I picked this bike up this past January at a swap meet for a deal I couldn't pass up. It was in a pile of parts that were all strapped together with rusty bailing wire, but it was almost all there except for the front wheel. The man said he found it in the rafters of an old barn in CA, and his son wanted to restore it but never got around to it thankfully! It is a 1938 Schwinn according to the date on the crank and the crooked prewar stamping letters/numbers. The paint (or what I could see) was still somewhat still there, so I busted out the WD 40 and some heavy grit scotch brite and started sanding away to revive the paint. To my amazement, under all the heavy surface rust (you could hardly even tell the frame was black) there was still quite a lot of the original paint left including the cream scallops along with bits of the red pinstriping outlining them. The wheels were an ebay score intended for my other pre war project, but the patina on them was perfect for this bike instead!
The once chromed pieces were ligtly hit with a wire wheel to bring some of the chrome back, and thats about all. I have some really cool pre war tear drop pedals with wooden pads, some rusty girls curved half moon bars that will be flipped down in racer fashion, bobbed original rear fender, bullet grips, and a matching black and cream number plate. Its going to be a really simple stripped down racer.
Here is the frame and pile of parts that I'm starting with right after I revived what was left of the paint
Here are most of the parts that I'm going to be using..most of them original to the bike!
The locking front fork...
Just a couple of my all time favorites from my large collection of board track pics..will look along the lines of these..
The once chromed pieces were ligtly hit with a wire wheel to bring some of the chrome back, and thats about all. I have some really cool pre war tear drop pedals with wooden pads, some rusty girls curved half moon bars that will be flipped down in racer fashion, bobbed original rear fender, bullet grips, and a matching black and cream number plate. Its going to be a really simple stripped down racer.
Here is the frame and pile of parts that I'm starting with right after I revived what was left of the paint
Here are most of the parts that I'm going to be using..most of them original to the bike!
The locking front fork...
Just a couple of my all time favorites from my large collection of board track pics..will look along the lines of these..