1975 Schwinn Continental

1975 Schwinn Continental
This is the bike before most of the restoration work - click to view full-size

Thursday, April 21, 2011

75 Continental: After 7-8 Hours Of Metal Polishing - Multiple Pics - Click To View Full-Size...

...here are several pics of the bike after cleaning up all exposed metal:

 Front rim - blue paint scrubbed off hub, full rust scrub.






 Goose neck & shifters - pretty-well cleaned up except tight creases where the nut joins the neck. I'll have to get that in the Winter when the bike is disassembled for repainting.





 As you can see, even the kick stand is cleaned up pretty well. There is some pitting and heavy rust on the pedal cranks and inside the chain guard that I'll have to clean up better when the bike is apart next Winter.


 Front brake and fork shroud all cleaned up and shining bright.
 The full bike. (The top pic here is a little blurred & out of focus.













I should be adding the generator and light set Friday or this weekend, depending on when it arrives. I'm hoping for Friday. It was shipped early this week, Tuesday, I believe.

Ride on,

Dan

6 comments:

  1. Pretty decent job at the cleaning and restoration!

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  2. Nice, what types of polish did you use?

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  3. Tudor, thank you. It was mostly done with grade 0000 steel wool. I tried some metal polish cream, but it had little effect.

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  4. That's a beautiful bike! I have a guy putting together a continental for me, but its in "Sunset orange". How does it ride?

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    1. James, these bikes are geared tall. They live flat, paved surfaces, and some velocity going into uphill grades is your friend. Going downhill, they fly. I ride on crushed gravel trails fairly often as well. Twenty to twenty five mph in 5th gear. I mostly use 1st, 3rd, and 5th gears because of the other traffic out there. Steering is agile, braking adequate. I rode a Varsity for years in junior high and high school. The Connie rides about the same, but is a little lighter. You'll have a blast.

      Dan

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