Johnny Mullet

I been bugging this chick about her men's Huffy beach cruiser she had in the garage for years and today she needed a minor repair done on her car and said if I fix her washer pump (10 minute job) I can have the bike. I got the job done and picked it up today. I am not 100% sure which route I am going with this bike, but it will get chopped, dropped, and stretched and become an awesome cruiser for critical mass rides and park rides. I will be doing this build through the winter months and will update this thread as I get work done to it. This is a China made Huffy Santa Fe 26" single speed coaster brake beach cruiser................







Some of you know what I am capable of as far as welding and metal work, so stay tuned!

awfulwaffle 

Sweet! I wanna see more attachments made out of other bikes

banana rat

Wow, nice bike, can't wait to see pics of the progress. Keep us posted

Johnny Mullet

There is 2 ways I can go with this. I can go with a Klunker build or a custom cruiser build. Have not made up my mind yet.

Philphine

my favorite type of bike to start a stretch with. good luck with it.

SquidPuppet

Don't stretch it or lowrider it. Go Klunker. Klunkers are so much more classy IMO.

Johnny Mullet

I been looking at a bunch of custom beach cruiser bikes. The lowrider bikes look neat and all and I am totally capable of doing a low rider build, but I do not want to ride a bike in a recumbent style and I do not like bikes that low to the ground. The only issue I have with this old school rainbow framed bike is the frames on them seem a little short. Most beach cruiser bikes have this "short wheelbase" look to them.

I really love the pics of the "Klunkers" and "Bombers" I been seeing on different sites and love the look of them, so time will tell. I might just cut the rear part of the bike off behind the seat post and lengthen the wheelbase by about 4 inches to give it a different, custom look.

Anyway, when I got the bike yesterday I basically dropped it off at my workplace and did nothing to it until this morning. I came in an hour early and oiled the chain, aired up the tires and decided to ride it around to basically get the feel of the bike and the geometry. The tires held air, the coaster brake works great, and I actually got a workout and broke a sweat messing around and skidding the rear tire around the shop. I had a blast and it reminded me of my Huffy BMX I had as a kid.

These swept back cruiser handlebars are horrible! The bearings in the front wheel are bad, but no big deal since the wheels might get replaced anyway along with a bunch of other stuff, and the seat post is stuck. Anyway, I took some pics of the bike after removing the junk...........



And how it looks without the junk.......





The next few days I will strip it down to a bare frame and decide how to go about the build. Updates then!

SquidPuppet

Stripped Klunkers are my fav. Raw and simple.

Johnny Mullet

Normally I would not spend a lot of labor on rusted out junk. This includes motor vehicles. For the last few days I been soaking the rusted and stuck seat post and the rusted stem and even with a pipe wrench, neither would move. I decided to tackle the steering stem on my spare time today. I hacked the cruiser bars and most of the stem from the tube with a rip saw. I then removed the front fork and paced it in the vise. I then used a punch and chisel and failed. I then used an air hammer and chisel bit and the stem would still not come out. By now any sane person would toss this Huffy by now. Not me! I broke out the torches and added some fire to this project...........



This job was smokin'............



Regardless, I win! This is your standard mild steel material and you can do pretty much what you want with it. This is why I am a Huffy fan and a fan of old school steel. During the disassembly I found the front rim had 2 broken spokes and toasted bearings. I will replace the front rim with one saved from a girly Huffy mountain bike that I saved to make a https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting/...ack-build.html with. I also have some Huffy steel to use from the front part of the frame I saved. I'll keep ya posted

Johnny Mullet

This morning I got the rest of the frame stripped down to nothing and will work on extracting the frozen seat post.

Philphine

i had to do the exact same thing on a huffy venice last week. just used a little propane torch though.

Johnny Mullet

Got the frame ready for the cutting and customizing after I get that stuck seatpost out

Humboldtian

Put some lower "board track racer" handlebars on it. That would be boss!

GentleLamb

Heres my stretch

Johnny Mullet

My Beach Cruiser winter project got a really late start. I got all the bearings cleaned up, rebuilt the bearings in the hubs, replaced a couple spokes, and trued up the rims. I also got that stuck seatpost out! It was worse than the frozen stem removal and I swear this bike was under water with the amount of rust inside the frame and wheels and the bearings. Normally a bike this bad would get checked in the scrap pile, but I got it off a friend and will go ahead and complete the job, but with a change in direction.

At first I was going to chop and drop the frame and go with a low rider look, but with the status of the bike and time constraints, I decided to make this beach cruiser a budget "Klunker" bike but this one will be more of a single speed "Urban Bomber" type bicycle.

I also got the frame and fork sanded down to bare metal to remove rust. Here are some pics.........







Updates later on the rust bucket!

cs1

Where are you at in Ashtabla? I'm from the west side of Cleveland.

Johnny Mullet

I am actually south east of the city in rural Pierpont area.

Johnny Mullet

In primer now. Now to decide what color.....................

Johnny Mullet

I been debating over the color to paint this cruiser. Something changed my mind. I brought the rims home from the shop and broke out the chrome polish ad started shining the rims up while watching Netflix. The wifey said "Gimmie one of them." and we both poilshed up the old school chrome.The chrome rims turned out great and the one piece crank and other chrome items turned out great. What goes great with chrome? There is only one obvious choice. Updates and pics soon!

Johnny Mullet

Finally the look I was going for! It's not done yet, but here it is with MX bars.............

jetboy 

nice job!

Johnny Mullet

I'll update when I finish it.

Needles

Looks good! You can improve ANY bike. I'm working on a Rixe tourer, that I'm upgrading as needed, and as cheapness dictates.

Johnny Mullet

I would have to say this cruiser is all done and ready for commuting! My commute is relatively flat so no problem with a single speed with a coaster brake. The roads are horrible in the town I commute through and the wide bars, 26" tires, steel rims, single speed, and less components should be perfect for these conditions. I added the rear rack and a water bottle holder. I also added some extra decals from my Pro Thunder BMX build and will call this bike "Thunder"..............

SquidPuppet

Pretty cool.