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My first project! But need help identifying first.

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Personally I don't think this bike will require a vinegar bath. I would get the 0000 steel wool and some WD-40 and be very careful around the pinstripe-it can come off really quickly. After that a mild polishing compund followed by a good wax and you should call it a day! I just caution you to go slow and easy--once paints gone it don't grow back! V/r Shawn

WOW!!!!!!! A first project most of us on here only dream of finding, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!:cool:

I agree with Shawn, this bike is in great shape to begin with. The only parts I would do the distilled white vinegar bath on are the chrome & plated parts. Painted parts need just a careful polishing followed by a good wax. Be extremely careful around the pinstripes, they will come off very easily. I would suggest masking them off when polishing to completely avoid them. Use 0000 steel wool & WD40 on the rusty areas (avoiding pinstripes) followed a a polishing compound and then wax. Be careful & go extremely slow with polishing on the paint. I use Meguairs' and Mothers products with great success. There are lots of good threads on here in the restoration tips section of the forum or just ask questions but remember you may get some good advice and some bad so weigh what you are hearing before proceeding.

Whole key is go slow and ask questions before if you are not sure.

Congratulations again.
 
I like the concept of working on a cheap test bicycle first, just to get your feet wet, as suggested by "bike".
 
im lost on the renovation. your bike doesnt need solvents and vinegar baths. special chemicals. just clean it gently then wax it. it is a later bike as scrubbinrims said. turn the bars around as he said and you will have a bike to make most collectors jealous. whats the back story on this find im sure everybody would like to hear it. i have an arrow thats almost a twin to your bike. i thought it was my bike at first glance on the small pics. great start to the hobby
 
I agree with Shawn, this bike is in great shape to begin with. The only parts I would do the distilled white vinegar bath on are the chrome & plated parts. .

gary - it is funny because the plated parts are the ones i tend to give the least amount of time in the vinegar. :) i usually use brasso and most surface rust comes right off. will leave the black specs here and there. I started doing a bianchi folding bike, not 100% done yet, but this was all done with brasso on the chrome and wd40 on everything else. #0000 steel wool. Here are some before and after pix http://rustysi.blogspot.com/2013/09/italy-bronx-nj-staten-island.html

i find that the paint they used is pretty much bonded to the metal UNLESS the rust has gotten under it. The options for this scenario is to leave it as is, give it the lightest of cleanings and then possibly clear coat it to prevent it from chipping. In doing this you will still have the existence of rust with a layer of paint over it. I personally prefer to give all the bikes a vinegar bath as vinegar is a very light acidic and will remove grease, dirt and you can make a salad afterwards :rolleyes: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/car-care-discussion/1144891-will-using-distilled-white-vinegar-harm-paint-finish.html

once the dirt is off, you can buff and shine. Again this my personal preference, but i like the bikes as natural and clean as you can possibly make them with out repainting. if the paint has rust under it and chips off, these bikes are 60+ years old, so be it it was destined to happen.
 
Unreal

...did you hear my jaw hit the floor?
FIRST project???????? we should all be SO lucky. Amazing find.
Please don't repaint...... if you did probably 10+ people on here would die of a coronary.
Just clean a tad and enjoy it. wow...... did I say wow?

This bike is incredible. I think everyone on this site has this bike on their want list if they don't already have one. Your very lucky!!!:o
 
I just had to double check the calendar and make sure it wasn't April fools day. If this is seriously your first project then I'll have to echo many others with a go slow approach. There is really nothing you can do to increase this bikes value short of finding the missing lens for the light. If it were mine I wouldn't go near it with any solvents more potent than wd-40 and any abrasives coarser than a cotton rag. And yes please do share the backstory on how you came to own it. Many of us waste a great deal of time hoping to find a gem like this and come up empty handed, but the success story's of others give us some small consolation.
 
Killer Shelby Airflow. So how many offers have you had on the bike already? LOL!! It is a very desirable bike. Some guys love them like myself, and some guys hate them. I love mine. It's in my photo album on here.

The first thing i would do is slowly polish the wheels with a very mild compound being extremely careful with the pinstripes. Then degrease the hubs on the outside. I'm not sure how many hubs you have serviced but do that next. New Departure hubs are very easy to do. The rebuild the insides. I would suggest installing new heavy duty tubes that are thick so you don't accidentally get a blow out. The last thing you want to do is eat pavement on a pricey bike over a cheap old tube.

As far polishing, i use 3m rubbing compounds. I use the #1 compound with 000 steel wool ONLY for heavy rust areas. Your bike doesn't need this so don't do it! I would mask off the pinstripes with fineline tape that you can get at any automotive paint store. About $6 a roll but worth it on a pricey bike like this. Use the #2 compound and a very soft rag to polish all the painted parts one by one with the bike fully disassembled. Then wax every single part and reassemble it. This whole process will take a long time but the payoff is huge so just go slow. The last bike i did this to took me a good 4 weeks every night after work doing one piece at a time while watching TV. But the bike looks incredible now. I do this process on every one of my bikes.

So have fun on this one, start another thread under the project rides section with lots of pictures, and if you need any help with anything shelby, let me know. I'm one of the handful of guys on here that love shelbys dearly and are obseesed with them. Oh, and the headlight lense is available repop. I might have an extra i'll send you on the house for sharing a killer bike that made my day! THANKS!!!
 
awesome! thanks guys! i am definitely going to take it low and slow with this bike. especially after all your posts. thanks for making me put the brakes on and not go after this thing with some sandpaper ;)

Today I ended up going to the hardware store and getting some 0000 steel wool, some WD40 and citrus degreaser. And thats going to be the extent of any stripping/solvents I use. I also ended up taking a bunch more 'before' photos just for posterity!

As for the backstory:
My mother is a picker/antique dealer/hoarder:o She has a sister that lives next door to an elderly man and said sister has been delivering hot meals to the guy whenever she can. My aunt went over there last week and there were 2 old bikes at the curb for trash pickup. One was a beat up Huffy(mid 1980's) and the other was this Shelby. My moms sister(my aunt) asked the old guy what the deal was and he said: 'take em'. My aunt grabbed the Huffy for herself and knew my mom would be interested in the older bike since shes an antique dealer. According to my aunt, 30 mins after she rolled the bikes into her yard the village junk guy stopped back at the old guys house and asked where the bikes where. Apparently he had seen them at the curb earlier, but had to go grab his junk truck. So the bikes narrowly missed the scrap heap. I think.
No sure how much of what my aunt says is 100%true...

But then I stopped over at my parents house last week to help with something and the Shelby was in the garage. I took a seat on it and the tires held air and the crank turned. So I ripped it down the driveway and said: "I want this thing!"
Now its sitting in my garage:cool:

So theres the story. Hope you liked it.

Here are the photos I took this evening before I started cleaning.
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Last questions for tonight:
The chrome on the handlebars is shot. As is the chrome on the crank. Should I just strip this to the bare metal? Brasso? Something harsher?
And theres a tiny button on the handlebars. Its a black push button. It doesnt connect to anything. What the hell is it?>
 
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Yikes!

Just bide your time!
pics did not load for me-
button sounds interesting!
Those bars are very rare and ANY plating is good!
 
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