100% pat..but i think you know where this will be headed

Oh boy

where's oldskoolPK when you need him...he loves restoring bikes and over polishing stuff, its tough to watch but he loves what he loves

Ill never understand why grown men cant have a rational conversation with differing opinions.... this is an opinion. These threads that get out of hand over some nonsense, are gonna start gettin shut down with extreme prejudice. Lets keep this one civil...

TrulyOdD wrote:

just hoping to help a member, one newbie at a time!

hell ya, i will say things when newbies post up they want to restore a nice survivor they are usually talked down pretty quickly like a dude standing on the ledge of a building!

its their bike they can do what they want. look at the bright side the original getting rarer and expensive

that my signtaure (don't mess with original once it lost it will be forever lost)

very well put.  To expand on what Trulyod said "i know there are exceptions to this but for the most part it's always better to leave things in the ORIGINAL condition"

the exceptions should be obvious like this frame I have, that has no original finish on it:

stuff like this find should be kept original for its historic value:

now, i will say, because someone else eventually will, yes the bike or frame belongs to you, but i think what most are trying to say is that if you don't plan on keeping it for ever, someone else, another collector, will end up with it and it should have been kept in its original condition. 

Just my thoughts on what i have heard and what i see.

Very true about alot of us being newbies at one time. Maybe the site and its members could come up witha 'Sticky' for newbies to read with basics, such as stripping, restoring, and refinishing. Or as T-O stated, leaving item as is to hold their true age/nostalgia. I undertand there are some threads to help, however not all of us go through them before tackling a new project.

kurt88 wrote:

ITS MY BIKE. ILL DO WHAT THE HELL I WANT

+1 To that!

I hate it when designated old heads of the hobby tell guys what to do with bikes the guys have purchased. Were is the code of conduct for building bikes at, surely we should point the hapless "Newbies" in the direction of the thread of do's and dont's with your own bike, hold on thats right, there is no rules and they own there bike because they bought it, found it , chased it down. There is enough to go around, and the best lessons are made by failing the last lesson. Unless anyone wants to go and create a thread with rules for Newbies jotted down A to Z, then you have to live with the fact your knowledge is infinity better, but you dont own the part, have no claims on it, and the Newbie may just, and its a big MAY, just have fun building his bike !!!!!

My opinion, not necessarily right, but mine

giginfrogg wrote:

Its a case by case basis. Some stuff left alone will rot.. Nothin wrong with cleaning someting up!

for sure, things should definitely be cleaned up.    i didn't mean to leave the rust and let it rot, i'm referring to removing the original finish...or blinging out a part.

F that....
Let'em repowder.
It just makes the OG sh*t more valuable. 

If it dont make dollars, it dont make sense.