First 26" Bike: 1960 Flightliner

[AndyA]

For my 12th birthday, my parents gave me a beautiful red and white Flightliner. I finally had a big boy bike. I purchased a set of streamers, covered the bike with a tarp every night (no garage), and rode it to school. It sure looked good in the school bike rack. Somewhere around age 14, I decided that it would look even better in metallic green. I took it apart and went at it with a rattle can of Testors model enamel. The project kinda stretched out and at some point my mom cleaned the basement and put the parts out at the curb.

So you see, the photo below is not of the original. This one came from my good friend Willie a few years ago. Willie and his two sons had a garage full of bikes and I spotted this specimen there. "That's the same bike I had when I was 12 years old!" I cried. A couple of days later Willie surprised me by dropping it off at my house.

Moral of the story: If it wasn't for moms, old bikes, Mad Magazines, and comics would have no value. And it's good to have friends.

 

[GTs58]

Very nice looking replacement and

to your good friend.

 

[Sven]

I'm thinking that Testor's "Metallic Maggot Fly Green" would look real nice on your Flightliner. My '59 is stripped down to primed metal maybe l'll shoot it a metallic maggot fly green

 

[AndyA]

Sven:
I don't think that Testors made Metallic Maggot Fly Green back then because I would have remembered such a great name. But it sounds consistent with the look that I was going for, like something that George Barris (the King of Kustumizers) would do. Here is Barris' 1951 Merc. If you do your Flightliner that color, please post pics.

Last year I painted a 24" Huffy Good Vibrations green and, now that I think about it, there may have been an underlying psychological effect at work there. Maybe I had a Rosebud moment. Huffy is shown below.
May you pedal down more hills than you pedal up, Andy

 

[Sven]

It was just Testor's ( maybe Tamaya ) metallic green. Metallic "Maggot fly" Green came from my son, describing the color of his pinewood derby car , that he painted when he was 7 or 8, almost 15 years ago. I just keep calling it that.

I purchased all the required decals for the Flightliner, as well as a few cans of paint, prior to the green paint idea. so I guess this one will be #317 red.