Serve And Protect (& Schwinn Chronicles; Day 3)

There is only one regret I have when it comes to being in the bike building business and that's the fact I never have enough time to actually RIDE them!  Oh yes,I do ride every day to and from work, but we live less then a quarter of a mile from work so it not exactly an exciting sojourn.  No, I mean REALLY go for a ride.  Like life it's not the destination, but the journey that counts.  It's with that in mind that this evening was a real treat.  Having to shop for "going back to school" I was surprised when Angi agreed to forgo the traditional cab ride in favor of taking our bikes.  Her on her vintage Ross three speed and I in our recently acquired vintage Robin Hood 3 wheeler.  She is a little rickety and has a slight bend in the rear axle (have not got around to replacing it) but not only does it fit my personality but we acquired it from Uncle Chips Garage!  So she will forever be a part of our shop.  We took our time getting there,enjoying the reprieve tonight's weather provided from the last week of stifling humidity.  Stopped off for coffee at the book store then headed to Wal-Mart (yes...as much as I lambaste it for a family of nine our options for saving cash are limited).  Afterwards filling up our baskets we headed at a leisure pace home.
It was half way back that we had one of those National Enquirer moments.  Coming up on a darkened bank parking lot a police cruiser pulled out from behind the building and for a brief moment I had a moment of concern that they may be out to harass, but he barely paused before jetting out into traffic and lo and behold his cruiser was quickly tailed by a sub-compact  occupied by a single female driver sporting some seriously tussled hair and smudged lipstick.
Um hummmmmmmmmmmmmmm?
I had no idea the bank was open for after hour deposits!
Ba-dum-bump!
I wonder if he was penalized for an early withdrawal?
Ha-cha-cha-cha!
ANYWAY!!
The sweet three wheeler we finished the other day got snagged up this morning by a very astute couple that have been following the blog.  I didn't think it was going to hang around that long.
Spent the early part of the day getting caught up with repairs and then went on to the fun of trimming out the Schwinn.  And as always, when working on such a gem, there were some issues.  I'll take you through it with visual aids...
One of the best parts of the job is when you can quickly see the fruits of your labor like with a little PB Blaster and a wire wheel you can make your nuts and bolts go from this

 To this!

 And mind you it's this kind of detail we do to ALL our RE-Cycle refurbs!  That's what we mean when we say
FULLY RE-FURBED!!
Like taking this seriously ugly looking skiptooth crank and....

Turning it into this!!

Once every nut and bolt was cleaned I started the task of detailing the frame.  First attempting to reproduce (somewhat) some of the original graphics.
First the seat post tube diamond gets masked off...

and once the coats dry gets trimmed in gold.

The collar was a bit of an issue as shortly after the first coat of white was applied...

 it started to alligator!!!  AARGH!!!!  So the unfortunate truth is it has to be re sanded, primed and painted again!!

So giving it ample time to dry before I go through it again I went on to the other pieces of flare!  The tanks are gonna look sweet once the final touch of gold trim is added and the lettering is redone!

I know.  Doesn't seem like a lot to get done in a day, but trust me waiting for each coat to dry, then cleaning it to get rid of ridging etc takes time.  But we also kept busy between coats with other projects as well.  No rest for the wicked!
Well, OK there is time for the wicked to rest...and that's now.'
Until Monday when we rejoin our intrepid crew of bicycle saviors!
Night!