I picked up a Gilson bike last weekend. I finally had a chance to start working on it a little bit over the last few days. It's actually in really good shape -- even the bottoms of the fenders still have all their chrome. It was just really really dirty.
Over the weekend, I started disassembling and detailing it piece by piece. The chrome has spots of rust, but most of it seems to come off with a soft wire wheel brush in my drill.
One of the rear shocks had some pretty significant rust on it. It polished up decently enough that I've decided to just go this route for now, but it's missing a lot of chrome (Since the last photo, I've taken the shocks apart and cleaned them a little better, including a soak and proper polish -- pictures to come).
The front end of the bike is in much better condition. It has some pock marks where the rust was -- and still has those damned welds on the front plate though. I still plan on grinding those welds down and having it welded on the back of the plate instead, but there will still be holes in the plate.
Turns out, the paint is much worse condition than I thought it was. There are lots of nicks, scratches, scrapes and wear on the paint. What is there is stained in places and not cleaning up at all. I was originally planning on keeping this bike original. However, like usual, I'm starting to feel like doing a full restoration might be the proper way to go. That means paint and finding the missing parts.
Does anyone know the proper paint color for this bike? Would it be privy to just go with a Dark metallic green, or would that be sacrilege?
The jackshaft assembly had been molested pretty severely. The one-way sprocket had been welded in place and the two speed clutch was gone. I've already ordered and received a new Comet two speed jackshaft and the two speed clutch is on its way (thanks Joker!). The new assembly is too short to use, and the old jackshaft assembly is so badly corroded that I couldn't get the old sprockets off of it. I went ahead and ordered a new jackshaft from OldMiniBikes. It should be here in the next couple of days.
I guess if I'm going to do a proper restoration, I need to locate the proper shroud for the engine, the tail light cover (good luck, right?) and the chain guard that goes from the jackshaft to the rear sprocket. I think everything else is there (besides new brake and throttle cables).
Over the weekend, I started disassembling and detailing it piece by piece. The chrome has spots of rust, but most of it seems to come off with a soft wire wheel brush in my drill.
One of the rear shocks had some pretty significant rust on it. It polished up decently enough that I've decided to just go this route for now, but it's missing a lot of chrome (Since the last photo, I've taken the shocks apart and cleaned them a little better, including a soak and proper polish -- pictures to come).
The front end of the bike is in much better condition. It has some pock marks where the rust was -- and still has those damned welds on the front plate though. I still plan on grinding those welds down and having it welded on the back of the plate instead, but there will still be holes in the plate.
Turns out, the paint is much worse condition than I thought it was. There are lots of nicks, scratches, scrapes and wear on the paint. What is there is stained in places and not cleaning up at all. I was originally planning on keeping this bike original. However, like usual, I'm starting to feel like doing a full restoration might be the proper way to go. That means paint and finding the missing parts.
Does anyone know the proper paint color for this bike? Would it be privy to just go with a Dark metallic green, or would that be sacrilege?
The jackshaft assembly had been molested pretty severely. The one-way sprocket had been welded in place and the two speed clutch was gone. I've already ordered and received a new Comet two speed jackshaft and the two speed clutch is on its way (thanks Joker!). The new assembly is too short to use, and the old jackshaft assembly is so badly corroded that I couldn't get the old sprockets off of it. I went ahead and ordered a new jackshaft from OldMiniBikes. It should be here in the next couple of days.
I guess if I'm going to do a proper restoration, I need to locate the proper shroud for the engine, the tail light cover (good luck, right?) and the chain guard that goes from the jackshaft to the rear sprocket. I think everything else is there (besides new brake and throttle cables).
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