DIY Vintage Replica Bicycle

I LOVE vintage and I’ve recently begun an obsession for vintage looking bicycles! With a vintage inspired photo shoot coming up I decided this was the perfect time to invest in a sweet, antique-y looking bike. I wasn’t able to to find a real vintage bicycle in my area, in my price range, on short notice so I decided to create my own vintage replica.

The other day while thrifting I came across an ugly purpleish-black bike with a few redeeming qualities: a nice shape, a good size and shiny RIMS! For $25 I brought her home with me to begin a much needed makeover.

Before the makeover. Ugly huh?

First, with the help of my sister and little bother (who knows 95% more about tools than I do), we removed the wheels, seat, rims and chain guard. Next, we removed all of the stickers and used sand paper so take off the top layer of the hitious glossy paint.

I washed off the bike really well and dried it. We then took masking tape and thourghly taped off the handle bars, peddles, bike chain and pretty much everything else we didn’t want painted.

Yes….. that IS what it looks like. We hung the bike from a tree in our back yard with a rope. I bought a can of spray paint ($6) in Ocean Blue and started spraying. The tree hanging method seemed to work best to get an even coat but we did try laying it on a trash bag and spraying it that way first. We also hung the other parts I wanted to paint like the chain guard.

After the bike dried (and with a little sceptisism from other family members haha) we put all of the pieces back together….. a little challenging, but doable. I added a picnic basket rack, which I painted a little darker blue, onto the back of the bike to finish it off.

I was more than a little excited about the way my little vintage replica bicycle turned out! The Ocean Blue color along side the silver rims just makes me smile! Isn’t it CUTE?