is this... I want to say it's a Columbia, but I'm not 100% sure. The wheels...

Here's my 1950 Schwinn step-thru klunker I just finished putting together for the 2024 Rat Rod Bikes Off-Road Build Off. It started life as nothing more than a bare frame I got out of the free pile at Haysville last year, but I was able to build it up using mostly spare parts that I had no use...

What did you use as a base coat for that color shift paint? I've been itching to try that stuff on one of my bikes.

Awesome! How did you find that out?

I got a pretty decent haul this week from 2 sources. Picked up 7 bikes for dirt cheap on Wednesday, and while most of them aren't anything special, the last 2 stand out to me. I don't know what caused the wheels on this bike to turn into Pringles, but it's impressive to say the least...

On a side, note, here are a few more highlights from my welding class. I still have a ways to go, (and there are a bunch of mistakes I didn't photograph,) but I've been improving a great deal in the few classes I've had so far! (Photos are in chronological order.) My last 2 classes are...

Well, my month-long break from working on bikes did NOT go as I had hoped. Instead of focusing on my coloring book project, I could hardly bring myself to focus on ANYTHING AT ALL. It didn't help that a lot more happened in February than I had anticipated, with family visiting from out-of-state...

On a side, note, here are a few more highlights from my welding class. I still have a ways to go, (and there are a bunch of mistakes I didn't photograph,) but I've been improving a great deal in the few classes I've had so far! (Photos are in chronological order.) My last 2 classes are...

Well, my month-long break from working on bikes did NOT go as I had hoped. Instead of focusing on my coloring book project, I could hardly bring myself to focus on ANYTHING AT ALL. It didn't help that a lot more happened in February than I had anticipated, with family visiting from out-of-state...

Thanks! I was genuinely surprised how well I did, given that I did a better job melting holes through metal than I did fusing metal the last time I tried MIG welding!

It may not look like much, but my Dad and I just started taking a hobbyist's welding class last night. I'm hoping to use what I learn to help me repair and customize future bike projects. So far, I'm off to a surprisingly good start!

Life update: I just started taking a welding class last night alongside my dad! We're taking a "hobbyist's welding class" for the next 4 weeks, twice a week. We're both learning about MIG and TIG welding, which I hope will come in handy for future bike builds. We thought the first class last...

Sometimes inspiration strikes as I'm cleaning out my workspace. I picked up this step-thru Foremost Murray for free last year at the Haysville bicycle swap meet. I originally got it for parts and tubing bends, but I decided to play around with it during this whole "Mockup Mash." I didn't even...

Something that's been bugging me about this frame the whole time is that it appears the drive-side seat stay is bent just a little. After a closer examination, it actually looks like the 2 seat stays aren't even mounted straight to begin with! The good news is that the frame doesn't...

Small update on Parts Bin: I wanted to see what this bike would look like with a few different springer forks. I started with the rat trap springer fork I had in stock, and while it looks good on the frame, there's a potential problem with the fork that's driving my OCD crazy... It could just...

Did a few more mockups before I moved some frames back into storage. First, a fairly standard upside-down step-thru bike: I don't know why, but I really like the attitude of this one. Something about the nose-down frame and the 20"/26" wheel combo works for me. This one's pretty kooky even...

Glad to hear your friend's recovering from cancer. I don't think you could've picked a better bike for him if you tried! That old CWC is nice! I bet you could shine up that paint with little more than a couple microfiber cloths and some rubbing compound, and even then it doesn't look bad as it...

Just spent yesterday and a bit of today mocking up my 1950 Schwinn step-thru frame I got for free at Haysville last year. I'm going to build it as an entry-level klunker bike that will help me get used to riding on dirt and gravel trails. Turns out I wouldn't be the first to make a klunker...

I meant to share these earlier, but here are a few digital mockups I drew of the Fat Bar Schwinn back in 2023. I liked how most of these looked, but I was having trouble deciding what I liked best, especially since I was trying to limit myself to using only spray paint colors I have available to...

As cool as the last mockup went on this Schwinn, I just had to try a few other options back in December. I just wasn't satisfied with how it was shaping up. So far, nothing's really stuck with this frame, but I have been tinkering with it between other projects.

