Hey, came across this site while researching bike painting. I'm restoring an old Schwinn Fair-Lady, vintage banana bike. So far i've disassembled it into pieces and found that working on "old things" sucks. So far, just oil and standard tools hasnt been enough to loosen the fasteners.

I needed an air impact wrench to remove the headset when i had no luck with a long adjustable wrench or impact driver( i'm very fortunate my father has a large collection of tools, it needed a large socket).

an inpact driver to remove the front faring

large set of pliers to remove the seat post

the stem came out after continued wresting

grab rail needed a punch to push the bolt out the seat.

So far, its been teh most pain in the ass bike i've ever restored, but my girlfriend likes vintage, so i'll make it look like million bux.

the frame is a purple that i have no love for. at first my color choices were for pastel pinks and blues. Then an ad showed a shot of an old radio flyer trike in the back of an SUV, Two toned fire-engine red, antique white paint, thats what i wanted.

So far i have a mix of ideas on how it;ll finally look but not picture. I'll include some pics of inspiration.

Yesterday i disassembled the bike down to the frame, the coaster brakes need to be serviced. the rear hub need servicing(coaster brakes), everything on this project needs rebuilding~!


I'll try to include pics along the way, though my before pics can only be a nice layout of parts.

In the pics, the guy painted the fenders, i'm not crazy about that, part of me feels its a sin to paint over beautiful metal. In practicallity, its a good move, the paint protects, chrome is high maintenance, also if i get the right vintage white, it'll complement the red, let me know what you think. The bike is for a girl in her 2nd year of med school, she cant do maintenace.