BMX bike restoration

10July2006

Well, I've been wanting to give a shot at building/rebuilding a bike, so when I found one in the classifieds listed at $5 I couldn't say no. The bike was a piece of trash when I first got it. Take a look at the picture and you'll see what I mean. The work so far is going a lot faster than I expected. I've taken most of the bike apart and degreased/derusted all the bolts. I purchased a new brake and handlebar grips as the previous ones were beyond help. I've almost completed scraping off all of the decals and sanding down the frame as well as the pedals to get rid of the large amount of rust. I'll post the progress of the bike as it comes along. Left to do is:

- remove rust from spokes of wheels
- refurbish seat if at all possible
- prime and paint frame (gloss black)
- buy pegs
- buy new pedals or refinish current ones
- reassemble

19July2006

The bike is nearing completion. This project definatley has moved along a lot faster than most of my others and I've learned quite a lot about bikes in general.
I finished sanding down the entire frame and as much of the spokes on the wheels as I could. I then taped off all the portions of the frame I wanted to keep the brushed steel and primed, painted, and clear coated the rest. I also painted the spokes of the wheels because getting all of the rust off and returning them to a high polish turned out to be quite tedious. I purchased a new bike seat, pedas, tires, and tubes. I had wanted to keep the pedals if at all possible to keep down costs, but the bearings were quite rusted and the pedals a bit too worn. I have the brakes installed and am waiting for the pedals and seat to come in the mail. Once they come and I out on the new chain (the old one was also as you can guess quite rusted) the bike will be complete.

Some updated pics: