The Old West (Late 1950s/Early 1960s AMF-built Western Flyer Sonic Flyer)

[Bike from the Dead]

Love your drawings! Especially the preliminaries. Your sketches are finished pieces to me. Maybe not for a coloring book, but just to look at. Takes me back about 60 years to junior high.

Thank you Boris! Yeah, sketching is my favorite part of any art project; no ink, no color, no polish or finesse, just rough ideas brought to life in a fast and loose fashion! After I complete this coloring book, I'd like to see if there's a way for me to make a finished product without getting rid of the "roughness" of my initial sketches. Sketches always seem to pack more personality than the final product, which was why I chose to ink the coloring book designs by hand, so they'd look a little rougher than if I traced them in Adobe Illustrator.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Jeez, didn't realize it had been almost a full year since I last updated this thread. (I forgot I had a thread here and not just on ratrodbikes.com, so some of these posts are a little late.)

I hit a slight snag with my current Step-Thru Build Off entry on Rat Rod Bikes, so I'm switching gears and I'm back to work on The Old West here. I [had] a family reunion coming up on October 20th, and though it's been postponed, I'd still like to get this old AMF back to riding condition by then. I don't expect to have everything buttoned up by then, but if I can at least get it to move under pedal power again, then that's good enough for now. Good news is there isn't much left to do on this bike aside from cleaning up a few parts, picking out bearings and bearing cups, and just reassembling everything.

On October 1st, I checked the frame's alignment and thankfully found that all I needed to do was adjust the dropouts a little bit.

Later that afternoon, I took a few parts by my dad's shop to clean up using the wire wheel. I didn't give myself enough time to really do all I wanted to though, as I also wanted to check out the Tuesday Cruise-In in Tulsa that day. I took some before photos, but I'll save the after photos for when I've finished everything like I want.

As a side note, for anyone wondering what happened with the coloring book I was working on... well, it didn't happen. Not yet anyways. As soon as I started on the linework in Photoshop, all progress came to a screeching halt by the start of this year. I only managed to finish the line art on one car and start on another before the amount of work it'd take to complete all 12 designs felt like sandpaper to the brain. I had learned, once again, that I had bit off more than I could reasonably chew. Still, I plan to continue working on my art, but this time, I'm taking it one drawing at a time.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

A few small steps meant big progress for the project on October 9th!

First (not pictured,) I dug through my stash of headset bearing cups to see if I had a pair of AMF cups that would work for Old West. Fortunately, I found 3 in perfectly usable condition, and one other in "good enough" condition. I cleaned them all up with a brass wire brush and some #0000 steel wool and set them aside to use later.

Next, I removed some more cups from a pair of donor frames I had sitting in storage. Both required some... unique methods... to remove.

On one frame, I couldn't get my punch to butt up against the cup inside the headtube due to this piece inside, so I had to use a large adjustable wrench and a hammer to knock them out from the outside.

Next, I decided to attack this 20" Buzz Bike that had been fighting me since I got it last year. For whatever reason, I could not get that fork nut to come loose for the longest time. In fact, I was beginning to round off the corners of it! So I finally clamped the fork down in my dad's vice, grabbed the big wrench, and told this little Buzz Bike that I wasn't asking it to come apart; I was commanding it to come apart.

Thankfully, it listened to me for once.

Now I have 4 more bearing cups that might work. I won't know for sure until I get them all cleaned up to really assess them. I also have 2 bearings that might be salvageable as well. Unfortunately, the races were grooved, so those won't be any good, but I should have what I need here at home.

I also finished cleaning up the seat post, bottom bracket races, and the threads on the crank yesterday.

I had cleaned up one post with the wire wheel at the shop, but while it got rid of the rust, it also depleted the chrome finish. So, I cleaned up the other post with some #0000 steel wool, and I think I like that look better.

Also some close-ups of a few other parts I cleaned earlier.

Now that I've knocked out those parts, I'm positive I can rebuild this bike with time to spare before the 20th. I won't be able to do anything on it today, but I should be able to work on it again tomorrow morning.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Made a little more progress on The Old West yesterday. I spent some time shining up the chrome on the handlebars, handlebar stem, crank and chainring. I don't have a ton of photos to share this time, partly because I was more focused on making some progress than documenting said progress, but mostly because there wasn't much of a difference between my before and after pics.

I'm swapping out the original handlebars for a set from another AMF bike. The bars this bike originally had have a slight bend to them, but the replacement thankfully is nice and straight.

I decided to use the original stem though, as I didn't have an exact match in any better condition than what I had. I think it'll be fine either way.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Made some more progress on this Western Flyer last night. I spent some time going over the fork, tank, seat and chain guard with rubbing compound and SC Johnson Paste Wax to help shine everything up before I put it all back together. I also cleaned up the insides as well as the threads on the fork. I didn't get the most dramatic changes before and after cleaning up some of the parts, as most of them had been treated with rubbing compound before.

Before I started cleaning the fenders, I wanted to try and straighten out this one fender brace. Unfortunately, I didn't have any luck trying to do that here at home, so I'll have to run it by my dad's shop to use his vice to stand a better chance of fixing it.

It's been a bit more difficult to stay motivated on this project than I thought, but I'm slowing finding my rhythm again. I'm hoping to make a good deal of progress today, but we'll see how that goes. I don't know if I'll be able to finish the bike by the 20th at the rate I'm going, but I'm going to try my best.

