I'm not sure the fine art of bike building is what he's after. lol. But, maybe if I got him a good book about it, he'd be interested in truing cranks.

He really wants to replace all the components. We've read up and the bike is not worth much as a JD restoration. If it was worth something, we would have paid more than $135, I'm sure, because this bike only needed to be cleaned up, and a little rust removal, to be all original again. We're going to bag up the parts individually and see if we can sell them on ebay for a pittance. There is one guy in Texas that found and restored one of every bike JD ever made. Maybe there are others who need parts. The original price on the bike new was only $109 in '73-75.

We took the frame to the bike shop yesterday. They thought the frame was great, in great shape, and will be easy to build up. The bb is English, 68mm, so that's a relief. My son is really focused on new cranks, so I think that's what he'll start on, after the paint.

He's talking gloss black with flames (I'm going to try to talk him into JD green flames) and then a sticker that says "nothing rides like a Deere" instead of the JD logo. It has a JD medallion that he plans to keep. Should be pretty cool when it's all done.

Thanks!
Karen