i was able to buy this old 1953 schwinn phantom off an old guy in his 90's that had riddin it to the hay feilds as a child to work i had a good time talking to him as he had to let it go because he was headed to a nursing home the bike was pretty rough but very solid he had painted it with a brush at some point all the chrome was bad and it also was painted i had allready redone a few bikes in the phantom was on the back burner long enough but one of the problems was i was laid off with not much money comming in but lots of time i like a goodlooking bike same as the next guy i just wasnt going to spend big $$$ for all the chrome so when i redone this one everything that was chrome was blasted and painted a metalic silverish color that turned out pretty good over all the bikes looks good i'm down to putting the chain on and going for a ride the red/ black paint was left over from my jc higgins pipe bike i finished up a few weeks ago so other than the decals and a few parts not much money tied up in the chromeless black phantom here is some before and after pictures.....