All the CWC Western Flyers of that era I've seen have the chain wheel as seen in Kingfish's pic. That one on yours is a Hawthorne (Montgomery Ward) chain wheel, but back then who knows if they used both at the factory.
The serial number will give you the year. On CWC built bikes, look for a "Cw" or "A Cw" to the right of the number on the bottom bracket. There may be a 2 digit number also, the last two of the year. Here's what my 53 looked like:
So cleaned out my storage unit this morning and took in a lot of my parts bikes that have been sacrificed for the greater good. Still have a few more that need disassembled and one that I'm going to cut the rack and rear brake bridge off of before it goes.
Anyway I spotted this cool chainring mounted chain guard in a bin that is aluminum so I grabbed it and asked how much. He said it's on the house. Might use this on the 24" predator.
All I have is an A in front of the CW...
C02592 A Cw
I threw some discolored whitewalls at it and cleaned up the wheels a bit with some copper wool and it looks like all the chrome will clean up beautifully.
Took a bit of paint off the tank and the chrome has been preserved very nicely.
I couldn't resist I had to take it for a short ride and it rides great for being 70 years old. I definitely need to R&R the rear hub and the crank as both feel a little gooey and grimey.
With that low of a sequence number, January is a good guess.
You may have good chrome on the guard also. I don't see a color under the blue, except white. I've only seen them in green.
This 50 WF sold for 800 bucks.
Nice! Mine is missing the headlight but had a huge basket on the front that I took off. It looks like the bike was sandblasted then a white primer and blue. It flakes off pretty easy so I'm gonna go and redo it. Fighting the urge to go full custom on it.
I never can find an original paint oldie. My oldest, a 42 Hawthorne, and a 47 CWC were both blasted. Inside the bottom bracket was the only way I could see any original color.
Putting a few miles on the old boy today and doing a local club ride later. It's so smooth for a 72 year old bike. Nice weather, a great bike, what more could you want?
So went up to Huntington today and scored these 3 bikes for a cool $200
First up this OCC stingray. Little surface rust to clean up but not in bad shape.
Next up is this Schwinn men's bike unknown model. Decent repaint, nice seat, some cool accessories.
And last but certainly not least this awesome Western Flyer Super. Yep another one. Has a few issues like an extra bar welded in and a small crack in the chain stay that has been welded.