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Surprise! It's a 1943 Huffman.

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iswingping

Finally riding a big boys bike
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

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Serial Number

Below please see the photo of the serial number and date stamp.

Does anyone know the size and tooth count of the original sprocket? This one on my bike appears small and only has 4 openings.

Thanks for any information.

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43 huffman

Great bike find enjoy bringing it back to 43 standards
 
Cool bike

Welcome to the CABE. Huffman fork have a stamp on the back side of fork; check that out too. Chain ring or sprocket is Huffman and looks correct. Guard looks right too; at least it's a Huffman one. Great find. Congratulations.
 
Don't!!!

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


Dont sell it for less than 2500.00!
Dont strip the paint!
Dont powder coat it!
Dont make it better!

Do go to the G503 web site for info

The sprocket is not correct...

Is the name badge steel?

Jamie
 
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Would a Huffman frame not have the "S" down tube?
Be curious the see the truss brackets closer.
Heck of a find... go buy your powerball tickets, or not you may have spent your luck on this.
 
Rusty Dayton badge and truss support pics

Here is the detail of the head and truss support bracket.

Do you really think it's a better example covered in 70 years of other people's paint and modifications? Right now it just looks like another neglected cruiser. If it were an original paint survivor, there would be no question for me, but under multiple colors I'm leaning towards restoration. I've got some time to think about it as this won't even be started until after I finish the interior on my truck, tile a bedroom, and finish my Swingbike build.

Thanks all for comments and knowledge on the subject.
 

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JMHO... But I'd say restore!
Got the correct lower truss bracket BTW.
Can somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the Huffman has the "S" shaped down tube, at least as far as the Mil Issued goes?
 
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