Panasonic Villager Fixie

When I set out to build a fixed gear bicycle; a bike with the pedals attached directly to the hub of the rear wheel making it imposable to coast but one does not need brakes to stop; simply lock your legs and the bike can skid to a halt, I had no idea what to expect. I have never built a bike before. I understood the basic mechanics. I was on a budget; I wanted to build the bike for under $200. I knew this was going to be a challenge to learn to build a bike and stay under budget but I was curious to see where it would take me.
I started by perusing Craig's list where I found a lead on a pile of unwanted bikes outside of Superior but after finding myself at a shotgun shack, complete with meth-head, chickens, a plethora of broken down cars and garbage but no bikes. I started looking for bikes other places. I ended up finding a Panasonic Villager, a weird front free-wheel low end bike built in 1974, at The Bike Cave Collective. After persuading them to trade me the bike for a box of Dilly Bars I had a decent start.
The paint was in rough shape so I had to sandblast the frame; also I wanted to breath some life into it so after sandblasting I applied a hefty coat of primer; once that was dry I painted the bike flat black then a few layers of clear coat. When I was done painting the bike looked slick.
The hunt for bike parts had started and I managed to score a nice pair of rims off of Ebay; a set of Star's Aero clincher wheels with a flip-flop hub for under a $100. A hook-up at Continental Ski & Bike provided with me the rest of the parts I needed; an Origin 8 crankest, a chain, handlebars and stem, seat post, and saddle; thanks to Bryn, Morgan and the rest of the bike mechanics I got the bike together; and within budget!

The original catalog 1974