1936 Silver King M2 CUSTOM

[chitown]

This one came to me as a rat and will continue to fly the rat flag proud as I'm going for the mostly period correct/modified/custom route.

My plans include:
Paint aluminum tubes and truss rods transparent black and then clear (black chrome look) This will be close to what the catalog offered that year.
Same treatment for the sprocket, cranks, rims, spokes and possibly the hubs. Looking into either powder coat or actual black chrome for accessories instead of just bomb can but I can always strip the paint and do that later when some funds become available.
The fenders will be black with exposed metal for the middle band instead of a white stripe as the catalog states (for M5 model, M2 would have been stainless)


Did a fender test fit today. They should work out good. They came to me all black and when I started prepping/sanding them I started with the middle band and liked the look so I think I'll strip them fully and tape off the center line and re-paint the black and then clear the whole fender.

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[Boris]

The bare metal fender strip looks tougher than s#@t. Good call!

 

[vincev]

Did you say "rat" on this forum!!!OMG,fireworks time

 

[chitown]

Did you say "rat" on this forum!!!OMG,fireworks time

Rat in the sense it won't be 100% correct. I want this to be my rider SK. Sort of a modified/rat/survivor. I have some other frames that are not nearly as beat up as this one so I will concentrate my correctness on those. Besides the "Projects Rides" section states "Working on a restoration or custom build? This is the place to keep a running topic documenting your project step-by-step."

So I'm not too worried about fireworks. We're all grown ups here and I think we can handle a few modifications every now and then. Look at Ron's Roadmaster build... Powder coating, gunsmith blackening? No fireworks there.

 

[chitown]

Started polishing the fork so I thought I'd show some of the stages of polishing next to each other.

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3 forks pictured show the middle one being the '36 M2 project, the polished one is off a ladies L137 deluxe model, the unpolished one is from a late 35 Wards.

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Notice the heavy casting marks on the polished one (that is for another project). I tried to maintain much of the character of the casting while still getting a good shine. Lots of Brasso and 0000 steel wool for that. The outward facing metal got 400/600/1000 grit wet sanding before the polishing compounds and buffing. The fork without polish is from an late '35 model and the inside of the fork doesn't have those heavy casting/slag looking marks. I wonder if the molds only had so many pours before they couldn't be used anymore. I also love the factory grinder marks on the seams of the casting.