Introduction
 

Hey All,

I have finally signed up after a few days of stealthing the boards. Just a little intro, I am a university student from northern Ontario and last summer I decided that I wanted to find myself a vintage cruiser bike that I can restore/customize.

Funny enough I was able to find what I believe was a gem of a bike. The bike it a 1950's era Cruiser made by the Werlich Manufacturing Company. This company is no longer in business after, from what i've been told was a serious fire to their plants. This company was based in Preston, Ontario, which for some of you that don't know of Southern Ontario, Canada is a part of a decent size city of Cambridge which is west of Toronto, On. I don't know the exact year of the bike because of the available information on the Werlich company. I ended up emailing the archives for the city of Cambridge to get the general info on the company. Once I get home I will post a thread of the bike on the day of purchase and the various stages i've completed so far, with some generic questions to follow.

I am Looking forward to your comments/opinions that will come from my restore/customizing. Some of what I have planned will surely erkk those who are true to restoration, but given the unique and rarity of this particular manufacturing company odds are I wouldn't find many original parts. I'm hoping to make it look as original as possible, but with a more hotrod paint scheme.

Where are the photos?

Dang it!

Welcome to C & V :D .

East Hill

Welcome to C&V!

Can't wait for the pics......Sounds like a fun project.

Haha. I'm at work right now with no access to the files, I will post them up as soon as I get home.

I thought all of Ontario was "northern". :p

Welcome aboard. I know nothing of this company though.

I live in Cambridge. If you need any help finding some info let me know. Cambridge is made up of 3 amalgamated cities (Preston, Galt and Hespeler). I'm not sure about Preston, however there is a volunteer run Archive in Hespeler that may be able to provide some info, or they may be able to contact someone who is able to provide some more info. Here's there website address. Send them an email (it's at the bottom of their main page). It's a bunch of retired guys that love digging up historical stuff.

http://www.thecompanyofneighbours.com/

Apparently they also made player pianos at one time:

Werlich Brothers, Preston (Cambridge), Ont; fl 1908. Player pianos only

Looks like they also made snow sleds as well.
http://windsor.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-s...AdIdZ114557007

Here's a few interesting early patents from Werlich.

http://www.google.ca/patents?id=dIxT...ult#PPA1929,M1

http://www.google.ca/patents?id=tbVM...ntario#PPA3,M1

http://www.google.ca/patents?id=FSBv...ntario#PPA4,M1

Yeah, there were a very broad manufacturing company. Its quite interesting. Pics soon.

Here are the pics:

The day I bought it:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...ax/0d79_18.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...ax/0d8d_18.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...85332_4005.jpg

After Sandblasting and Priming:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...15266_3399.jpg

After The Candy Red Paint was short:
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...943363_496.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...43364_1662.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...43365_2756.jpg

Here you go! Hope you enjoy.

Very cool project. It's got great cruiser styling.

Yeah, its been fun so far, the only problems I am having is that the front fender was missing, and the rear was not repairable. So i'm am feverishly trying to fins some fenders that would work for this project. I have thought of possibly going to one of the metal fab shops in my town and see if someone can fab me up some custom fenders. Secondly, at my own fault, i clipped the stock spokes before I measured them (just slipped my mind), didn't realize it until after i threw them away. So i need to find out what size spokes and re-lace the rims.

As for the colour scheme, I will be ordering black spokes, which should accent the red nicely, (rims are colour matched to the frame) and I already have whitewalls so it should "pop" nicely. just need to figure out what i'm going to do with the crank, crank arms, pedals, headset/stem, and handlebars. I have been considering powdercoating since I know a guy who does custom motorcycle work. So its still very much a work in progress. The next thing I think i'll be able to get finished is the seat, I already have the material and the foam ready.

Could you post a close up photo of the tube joint welds? I'm curious about how they compare to modern TIG welds.

did you paint it yourself? Spray can or compressor? Whats the color?

I am digging that big chain ring, the Sophia Loren curves.
Pimp that ride.

I did everything but the actual spraying. I work in a garage and one of the mechanics I work with runs a body shop from his home. (actual proper booth and ventilation, not a chump set up). So it was pro quality application and product. I do not know the colour code off by heart, but its a custom candy red that was used on a 00' Supercharged Mustang that rides around my town.

The paint job isn't perfect by any means since it was a favour and I wasn't expecting it to come out as good as it did. This bike will be ridden, its not going to be a "trailer queen" so to speak, so I wasnt looking for show quality.

Not a problem. It won't be until Friday though. The welds aren't perfect, and I will admit that it looks like someone has already attempted to fix some welds before I got a hold of the bike.

It is quite a cool design, i'm having an issue with it though. Right now I can't get it to come appart. There's a failry large nut that has an extremely low profile height which makes it hard to turn it. If I could somehow find a tool that would work it would be great, but I haven't tried anything really yet because the nut and race look to be one piece and the last thing i want to do it scar the bearing race.

See if it's a 32-35mm nut, then you can use a headset wrench or maybe a bottom bracket wrench, or take it to local bike shop, tell 'em you'll buy a tube if they can get the nut off.

I spent some time working on the bike yesterday and I was able to get it off with a Zip Gun at work. What made it a bit difficult is that it was seized and it looks like the bearing race and the nut are tacked together. I was able to get it off without damaging the race thought. !!

Fenders
 

It would depart somewhat from the standard theme of a vintage rehab, but after you get an estimate for custom fenders you might want to check out these wood fenders (and chain guards) made in this one-man shop in Oregon. His work is both artistic and functional; certainly worth a look.
http://www.woodysfenders.com/store/

Another werlich!
 

That's a sweet bike! You did a great job restoring it. I also have a werlich bike I would like to restore. Looking at your bike will hopefully get me motivated to get mine on the road soon:)