Traditional Late 1940's Hiawatha build

[ZephyrSpeed]

Well here is my latest project that I pulled down from hanging for the past year in my garage. I picked this up off of the local craigslist from a guy with a VERY strange "Name" on the older section of my town on the river. It was sketch to say the least, but when I got there I was stoked to see what was there, everything but the tires and seat (he used it for his other bike). The best deal, only 40 clams, not too bad either. The bike was originally purchased in Reno, then hung up in a local barn and forgotten about. It was covered with a nice protective layer of white overspray with a slight hint of surface rust on the original maroon paint. I started wet sanding it with some fine scotchbrite soaked with WD-40, and instantly the paint was sparkling, especially with a final coat of Meguires hand polish. These pics are quite old, but here it is when I first bought it and sanded it. It is going to be like an early 40's custom with some cool period pieces on it...I will post updated pics tomorrow..enjoy

A fine layer of overspray and surface rust

Sanded, not sanded

Somewhat sanded..

 

[ZephyrSpeed]

Re: Traditional Pre War Hiawatha build

I finally got in some parts that I needed, plus all of the frame and wheel sanding and buffing is done too. One pedal snapped off inside of the crank arm, so I had to drill it out and re-tap it. The tires I got off ebay, and I actually really like them and their quality, and price too! The bars are original pre war Torrington script half moons flipped upside down for a better asthetic look. I will use the pointed bullit grips, a pre war cream Stewart Warner speedometer, and a 30's yellow car or bicycle working head light/taillight, as well as a razor back pre war schwinn stem to match the peaked fenders. I'm having a great time putting something together using all old parts like someone would have done and have had available to them in the 40's! I also have my eye out on an oxblood original troxel seat too that would make it complete. I'm used to building stripped down boardtrackers, so this is actually my first full fendered "cruiser" build, and I love it, I can't wait to take it for a spin when the deep freeze melts off!

 

[Dman]

Re: Traditional Pre War Hiawatha build

That is way cool Man!!

 

[deorman]

Re: Traditional Pre War Hiawatha build

Beautiful bike! Give it a red leather butt-handle! :wink:

 

[thatismytruck]

Re: Traditional Pre War Hiawatha build

That's a beauty!!

 

[rms37]

Re: Traditional Pre War Hiawatha build

Very nice cleanup work! Your bike shows how well old paint can be brought back.

Regarding the production date for the bike though, it is not prewar, it is early postwar probably from 1946 or early 1947. The similar prewar bikes produced by CWC used dropouts with integral drop stand tangs. The tangs were deleted on the postwar models which were designed to use a kickstand and didn’t require the tangs. The bike is early postwar production because it still uses the shallow curved down tube rather than the deep curve version which replaced it during 1947. Also, from my research so far, the CWC/Gambles Hiawatha connection was made postwar and not yet in place before WW2.

If you post the serial number I could possibly date the bike a little more closely.

 

[ZephyrSpeed]

Re: Traditional Pre War Hiawatha build

Very nice cleanup work! Your bike shows how well old paint can be brought back.

Regarding the production date for the bike though, it is not prewar, it is early postwar probably from 1946 or early 1947. The similar prewar bikes produced by CWC used dropouts with integral drop stand tangs. The tangs were deleted on the postwar models which were designed to use a kickstand and didn’t require the tangs. The bike is early postwar production because it still uses the shallow curved down tube rather than the deep curve version which replaced it during 1947. Also, from my research so far, the CWC/Gambles Hiawatha connection was made postwar and not yet in place before WW2.

If you post the serial number I could possibly date the bike a little more closely.

Awesome, Thanks for the info! A little update, I have gotten a couple things done on her recently like finding a cool cream patina'd Troxel seat, and an old Nevada license plate, but the year is a litle off than what I want it to be, its from '54. I actually just bought a nicely used Diamond skip tooth chain for it too, so that should be here by the beginning of next week. One of the last things that I need is a vintage Stewart Warner speedometer cable unit, and its pretty much done....gotta bolt on the fenders and go through the rear hub because the brake takes a lot of revolutions of kickback to fully engauge and stop, any ideas on how to go about fixing that problem?? I have never gone through a rear hub before, so any advice would be great! Here are some pics of my two new additions to my bicycle fleet..a 54 Schwinn Panther and my new but very old pre war bicycle stand. Boy that thing makes working on my rusty bikes much more enjoyable than working on the floor while sitting on a bucket!!!

