Filed under: Chassis
The chassis is reassembled and I’ve installed a new pedal chain. Not very exciting but essential.
The rim strips arrived today. These are “Demolition” bmx rim strips, they’re a little wider than the ones the lbs had and should be perfect. They even match the bike, though you wont be able to see them when installed.
Started painting the worst of the frame parts using duplicolor hemi orange, looks pretty close to the faded orange of the rest of the bike.
I also installed the front fender and replaced the mostly missing plastic mud flap with one made out of leather. I cut it out kind of crooked but you cant really tell.
The block is also ready to reassemble once the parts show up.
The cylinder has been wire brushed and painted with Duplicolor “cast coat iron” which is very similar to the correct factory color, much better looking than gloss black no doubt.
I’ve also started stripping, sanding and painting some of the body panels. The unique design of the solex chassis is intriguing. Most parts are just stamped steel, requiring probably very minimal welding to complete the whole bike. The construction process must be quite simple and inexpensive.
Started cleaning up some of the chassis rust today. The wheels have been cleaned up and polished, now I’ve moved onto the small chassis hardware. I tried something new today and used phosphoric acid to clean up the worst of the rusted hardware. Most of this stuff is on the small side so this seems to work fairly well. In fact if I had a way to zinc plate them they would look just like new. Here are some small spacers that were pitted and had a uniform coating of rust.
Turned out quite well I think.
Here is the orange VeloSolex 5000 as it was recieved. The whole bike came dissasembled, bubblewraped and boxed. Luckily this is a mostly complete bike in fairly decent condition. It is a great start for repair or restoration.
After a slight unwrapping the details become apparent. This is a DOT equipped 5000 model with electronic horn and brake light. It still wears its faded and chipping factory orange paint and original decals.
