elginkid
Wore out three sets of tires already!
Took a chance, put in a low offer, and got lucky on this eBay auction a few months ago. It was a Sturmey Archer 3 speed, 36h, but the entire thing had been spray painted with a really chalky silver paint. The shell, the bolts, the sprocket, oil port, all of it.
It’s an AB dated March of 1953! The guts are very crusty, and I’m not great with rear hub rebuilds, so this will likely end up at the LBS (the one with all of the vintage bikes tucked away), for a supersonic bath and rebuild.
I did, however take the outer bits off, and I stripped the hub shell, and all of the visible nuts and bolts, as well as the drum cover. I boiled them to get the paint off, and then did a silver paint to match what was under the spray paint. I think it turned out pretty well.
I have the perfect bike for it, built in May of 1953….I can’t wait to put it all together!
(The auction photos went away, and I of course didn’t take before shots, so the first photo is a screenshot of the enlarged thumbnail from the auction, but it doesn’t really capture how bad it looked)
It’s an AB dated March of 1953! The guts are very crusty, and I’m not great with rear hub rebuilds, so this will likely end up at the LBS (the one with all of the vintage bikes tucked away), for a supersonic bath and rebuild.
I did, however take the outer bits off, and I stripped the hub shell, and all of the visible nuts and bolts, as well as the drum cover. I boiled them to get the paint off, and then did a silver paint to match what was under the spray paint. I think it turned out pretty well.
I have the perfect bike for it, built in May of 1953….I can’t wait to put it all together!
(The auction photos went away, and I of course didn’t take before shots, so the first photo is a screenshot of the enlarged thumbnail from the auction, but it doesn’t really capture how bad it looked)
