After weighing the options of just building it up all rusty or actually finding out if there are any pinhole’s in the frame I decided to get it down to bare metal.

The next move was to find a friend with a sandblaster. I know that I could have it hired done, but I really wanted to take the opportunity to sandblast it myself and learn a little bit about the process of blasting a frame.

Luckily my little buddy Erik Noren of Peacock Groove offered to let me use the one in his shop. (Thanks dude!)

It was fun as hell, and in short order I had the answers.

The metal was pitted (get pitted) in multiple spots, but we couldn’t find anything that would lead us to believe that it wasn’t structurally sound. This was old steel and one of the lower end to wear a Columbus badge during that time period. A little pitting ain’t shit to those thick tubes.

My tentative plan is to put a clear coat over the frame as it sits now myself.  I’ve never rattle canned a bike before, and I figure a clear coat has got to be one of the more difficult to mess up since it’s well, clear.  And if I do screw it up royally,  I can always get it blasted and powdercoated proper by one of the many local affordable options.

Also, I was digging through some drawers and found period correct Schwinn Tempo decals that could work nicely on a partial resto.  We’ll see if it comes to that or if my home job pans out.  Have to wait till warmer temps though to give it a go.

Stay tuned.