I bought a 55 Schwinn corvette a while back and Have been cleaning rust and melted plastic off of it anf shining up the chrome,stainless and aluminum. it was in a fire so all plastic/rubber was melted. I am in need of brake cables and a shifter cable for the 3 speed rear hub. What type of pedals and grips did they have?Do you know where I could find lenses for the head/tail light?Also does anyone know of exploded diagrams for one of these? I stumbled across this site months ago when I needed help dating my Colombia and other Schwinn and was amazed by the wealth of knowledge and great community this forum has. That is why I asked here. Any help or tips are much appreciated. Thanks in advance!
1955 Schwinn Corvette Help
- Thread starter Gyratingyak
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If you could post a picture of what you've got, that would help a lot. Are the lights a generator set? Other than those, Corvettes didn't have built-in lights like a Phantom or others did. A lot of serial numbers got reused in the 50s for Schwinn so a picture should help verify that it's a '55 and not earlier or later. 1955 was the first year for the Corvette and the middleweight in general so there are a few things that were first year only that would help ID it.
Brake cables can be bought at your LBS. One end of the cables have a MTB end and the other end should be for the old cruiser handbrakes. Pedals would be Schwinn bow pedals, no reflector, and, if you want to get really correct, a '55 would have screws holding on the rubber inserts. Shifter cables are still made for sturmey archer hubs and you can get those at your bike shop as well. Grips likely would have been white or black Schwinn teardrops with teardrop inset.
Brake cables can be bought at your LBS. One end of the cables have a MTB end and the other end should be for the old cruiser handbrakes. Pedals would be Schwinn bow pedals, no reflector, and, if you want to get really correct, a '55 would have screws holding on the rubber inserts. Shifter cables are still made for sturmey archer hubs and you can get those at your bike shop as well. Grips likely would have been white or black Schwinn teardrops with teardrop inset.
Sorry for the awful quality, my camera is junk.
It has a delta bolt on head and taillight with a generator. Also it has weimann brakes but I can't seem to find a model number for these ones. It just says Weimann on one side and made in switzerland on the other. and a metallic sticker that says Schwinn approved.
It's definitely 55-58 because of the decals and chainguard. The original seat is gone. '55 had a one year only seat so you can't tell from that. Assuming the rear wheel is original, Sturmey-Archer put a two digit date code on their hubs at this time.. so you can expect to see a number like..57 and I'll let you guess what year that would make the hub :lol:
Sounds like you've got most of the parts to at least make a nice rider from this. How well did the paint hold up through the fire?
Sounds like you've got most of the parts to at least make a nice rider from this. How well did the paint hold up through the fire?
not too bad but needs to be repainted. can you believe I got it for 25 bucks? I thought it may be ruined but for 25 bucks I took the chance. it is missin an acorn or dome nut for the front brake and a tiny nut for the adjustment screw to be held on but thats it. Evaporust has cleaned eveything up and just needs painted or polished. I plan on leaving the parts rough and not pristinely polished just so I have the chance of telling someone her story. Brake cables are ruined along with the tires,The easily replaceable stuff thankfully though. I do believe it may have the original seat post. It is aluminum with schwinn script.
