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1939 Motobike restoration
Hi all, taking advantage of spring like conditions here in BC I have begun to restore my newly acquired 39 Rambler. For a 75 year old bike it is in fairly good, rideable condition. It appears to have mostly original parts : cranks, forks, wheels etc. The handlebars are not, neither is the saddle although it is an old one. I suspect the fenders are later CCM replacements, with a factory blue paint job. It looks like a previous owner decided to hand paint the frame and rims to match the fenders- which now looks quite ugly. So my plan is to strip the parts off the frame and repaint it.
The wheels, chain and fenders all came off easily, along with the seat post and fork rods (is that the right word for those 2 steering outrigger rods?). The pedals won't budge. I decided to take a pedal apart - and stupidly broke one of the axels that support the rubber blocks. If anyone has spare pedal parts I would be grateful to hear from you..
I also cannot loosen the headset wedge to remove the forks.. I'm dousing it with liquid wrench but... So far nada. Does anyone have any tricks that might help?
loosen it as much as possible without doing it completely and then give it a good wack with a hammer on the top
should do it...
Yep quite right Locomotion, after 2 days of squirting liquid wrench like holy water - and with the help of a heat gun - i was finally able to get that headset wedge to back off. Got the pedals off too, then the whole crankset came out so nicely. Now i have an almost bare frame to prep for painting.
Question: the chrome heasdset and crank cups appear to be pressed into place. If i get them out is will they go back in again?
The crank cups come out easily, put a piece of round wood inside and hit it with a hammer. You can also use a flat end piece of steel. You may have to tap it in oposite sides to get it out(top, bottom and again top, bottom)They go back in, it may be tight. Use a piece of 2x4 and hit it in that way. Headset should come out with a long piece of steel, screwdriver, tap it lightly around it.
Thanks for the tips! The cups all seemed tight to me so i brough it to my local bike shop Chainline Cycle. Darron was able to remove the headset and one of the crank cups - but the other one would not move no matter what. He also could not find a way to get the bearing cup off the forks either.So im going to have to tape it up and send the frame off to the sand-blasters and hope for the best.
The fenders are in quite good shape but i want the paint stripped from them also.. the appear to be made of thin sheet metal steel. i was hoping to send then to the sandblaster too... has anyone has success with that kind of treatment?
I think i might have been succesful with a pic..
OK not a great picture.. but you can see the fenders are pretty robust.. the white paint has come off with time - that's all
Alrighty.. Well I'm here to say that the sandblasting and powder coat process worked even better than expected, I gave frame forks and fenders to a guy who brought to another guy who runs an industrial shop. 4 days and 40 bucks later it's all back in black and looking great!
now I am putting it all back together. 1st problem the crank set. i can't seem to be able to tighten the bearing race plate enough too close it properly. There is still a 16th of an inch gap that I can see the bearings through. If I go any tighter the cranks won't turn. Perhaps I put too much grease in the cups? Or put in the bearings backwards... Any tips?
i will search the forum for more info and an exploded diagram... Pics to follow!
Headcase
maybe I should change that handle to Crankcase..
Well I'm glad no one jumped in to tell me to get the bearings in the right way.. Now it all sits in there nicely and turns great too. Boy do I feel a little foolish! Let's haste makes more speed as my old tree planting boss used to say.. More to follow...
I bought the bike from an old junkyard collector and proudly brought it home to show off to my wife. She hated it immediately an accused me of spending the grocery money on a piece of old junk. Spending about 20 hours on the restoration over the next couple of weeks did not help the love-hate triangle much but.. after a successful rehab ( for the bike not me) she is now slowly coming around and beginning to see inner beauty in the old bones ( again.. the bike..)
Even so the name has stuck..
Presenting: "Groceries"
What did you do to the rims? Did you paint them or chrome them?
Hi Roger, i tried soaking ing the rims in "rust remover" and it just made them look worse. So i finally used a brass wire brush on my cordless drill and burnished the rust off. The paint and rust came off quite well and exposed the original chrome that was underneath - its not perfect but i kinda like the old school patina look now.
This bike is for sale if anyone is interested..