New Front Rim

My new front rim arrived today after a month of waiting. Not as bad as I had feared when the supplier told me it was back ordered and coming from his supplier. They told me it might be up to six weeks. Since they are in the UK, I feared it would take even longer, so I was quite pleased with a four week turnaround.

As you can see from the pictures below it's quite lovely. Straight and covered with a very bright, beautiful chrome. I had to polish up the old spokes a bit before I could consider putting them into the new wheel. I really should have purchased new shiny spokes but that would have meant ditching perfectly good parts from the original bike - which I said I didn't want to do. So, after some quality time with the spokes they are as shiny as 45 year old parts can be.

Armed with the pictures I took of the original wheel before dis assembly I made short work of lacing up one side. My hands couldn't take polishing all 40 spokes in one night so the other half must wait until tomorrow. I think I spent about 90 minutes getting one side of the week relaced. That includes the spoke polishing. The other side should be about the same, so if the garage isn't too hot tomorrow I should have a fully laced front wheel by this time tomorrow night.

Next, I need to build a truing stand to finish the wheels off. I've got a plan in mind as well as some picture of a stand another Cub enthusiast built. Looks like I'll be making a trip to the local home improvement store later this week for building materials. I'll be picking up some supplies to build my mini-paint booth too so I can get the frame sprayed and a rolling chassis... um, ... rolling.

I'd like to keep up the progress I'm starting to make. My original goal, which is still my current goal, was to have a running bike by November. I think it's still attainable but I can't afford any more long lapses in progress.

Enjoy the pictures.

The newly arrived rim	Very shiny chrome
Ready for nipples	One side laced