And I have been driving it everywhere. To the Post Office, to the park, to the fair. Lots of fun places! (Minus the Post Office. I rode there, but it’s not a fun place.) And the coaster brakes usually only throw me off once per ride. Well, they don’t literally throw me off. But it really does take some getting used to the absence of handlebar brakes.

Leaving it locked to a post for the first time was a bit how I imagine leaving my 5 year-old-child at school for the first time would feel. I kept walking back to make sure it was still there. And it was. Whew!

For some reason these pictures don’t show the colors as accurately as I’d wished. I think my camera settings were off, and I couldn’t fix it completely in Photoshop. But I’m quite sure she will be making appearances in photos to come.

See the whole before, during, and after photos on my flickr set here. The change was very dramatic in person, but I don’t think the before pictures show just how horrible the bike was at the beginning. My dad and I were talking about how this was a much larger project than either of us had expected, and we felt that we should give the blanket warning to “do not try this at home,” like we did. It went okay for us, because my dad is a super dad and if he can’t do something, he has a friend that can (and will do it for free!). But it’s not an easy DIY, and can quickly turn into a disaster if you don’t know what you’re doing. If you all have any questions, I will answer them in the comments below.

(Oh and P.S. I am saving my pennies for a pretty basket, and I don’t think Archie (my Yorkie) will be riding in it, judging from the way he is scared to even sit in a laundry basket on the ground. And I think the thought of the basket falling from my bike with Mr. Archibald inside is just too much for me to bear.)

Last weekend was full of work, work, work! And no painting of the bicycle. I will admit, I was a little dissapointed that I haven’t been able to cruise around on her yet, but at least she is stripped and ready to go.

We arrive at the paint shop on Saturday morning at 9am. I chose a color very similar to the bicycle’s current teal color, although slightly lighter. I was keeping in mind that this is a restoration project, not just a refurbishment, so I would like it to be just a fresher version of the original.

Arriving back at my dad’s workshop, I spent an unexpected hour cleaning out massive piles of saw dust and scrap metal to make room for the work that was about to begin. I had already begun polishing out the rust of the chrome pieces (see the front braces above? It was pretty horrendous, yeah?), but Pop and I disassembled the bicycle so that we could tag team the stripping and polishing process.

The pedals were quite the little stinkers, as it took my dad about a half hour, a blow torch, creeping oil, massive vice grips, and eventually a saw to remove them. Needless to say, I will be replacing those.

The next part of the process involved stripping the pieces with chemicals, brushing off most of the paint from the sheet metal parts (fenders and gear shield) with a steel brush, and then finally sandblasting all of the painted parts. While Pop was sand blasting, I was hard and work polishing off the rusted out chrome and zinc plated pieces. Quite the workout for my fingers!

And so, I suppose this is the part where I say “To be continued.” :)

Today I’m sharing a fun little DIY at Elsie Flannigan’s A Beautiful Mess. Come on over, hang up your hat, and stay awhile!