The Westy.

[piercer_99]

I also have most of these photos in the antique bike section, but all of the new ones will go here.

Anyway, I got this bike in October of 2018, mainly because I thought it was cool and I wanted it. I had no idea what it was when I made the deal to get it.

I found out the day I got it, that it is an old Westfield. Then I found out through Mr. Columbia that it is a 1929 Westfield GJ-1. Upon discovering that it was a 1929, I decided to keep it, as that is the year my Mom was born, and I was just really stoked to have a 1929.

Anyway, the guy I got it from had picked it up at an estate auction. At that time, it had the 28" wooden wheels still, however from what he told me they were rotted and he had them replaced with 700 rims, the Morrow was laced into the rear, and it has some generic modern front hub. Unfortunately, when they laced the Morrow into the new wheel, they removed parts, as well as the fact that the hub needed rebuilding badly, they work better with bearings in them.

Over the years, someone had decided to put about 7 coats of black paint on it, I originally thought I would just have it repainted, then I tried a bit of paint removal. Finally I just went for it and you can see how it looks now.

I can't remove any more of the black, without the original paint coming with it, so this is as good as it will get. I have 6 coats of carnauba wax on it, I hope that will protect the bare metal as well as giving it a bit of a luster.

First photos are of how it was when I got it.

 

[piercer_99]

so over the months, it changed a bit, rebuilt the hanger bracket and the headset. Got a proper dropstand for it. Flipped the seat post around, started trying to remove the paint.

 

[piercer_99]

Got a bit dismayed over all of the coats of black paint on it, it was thick.

Figured, well maybe wider tires and get rid of the stupid rim stickers, that will make it look better. So I got the new tires for Christmas and they looked awesome.

 

[piercer_99]

But I still had the niggling feeling in the back of my mind, that maybe there was enough original paint under there to try to find.

Yesterday, the cold weather went on vacation and it was in the low 70's. So I went for it and got aggressive on the paint removal.

It looks somewhat better, more personality. Today I rebuilt the Morrow and took it for a ride. It is a pretty fast old bike for a 90 year old. 6 coats of wax on it brought out a bit of a shine. I had to stop with the paint removal at this point, now any that comes off, takes it all the way to the metal, so this is as good as it gets.

 

[piercer_99]

so allegedly, you are supposed to wax your bicycle to keep it looking new. interesting point, even if it is not a Schwinn.

however, I do have the tools to rebuild and re-grease, so I won't take it to the bike shop for that.

 

[SWPA]

I really like the way that frame and fork looks after stripping, the only thing I would do is paint the stem and handlebars.

 

[mymikesbikes]

Beautiful. I love that saddle.

 

[piercer_99]

So, I really didn't like how much room was in the fender gap, at the front of the rear fender. So I shimmed it a bit today. Also, even after rebuilding the hanger bracket, I was getting a grinding noise, so I took it back apart. I guess the ball bearings had worn enough that the cages were scoring on the races. Replaced the units with some national 66's and it is much better, also honed the races in the cups a bit, all of the cups I have have a larger diameter and won't fit in the hanger bracket. Stupid 90 year old stuff.

here is a before the shims and after. The fuller looking fender all the way around looks better to me.

Oh yeah, it has lights now also.

 

[Sven]

Great looking bike. The white tires really make it "PoP"

 

[Scribble]

Classy