The Betty

[Woodtickgreg]

Well after I fi ished my custom red typhoon cruiser my girl said I had to build her one. So this build is called the Betty, it's another custom cruiser.
So this is what I started with, a 1953 Schwinn Spitfire.

I love this style of chaingaurd.

It spent its whole life in the Detroit area.

Original tires, I sold them at the Ann Arbor swapmeet.

Painted S-2's

Original kickstand.

New departure rear hub, I replaced that, you'll see with what later.

Nice AS clamp and bolt.

So this is what I started with.

 

[GTs58]

Looks like that has been kept original all these years. Usually the girls don't like them there seats. That serial number was also used in 1952 but I think you got the correct year pegged looking at a few of the components.
Have fun!

 

[Greg M]

I hope your lady isn’t named Veronica.

 

[Woodtickgreg]

So i put the spitfire up on the work stand and stripped it down.

Didnt take long to get to this point.

All the stuff that's going to powdercoat.

 

[Woodtickgreg]

So while the frame and other parts where at the powdercoater I started working on other parts for the build. I took a lot of the parts to my work and glass bead blasted them to clean them up. I also like to keep some of the metal parts raw and I just clear coat them. It leaves them with kind of a grey metal finish that I like and still protects them from rusting.
Original kickstand before.

After a trip to the glass bead cabinet.

It's an original Miller brand.

I used rust-oleum clear enamel to seal it.

 

[Woodtickgreg]

The seat post and clamp got the same treatment.

Before.......

After, even the Schwinn script on the seat post cleaned up real nice.

A little clear coat to protect it.

I like the look.

 

[Woodtickgreg]

Next up was the crank, nice dog leg style. I use fine scotch brite pads and 0000 steel wool to clean a lot of parts. I barely touched the chrome on the crank and it came right off! But it revealed the copper plating beneath it and I thought it looked cool so I went with it. I think it will fit nicely with the direction I'm taking this build.

Original Wald crank.

The copper looks cool in my opinion.

A little clear coat so it doesn't tarnish.

And it still has a little patina.

This was a mistake that turned into something cool. You'll see as the build progresses how it will fit in.

 

[Woodtickgreg]

I picked up some nice cream colored tires and a set of new fenders for the build since this is a custom. I saved the original fenders incase I may need them for a restoration in the future.

 

[Woodtickgreg]

Since it was missing the original head badge I found this one on Ebay.

I think it'll look nice on the bike.

 

[Woodtickgreg]

Next was preparing the S-2 rims for powdercoat.

The wheels will get new spokes so I just cut the old ones out because most of them where so rusty they wouldn't turn.

Hubs will not be used so I bagged them for use on other projects.

Some rim dings and dents will be tig welded up and ground smooth before they go to powdercoat.