Thursday, June 11, 2009

Our Restored Tricycle

Before...

After...
And for those who care... some close ups... (click on the images for maximum impact) the front wheels, the back, the chrome handle bars, & the small wheels.



So, the process was a couple of steps:
1) Find an old, cheap, rusty trike on craigslist
2) Take the bike apart but keep track of where everything goes
3) Use a wet/ dry sanding sponge in fine & medium to take off rust & sand off the paint
4) For the chrome we used TurtleWax chrome polish & rust remover & polished- we had to do just the handle bars for almost 3 hours.
5) We made a paint tent out of butcher paper/floss & used spray prime / spray metallic blue paint- not professional but pretty neat.
6) Cover each tire up with tape all around the edge and painted the wheels white with spray paint
7) Buy new blots, nuts, & washers for the trike and had to buy special sized handle grips (since its a vintage trike the grips were 5/8 " instead of the standard 7/8 " they seem to be now, we also spray painted them)
8) Soak & wash the plastic parts
9) Put it all back together
10) Present it to the pirate birthday boy!

P.S. If you have any questions or want more detailed directions hit us up with an email- we'll get back to you!

7 comments:

kaitlin said...

oh my gosh that turned out so great!
i was excited to see the final project...how fun!

Cindy said...

That is SO cool! You guys did such a great job!

brooke said...

love it love it love it!

Anonymous said...

Awesome job! You guys are hard core. :)

Esther Noelle said...

Yeah I can't believe how well it turned out!! Great job!!!!

Just SO said...

How awesome is that?? It turned out great!

Luiz Lisboa said...

Hi there
I would like to know if you have the brand and model for the tricycle
I have one the same that have been restored and has no brand on it

Thanks