1953 Schwinn Meteor for Girls Restoration

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As a kid there was always that old bike in the back of grandpap's basement that no one ever talked about and whenever I asked about it would just get a laugh and a 'yeah that's your grandma's bike'

Finally some 2 decades later and I'm no longer a little kid to be tripped over. I have all the skills necessary to fully restore a full size car (taught to me by my grandfather) and with no car to restore and a few comments about me working on my own bikes, my grandfather finally asked me if I would be able to work on grandmas old bike. So naturally I jumped at the idea, but thinking it was some late model recreation of an old Schwinn I wasn't overly excited, that is, until I noticed the sprocket.

It was a heart pattern skip tooth, so I drug it up from the basement with new found excitement and started cleaning 30+ years of dust off of it, found the painted on 'Schwinn Chicago' logo, wrote down the serial number and started doing research I figured out its year and made my way to This Post for a positive verification of its model.

Although I am not ratting this bike out and am merely doing as accurate of a restoration as possible I felt I should post it on here in return for the positive ID.

Enjoy


The frame after I took the crank off (forgot to take pictures before) My grandfather had started the restoration some 25 years ago but got sidetracked by yet another car to restore, so the bike is spread out all over the garage and basement and I haven't gotten it all in one spot yet.











The heart pattern skip tooth chain wheel. I don't believe that this was original to the bike because when I took the crank out one of the bearing rings was missing a single ball and in all the pictures I've looked at of similar bikes they all have the circle pattern chain wheel.



It may look nasty but under all that grime is new looking chrome.



The replacement fenders my grandfather picked up at some unknown fleamarket some unknown year. He thinks he might have the original fenders somewhere but I'm going to have to find them amongst a sea of car parts.


Parts accounted for but not in photos yet:
replacement chrome handlebars
front/rear wheels
new seat
seat tube
seat clamp
nos aftermarket mudflaps
nos grips
original head badge

Parts un-accounted for:
original 1in skip tooth chain
original fenders
fender supports front/rear
tires

My grandmother wants it painted to match her 59 Ford Retractible so it will remain in the same blue/white color scheme but more of a baby boy blue instead of the darker blue it is currently. I also plan on using the same pinstripe pattern and at the bottom of the rear fender I want to paint a poodle from the old 50's poodle skirts and put her name across the fender.
 
That looks like a great project. I think the skiptooth is original, because they probably would not have changed out sprocket, chain, and rear wheel to convert from standard on that bike. Did she get it new? The illustrations in the catalogs aren't detailed enough to see if they are skiptooth. Do the original wheels match?
 
I'm not saying that it wasn't skip tooth original. by all original pictures i could find it was, I was referring to the circle pattern skip tooth chain wheels. Due to the missing ball in the bearing ring I think someone in the past swapped out the chain wheels. Today I will search for the rest of the parts and pull the wheels down and check the tooth wear and see if it matches up with the amount of wear in the heart pattern chain wheel.

Also she got the bike sometime in the 80's, when i asked her if that was her bike from childhood she told me that all she had as a kid was a hand me down boys bike because she didn't like to ride the girls bikes.

Well off to dig through parts!
 
the balls come out of the cages all the time and either get ground up into nothing, or might be hiding somewhere in the grease or in the frame. I've come across quite a few skiptooth schwinns with the sweetheart crankset. Check the cranks for the date stamp.
 
Allright folks, update time.

First a few pics of the parts all cleaned up.

This came out real nice, not a flaw on it.


Little bit of cracking in the chrome on the stem but its not bad and I think I'll use it as is.




I was worried about this part but it was on top of a file cabnet for an unknown number of years (or maybe decades) and it looks like it came out of the box, doesn't even need lubed just needed the dust wiped off.



The original seat, after studying it closely i figured out that the fabric was held on by stitching it through holes in that metal band around the rim which was spot welded on. That band is too brittle to be used again so I'm currently trying to think of a way to put new upholstry on it. Also I think the springs would have been chrome but I am not sure, if anyone knows for sure how the underside of the seat, to include the frame and the spring, would have been finished so I can make this as accurate as possible I would much appreciate it.



Morrow coaster break "With the slotted sprocket" as advertised, the slot was a Morrow specialty which allowed you to replace spokes without having to remove the sprocket.








One broken piece, but after cleanup and reassembly it worked fine even with that clutch piece cracked in half/



The hub shell cleaned up to look like the day it was made, the spoke holes aren't even ovaled out.


Greased and put back together ready for another hundred thousand miles(if grandma can make it that far)




What appears to be the original rear tire and its tube both still pliable and holding air.



Seems to be a period replacement tire and tube both still good to use like the rear. While I would like to reuse them, Grandma has her heart set on whitewalls so these will be put aside for maybe another bike at a later date.


The pedals which we decided to replace.





Located the original fenders which my Pap has started to restore some 25 years ago.


Slight damage on the front fender. I think I will break off that folded over piece and take this to the grinder and shave just enough off the bottom to round it out again.


Pap found this too which he had started to restore some 25 years ago, its in perfect condition with no cracks or dents.



Front and rear baskets that i will clean up and get powdercoated silver.

Having lots of fun on this project and its going smoother than I could have hoped for. A friend stopped by earlier today and said he had an old cruiser bike he would give to me so there may be another in the making soon. Also i found a replacement bearing for the one that was missing in the bottom bracket.

Thanks for reading.


Ride Classy
 

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