Surprise! It's a 1943 Huffman.

[johan willaert]

Thanks, makes sense and I had always wondered what the number meant....

 

[iswingping]

Hey guys,
Any of you lucky folks out there in original paint? I'd like to get my saddle ready for my leather that is being prepared. My question, is you original paint seat pan in OD or black?
Thanks for the help,
Josh

 

[johan willaert]

On Original unrestored saddles I have seen, the seat pan was black with the frames OD..

Example below on unrestored 1943 Huffman H124670

 

[Intense One]

Hello everyone. My journey to find another bike came from selling a 1948 Schwinn girls bike. The big fenders and unmatched styling has had me on the search for a new skip tooth cruiser. With a passion for hot rods, old tools, and of course old bikes, the skip tooth bike speak to me. Last week I responded to a Craigslist ad selling "Vintage Bikes". I purchased two. One was a cool looking Firestone 500, but the second bike, the skip tooth I wanted from the seller's photos, was difficult for me identify. I was finally able to decipher the rusted over outline of the Dayton "D" head badge and went searching from there. I was able to pull away 6 layers of paint to read the serial number and "1943" stamped to the bottom bracket. "Could this be a legitimate WWII bike produced for the war?", I thought. With the incorrect handlebars, tires, seat, and possibly sprocket, I was suspect to believe otherwise. My experience with other bikes had me removing the fork to find some original paint. There it was, the OD green I was looking for. I feel blessed to have found this piece of American history and can't wait to bring it back to it's original glory. I will be leaning on the knowledge and experiences of some of the others on this site. Thank you in advance. If there are any questions you have for me or if there are any photos I can take for reference, please let me know.

Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this great community.
Sincerely,
Josh

View attachment 166532

These old bikes are gems to us in any condition...great find!

 

[Intense One]

Nice Huffman! I would look at bergerwerke's website , they have a lot of the parts you are looking for. If you are looking to show the bike and want it to be correct I would leave the paperboy rack off as is detracts from it.

http://www.bergerwerke.com/

Man....wish I had a set up like Bergerwerke.....sounds like they do it all

 

[rustjunkie]

Hey guys,
Any of you lucky folks out there in original paint? I'd like to get my saddle ready for my leather that is being prepared. My question, is you original paint seat pan in OD or black?
Thanks for the help,
Josh

I have a Mesinger Huffman G519 saddle in original paint and the pan is OD. the primer is yellow on the seat rails, but the pan doesn't appear to have been primered:

 

[iswingping]

Thank you all for the information and pics.

 

[iswingping]

Hello everyone,
Progress has been slow on getting the Huffman back together, but my parts list has gotten drastically shorter. Recently acquired from some Cabers, through EBay are some parts I've needed. Thanks to those involved. I didn't want to mention any names, you know who you are, chime in if you'd like the recognition. I picked up an oem, unused seat spring chassis. Still has the warehouse stock part tag on it! Just yesterday, I was the winning bidder on an Ever Best Huffman frame that will donate it's seat post and kick stand. Normally, I'd be against parting a bike, but this is literally just the frame and two parts I needed. Thanks for viewing and good day.

 

[iswingping]

Assembled my first rear coaster assembly yesterday. Went very easy just viewing Morrow diagrams. I know this has been preserved in grease, but I still can't believe how great the parts look after all these years.

 

[iswingping]

I haven't been very good at documenting the progress on my bike. Nearing the finish line, I took the bike out cruise today that brought me out to local Military Vehicle Show. Please enjoy the pics.