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.
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.