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My New CWC Luxury Liner

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Kscheel

Finally riding a big boys bike
Actually not that new, I got it back in October, but I've only just started doing anything to it. The bike came from the estate of the original owner. The bike also came with some catalogs and bicycle literature dating from the early 1990s. The daughter of the deceased owner indicated he got interested in restoring his old bike back then. It is apparent that some work has been done to the bike. It definitely has been disassembled at some point in the past and whoever cleaned the chrome didn't really do it any favors. The tires are Wards Riverside brand and I'm guessing they are fairly modern. The only negatives to the bike is that the pedals and lens for the headlight are missing and the battery tray for the horn was rusted to nothing. Anyone know where I can get a replacement lens and horn unit? I already have a pair of repop Persons Supreme pedals that will do the job.

Basically I'll just disasemble it, wash and polish everything, and replace anything missing or broken. Also take a look at the rear tail light. It has a wire for the stop light feature and don't see the switch anywhere on the bike. Can someone post a picture or two of what the complete setup looks like? I'd like to get that fixed up too.

Does anyone have an idea on when this bike was made? Didn't the "Luxury Liner" name get added to the chainguard in about 1950?

Last thing is the handle bars. There is a big strip of chrome missing, maybe where a speedo was mounted. There appears to be some kind of shim on the inside of the stem. I've never seen that before. Whats the story on that?

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http://s51.photobucket.com/user/carbinekid/media/CWC Luxury Liner/19_zps478d939e.jpg.html
 
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Restoration is finally complete. Here are some photos of the final assembly. The big hurdle I had to overcome was a bent crank. It took some serious doing, but I got it bent back and managed to save it. The seat came out exceptionally nice. I converted it to accept a crash bar and recovered it with real leather. Overall the bike came out great and is already showing to be a great rider.

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Looking good. Enjoy the finger pointing by the admirers while cruising on this classic.
Nice job.
 
This appears to be a 1949. I have a 1948 CWC LL. I believe it was only in 1948 that the fenders were originally black. Mine was completely repainted and parts were missing. On the rear fender under the reflector I found original black paint to prove that the fenders were black. Since your fenders are chrome and the decal is not on the guard, I would determine you have a 1949. Here are photos of my restoration to show the difference. Also the rear fender in 1948 did not have the design on it like the front fender that was added after that year so the fenders would match. my tank and light are repos
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I only say it's a 1948 because everyone that has looked at the serial number and bottom bracket markings said it is a 48. I originally believed it was a 1949 aswell. Was the first year of the Luxury Liner 1947 or 48?
 
CWC began ads in 47 for the upcoming 48 yr. Yours is definitely a 49 because of the chrome fenders. Here is the ad from 47 showing painted fenders on a model yr 48. As for the lens find an old headlight and cannibalize it for the lens, I did for mine.
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The 50 year 1998 repro LL has the chrome fenders, as does the '48 shown in the Evolution of The Bicycle' (page 109), so I believe that chrome was correct for '48.
 
The end of the year 48s might have had chrome fenders but the first ones didn't. The ad shows black fenders and as I said earlier, there was original black paint under the reflector on my 48 as well as in other spots under the spray paint as well. I drilled out the original rivets when I took my reflector off so no one could have put that black paint there except in the factory before assembly
 
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