 

[GTs58]

Made some more progress on this Western Flyer last night. I spent some time going over the fork, tank, seat and chain guard with rubbing compound and SC Johnson Paste Wax to help shine everything up before I put it all back together. I also cleaned up the insides as well as the threads on the fork. I didn't get the most dramatic changes before and after cleaning up some of the parts, as most of them had been treated with rubbing compound before.
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Before I started cleaning the fenders, I wanted to try and straighten out this one fender brace. Unfortunately, I didn't have any luck trying to do that here at home, so I'll have to run it by my dad's shop to use his vice to stand a better chance of fixing it.
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It's been a bit more difficult to stay motivated on this project than I thought, but I'm slowing finding my rhythm again. I'm hoping to make a good deal of progress today, but we'll see how that goes. I don't know if I'll be able to finish the bike by the 20th at the rate I'm going, but I'm going to try my best.

The paint on this sure looks like a candy shot over a silver base coat. Is that the case here? You sure do post great pictures!

 

[Bike from the Dead]

The paint on this sure looks like a candy shot over a silver base coat. Is that the case here? You sure do post great pictures!

I have no idea! I've always wondered how some of these old bikes were painted, especially with all the painted graphics they'd add to the frames, chain guards, racks and other parts. Maybe somebody around here knows?

Thank you! These last few batches were all just shot on my phone, but just wait until I get the bike back together; that's when I'll bust out my Nikon!

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Late to bed and late to rise,
Is not a decision I would advise.
-Me, at 11:41pm CST

Once again, I didn't get nearly as much done as I would've liked today due to my poor sleep schedule. Thankfully, I did make a bit of progress today, and I got a feeling tomorrow's going to be even better.

Today, I picked out a set of wheels I can use temporarily until I can get the correct wheels trued. I might not even have to worry about disassembling the hubs and repacking everything, which will be a huge time-saver!

Next, I dug through my crown races to see if I could find the one I planned to use before, which thankfully, I did. I wasn't sure which top race I planned to use though, but I found plenty of matches to the one I needed, albeit with some cleaning required. So, I loaded up my races and took them along with the front fender over to my dad's shop to clean them up.

Most of the crown races weren't in the best shape, as there were slight grooves and pits on most of them, but most of the top races were in good working order.

Next, I used the vice and some pliers to fix the bent fender brace on the front fender. I also adjusted the other braces as needed while I was at it. I wasn't able to get that bent fender brace perfectly straightened up, but for this old bike, I think it's good enough. I'd still like to know how to do it better for future reference, though.

Now that that's out of the way, I'm hoping to make a great deal of progress on this bike tomorrow. I just need to get to bed, like now.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Well, I didn't make any progress on the Western Flyer these last few days, but today, I finally hit another milestone.

I still hadn't picked out the bottom bracket bearings and bearing cups, nor the headset bearings, so I started going through my stash to see if I had what I needed. At first, I was planning on using these modern Huffy bearings and cups for ease of replacement, but the cups felt just a little too big for the frame. Luckily, I had a good matching set of cups and bearings that I could use. I also found more than enough headset bearings I could use, and picked out the 4 best-looking ones to clean up. I soaked them in my ultrasonic cleaner, hosed and dried them off, and I was good to go! I thought it wouldn't take me that long, but it ended up being more time-consuming than I expected. Still, I'm glad I got it done!

While I had those parts soaking in the ultrasonic cleaner, I spent some time cleaning up the frame with rubbing compound and Johnson's Paste Wax. It didn't need much, but I did shine it up that much more. I also spent some time cleaning up the fender braces with a brass wire brush and some steel wool.

I didn't make my October 20th deadline, but it didn't matter in the end, as the family reunion that I aimed to have it built in time for was postponed due to my grandpa needing to go to the hospital for some kidney trouble. He's fine thankfully, but he's still in the hospital and may not leave for a while longer. I still plan to get this bike rolling, if not by the end of this week, then at least by the end of October.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Made a little more progress today, but not nearly as much as I hoped.

I reinstalled the bearing cups.

Then I test fit the bottom bracket assembly and rear wheel. I wanted to make sure the sprocket and chainring lined up, and the easiest way I've found to do that is to place a yardstick against the chainring and see if it lines up with the rear sprocket. Fortunately, I managed to sort that out. However, I did notice that the space between my dropouts was just slightly narrower than the rear hub on my wheels, by like a millimeter. I don't think it's a big enough deal to bother widening the rear triangle, but it's something to note.

One thing I am concerned about is just how little room there is between the rear sprocket and the fender mounts on the dropouts. I don't know if the chain will clear the fender mounts or not, especially if I use a larger rear sprocket.

Granted, I also have the rear axle as far into the dropouts as it'll go, but it's still a concern.

I was planning to grease the bearings and install at least the fork and bottom bracket today, but I have a problem with my tube of grease. For some reason, I just can't get any of it to come out of the tube without pressing all my weight down on it, and even then it only oozes out a minuscule amount. It's far from empty, and the nozzle is cut open wider than I ever needed to on my previous grease tubes, but I still could only get enough grease out to coat a thin layer on the bearing cups before I inserted them into the frame. The grease itself doesn't feel any different than before, as it spreads the same as I'm used to, but I just can't make any progress greasing my bearings and other components when I need to literally stand on the tube just to get anything to come out!

Does anybody here know what's wrong with my tube of Park Tool grease? I'd hate to go out and buy another tube of grease when I still have enough left to build at least 2 more bikes.