Small update on Mutt. Yesterday, I think I solved my seat post issue. Turns out the seat post clamp was on the frame super tight, pinching the seat tube to a noticeably smaller diameter. Using a screwdriver, seat post and hammer, I managed to open that seat tube back up to a reasonable size...

Another bike I mocked up on Thursday was this blue girl's Schwinn frame I got out of the free pile at Haysville last year. Originally, I got it for the tube bends, but I loved the original blue paint to much to cut it up. Unfortunately, I don't have any color-matched parts that go with this...

After mocking up the green bike, I started trying some ideas I had for this bare X-53 frame I got at the 2023 Haysville bicycle swap meet. Ever since I got this frame, my whole plan was to make it sit longer, lower, leaner and meaner than stock. I also really wanted a bike that had more of a...

I mocked up a few more bikes earlier this week while the weather was still warm. I thought about turning this JC Penney Uni-speed into an upside-down bike, but I liked the colors too much to want to cut it up. Plus I had just picked up these mint green wheels last year that matched the bike...

I already have a build thread going for my Monark that I messed with when this "Mockup Mash" started, so I'll just share a brief highlight reel of some of the mockups this bike went through. You can get the full story on the bike here.

Obligatory high-quality driveway photos. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

The next day, I grabbed all the parts I needed to take Engine No. 9 even further, and continued mocking up parts. Most critical to me was the original paint and patina-matched fork. No other other fork I had would go with the red frame and fender like the original red fork. Next, I cut out a...

Fast forward to December. I was in the process of mocking up another bike, when I decided to see how some of the parts I was throwing on that bike would look on this prewar Murray. That soon led to me focusing on the Murray again. It started off with mocking up the triple tree fork and one of...

One of the first bikes I started toying with during this Mockup Mash is my 1930s Murray. My dad actually got this and some other stuff from the Sapulpa Fire Museum back in 2022 for free because it was in a storage room not being used, and they wanted to give that stuff to someone who'd...

Late this past year, I had a sort of "self-intervention" in regards to my bike hobby: I have more bikes and bike parts than I know what to do with, and I need to hurry up and decide what I'm going to do with all of them. The sooner I can do that, the sooner I can build the rest of the bikes in...

Thank you! As someone who's a stickler for safety, (and as someone who's been hurt by power tools before,) I did bring this up with him, but it's hard to convince someone to play it safe when they've been doing something a certain way for a long time without injury. Oh my gosh... You just made...

Small update for today: I need to replace Mutt's seat post. The one that came with the frame is just ever-so-slightly bent, and I don't have a replacement currently. I'll probably post a want ad on the forums later, but I'd like to check with my contacts to see if they have anything first. If...

I wasn't overthinking it before you listed those 3 options. I just didn't know which powder coat-safe filler was the best option for me.

Here's a before and after of my 1961 Murray Meteor Flite, Shoestring, that I bought and built back in 2022. It started off as a rusty, ant-infested "yard art" bike that even the guy I bought it from thought was beyond salvation. But with some ant-killer, some PB Blaster, a little help from a...

Nice to see you rescuing that old Streamliner! Love the patina on it!

I've seen that there are multiple powder coat-safe fillers out there, so why do you make it sound like that isn't an option?

Option 1 is a possibility, but not preferable, option 2 isn't available as Allan's TIG welder isn't working right at this time (and I don't know anyone else with the welder to do that,) and option 3 won't work because I don't think they make a green like I want, and I have to get this bike done...

Got some work done on my 24 inch Free Spirit skinny-tire 10-speed turned single-speed 1970s BMX-inspired cruiser, Mutt, earlier this Sunday. My friend Allan and I welded a pair of gussets to the frame, added a chain guard tab, and adjusted and trimmed a fender to fit. It still needs some...

BIG UPDATE! On Sunday, I met up with my friend Allan and got to work on the heavy fabrication needed to transform Mutt into a BMX bike. I figured it'd all go by quickly, and we'd have enough time to make a little extra progress on another bike of mine, but things didn't pan out at all like I...