 

[Uncle Stretch]

Nice build. They make those scotch brite pads in white and they are way less agressive than the green ones.

 

[jandroart]

Killer job on that bike!

 

[RatfinkCustoms]

Looks great! Love that look. Now, let's get some pics of the rod in the backround 8)

 

[A.S.BOLTNUT]

that thing is comin out schweet !thanks for the tip looks like there might be some hope for mine :?:

 

[ZephyrSpeed]

that thing is comin out schweet !thanks for the tip looks like there might be some hope for mine :?:

Nice springer and shifter!! Yeah your bike should clean up nicely..I'm currently restoring the original paint on the panther thats on the stand and it is in about the same shape as yours. Like I said, scotchbrite and LOTS of WD-40 so you do not rub through, but it looks cool if you do to in the thinner areas. Hmmm white scotchbrite, I will have to go look for some of that for the final finish sanding. Thanks for the tip! :lol:

 

[texasbigjon]

heck, im in reno about 4 times a year checking on my 81 yr. old mother! never see anyone riding older bikes though. seen a few at college cyclery on virginia,but thats about it. i was there for the "deep freeze"in early december....left reno and it was -3 degrees,landed in houston and it was 75 degrees! :shock:

 

[ZephyrSpeed]

Yeah no one rides these ol bikes around here because they are too heavy and can't pedal up all the hills we have hahaha! College Cyclery is pretty cool, super $$$ though. I have a friend who owns a cool shop over by me called Sierra Cyclesmiths. He used to work for Shelby building frames and stuff back in the day, so we mostly talk about cars and a little bit about bikes. Not many people really even care about these bikes, they just either care about how good their fashon looks while actually pushing their fixies up these steep hills(no joke), or how much carbon they can have on their roadies. For me, steel is real

 

[stretch]

thats amazing! im always afraid when i see these bikes, praying and hoping theyll get rubbed out instead of redone. but this is another superb example of patina!

 

[A.S.BOLTNUT]

that thing is comin out schweet !thanks for the tip looks like there might be some hope for mine :?:

Nice springer and shifter!! Yeah your bike should clean up nicely..I'm currently restoring the original paint on the panther thats on the stand and it is in about the same shape as yours. Like I said, scotchbrite and LOTS of WD-40 so you do not rub through, but it looks cool if you do to in the thinner areas. Hmmm white scotchbrite, I will have to go look for some of that for the final finish sanding. Thanks for the tip! :lol:

man dont know what ? i did wrong but the first spot i tried with your method went rite through ! :| could be mines just too far gone ...

 

[ZephyrSpeed]

I finally got in my diamond skip tooth chain today, so that is one of the last major parts that I need for this project to hit the streets. It was quite greasy, but after a good soaking in some paint thinner and scrubbed with a wire wheel on my drill, it really started to nicely shine. I then bolted on the rear wheel and fender, and threw on a couple bolts with some acorn nuts to give it that traditional custom look. I slammed the fender down as close as I could to the tire too. I think tomorrow night I will go out and take a spin around the block!

 

[kram]

Really great build, and that paint is just awesome!

 

[stretch]

awesome. just plain awesome. :mrgreen:

 

[ZephyrSpeed]

Thanks for all the compliments! Well I finally finished her up (well kinda, enough to ride) last wednesday night and wen't for a late night spin, and I have to say the bike rides as nice as it looks and is very smooth going down the road. I'm really satisfied with how this bike turned out, for this is the first bike I have ever owned with fenders, a chainguard, and not with a board track style. I still need to go to the hardware store and get some more acorn nuts for the seat and the axle, find a speedo cable, mount my vintage license plate, and also find a cool headlight ( 30's car fog light or something) and tail light, then it will be done. I also need one more 4" long black bullet pre war grip, anyone have one:?: