tpadul 

So...Yes I did it..I repainted the cheap Schwinn myself despite a handful that said don’t do it, but it’s a cheap bike and I wanted to teach myself as much as I could rebuilding it. I won’t say restore because I know in the BF world that is a different mentality that rebuild.

So...Is it perfect??...HECK No!! Did I make mistakes as I went along?.... I sure as heck did!! Do I like the way it came out??..For the most part Yes I do! Did I learn a whole bunch as I have gone through this process? YES I did and that was the purpose of me stripping down this cheap $10 find and taking it all apart. Only help I got from the bike store was getting the Quill stem bolt unstuck and taking the darn chain off because I just couldn’t figure it myself. Oh, they did also get the freewheel off for me!! :-)

So I repainted the bike and it happens to be an exact color match and I’m happy with it and in the end that is all that matters as it will be my bike and has no resale value because I’m keeping it.

I matched up all of the original decals and ordered them from Velocals. I have decided on copper colored hammered fenders and I found this cool leather vintage Schwinn comfort seat on EBay and found upright handlebars.

I will have the bike shop put the new cables on for me for the brakes and derailleurs but hope to do everything else myself.

Now for the vintage 1984 Sekai 5000 Superbe I recently snagged on Facebook for $80 I’m not about to do anything to that bike except for new bar tape and getting a taller Quill stem and new pedals. I’m too afraid to do anything wrong to mess up that awesome bike.

Velo Mule

That paint came out great @tpadul ! I was going to say I don't see any defects in the paint at all then I saw the dust on the back side of the fork. If your going to have dust in the paint, that is a good place to have it. The graphics will make it look great.

I am with you. This is what a $10 bike is for. And it is nice bike for local riding when your done. I've got a Royce Union that I got for free that is looking way better than it ought to with new paint and graphics. I am going to try lug lining it in the future. This is my experimental bike frame.

Are you going to clear coat after the graphics?

Keep the pictures coming.

tpadul 

Thanks!! And Yes I’m doing a clear coat after the decals are on. I just got them in from Velocals and I was able to get every single decal and they match up perfectly for the Yellow color. Velocals had several yellow choices and I had no idea which one to go with so I just picked Yellow-15 choice and it’s looks to be a good match!!

AJI125 

Nice work on the paint! Love the makeshift stand you got going there with the bucket and funnel. I sawed off the bottom knob from an old wooden baseball bat (splintered barrel and cracked knob) I had from ~ 20y ago. Nice tapered fit into the head tube and could clamp above it. Put a real light coat of grease on the tapered barrel then "wiped" it off leaving a thin film. Paint didn't peel at all at that interface. Just did an inside tape on the top part. Gotta redo the paint job, botched it pretty bad. If at first you don't succeed...

tpadul 

Thanks!!!! I had a huge cheap blue tarp under this that I got from the store for a couple of dollars, I did this in our enclosed dog run and wanted to make sure I didn't get a bunch of paint down in the dog run, so I wrapped up the painted tarp and tossed it as soon as I could. I got a tiny bit of blue paint on the vinyl white fence that my wife noticed LOL but I told her I would fix that up with some white spray paint, I'm not breaking my back with paint thinner on the bottom of the fence. This was the very first time I have ever attempted to paint a bike and I was so nervous I was going to majorly screw it up, but I'm glad I did it.

tpadul 

The rebuilding process has started now with my $10 Schwinn World Sport I got a few months ago. The paint job was about 3 weeks ago.

Unfortunately the original head badge which was in perfect condition got ruined during the paint job as I thought I taped it up well enough but paint leaked through. So I bought another vintage one on EBay that matched the original and yesterday I drilled the rivets out of the old one, removed it and put the other head badge on and then put on the replica decals I got on Velocals.

Mind you this is the very first bike I have ever tried to work on such as totally taking it apart and putting it back together.

I was nervous about messing up the decals but I started with the smallest one first to test how it worked and then went from there and got all of them on.

I think my next step will be to get the rear hub greased and new ball bearings packed and put the hub together and get the freewheel back on. Might need the LBS to help me with the freewheel as they helped take it off for me as I did not have the appropriate tool for that.

jdawginsc 

The coolest part of the project was the stakes and bucket paint stand! I am betting painting outside was challenging but educational!

Paint came out great...! I think I might use some fine grit or polishing compound to smooth out the paint when I finally get to painting.

seanjon13

Very nice!

madpogue 

These are great under-rated bikes. For "low end" models, they're pretty light and well-equipped. Cool to see this one get a second life.

This one's a 1982, BTW, as indicated by the "2" as the last digit of the head badge number.

tpadul 

The head badge is from EBay I had to buy another one as the original one on the bike got ruined when I painted the frame. I was so sad...I thought I taped it up well enough but sadly paint leaked through and ruined the head badge. So I had to find another one on EBay.

madpogue 

Ah, that 'splains it. So now you have to flatten out the date code stamping on this new head badge, and find an appropriate sized stamp set, and re-stamp it with the code from the damaged head badge.




Or not, I suppose.

tpadul 

yeah I don't think I'll go through all that, this rebuild is just for fun and I will be keeping it at our RV/Campground for riding around the campground.

sovende

I'm excited to see the photos when it's all back together. I "re-inherited" a '79 World Sport that's going to get a make-over / rebuild hopefully this Winter! Its frame is in need of repainting too! If mine turns out like yours has, I'll be happy. I agree with the post that suggested rubbing out some of the paint blems but I think you're beyond that now. Still looks great! If it makes you feel better, I've read (and learned from experience) that painting tubular objects is much more difficult than one would expect. It's an art as much as a skill! Nozzle too far away wastes lots of paint, nozzle too close results in runs . As mentioned by others, you've done a nice job for a "first-timer"!
So, post some more photos when you're all done. Lots of us are anxiously waiting . I have to say it would be a stretch for my wife to allow me to use the dining room table as a "photo studio"!

Velo Mule

I put this Schwinn World together with the intention of selling it. With Covid causing my wife to bar me from meeting with people and the fact that after I put upright handlebars on it and liked it, it has hung around and gotten ridden a bunch. You may notice that this is a World rather than a World Sport. I think the difference is in components. Perhaps someone here knows the specific difference. I suspect the frame is the same.

Anyway, I am impressed by the finish of the frame. The brazing is clean, the paint is actually really nice. It is hard to hide issues in black paint. And for a really low end bike it has gold lug lining. The frame geometry seems to be good, giving a nice ride and good handling that I don't want to give it up. This one has steel rims on it and I still like it. Perhaps the World Sport has aluminum rims.

When I worked in a Schwinn dealership, I was not impressed by these new, low end Schwinns. That was me being a snob at the time and not opening up the book to see what was inside. Basing my opinion on book cover that said Made in Taiwan. Lesson learned.



Note the transplanted Giant seat.

tpadul 

I Love it!!!! I think it came out great!!!

tpadul 

So yesterday and today I applied 4 coats of High gloss clear coat. I think so far it looks pretty good.

Velo Mule

Thanks tpadul . I only had to do paint touch up and then change things over to upright handle bars and the regular grease, cables and adjustments.

I look forward to seeing the bike as it progresses. I like the copper fenders. I had to look up Handsome Cycles. I had never heard of them before. I was thinking that if they were actually made of copper they would be heavy, however, I see that they are aluminum with a copper powder coated finish. They look like copper.

tpadul 

I had never heard of Handsome Cycles either, I spent a good amount of time chatting with the shop owners on Ebay and then on Facebook and I'm actually very intrigued with their bicycles as well. Right now I only have older vintage bikes but I'm thinking next Spring I might buy one of their bikes and get a brand new one, They have a Matte Anthracite color that has really caught my eye and I'm looking at their "Devil" and "She Devil" models right now. Their frames are made in Taiwan and then everything else is put together in their shop in Minnesota.