Schwinn Debutante...I'm a Glutton for Punishment...

[GTs58]

Nice threads!!

 

[HARPO]

The horn unit is in there...well, most of it. Button got banged up when the tank got hit, but ironically even the spring for it is still there. I thought it was missing completely when I bought it. Useless at this point though.

 

[HARPO]

Aagh!! I did it again! 😢 I was hoping to be able to move the switch levers under the dual lights, but figured maybe leave it alone. And I did...for a minute. One lever moved, the other either fell off or snapped (probably) into the unit. When will I learn...~!@#$%^&. I'm leaving the guts in there where they are. I'm not tempting fate again.

Cleanup on other pieces continues with still more to do on the tank and rear rack... 🧐

 

[HARPO]

More AAUGH!! I forgot that Windex eats off the silk-screening...so goodbye SCHWINN and DEBUTANTE on the chain guard.(and some on the tank). 😢 I really am my own worst !@#$%^ enemy. 😕

The paint is looking decent so far, considering I was just going to keep parts off of the bike initially. Spending way more time on this bike than I had planned to, but lets see what happens when I'm done. Worst case, it becomes a parts bike after all.

 

[westwildcats]

Thanks for the heads-up about the Windex.......I did not know that.

 

[bikecrazy]

It’s starting to come around!

 

[HARPO]

It’s starting to come around!

Would have been so much nicer with the wording!! 😟 I'll be beating myself up for a while with this.

 

[HARPO]

Well, I found where the missing spoke went.
I started to clean the teeth on the hub and saw something sticking out. Turns out it was the nipple, with the spoke wrapped around it. I need a hacksaw to cut it loose and a pair of pliers. Just another day working on this bike...🤪

 

[dave429]

I see progress. The paint looks like it’s cleaning up better than I imagined it would. You always seem get stuff looking nice again.

 

[HARPO]

I see progress. The paint looks like it’s cleaning up better than I imagined it would. You always seem get stuff looking nice again.

Evapo-Rust worked very well on the paint...MUCH better than I had dared hope for. And since I don't have gallons of it to have placed the frame into (just a half gallon in an old plastic Tupperware), I wound up using a small brush and scrubbing the paint. When that seemed to be working, I then dipped 0000 steel wool in it and gently did that.

I was amazed at how well the head tube cleaned up! Paint looks better from far away as you can expect, but it's like night and day so far when you compare it to when I brought it home. The fork legs are giving me more of a battle!

More to do, of course, but it gives me the drive to keep going forward. 🙂