# 1940's Shelby Built Hiawatha



## hawkster19 (Feb 29, 2016)

This is my first such post on here but I would like to share my latest rehab project if you guys don't mind. I bought this 1940's Hiawatha about a year ago and it kept getting pushed back as I was not 100% sure the direction I wanted to take with it. I never part original bikes out and love to leave the patina while removing loose rust and old grease. I use the term "rehab" as I've also seen many of you use - I want it to look its age while riding like new. I sprayed some penetrating oil on the rustiest looking spots and it's been sitting untouched since its purchase.

With the beautiful weather yesterday I finally took it home to my garage and dug in. With a few problems along the way - an extremely stuck pedal (which required PB Blaster, heat, tapping, many repeats) and also having to redo the tires after the original Goodyear Airwheel split down the middle after getting both wheels ready - the project was a blast. Nothing better than getting grease up to your elbows and then stepping back hours later to admire your finished project. When everyone else has given up on a bike, breathing life back into her and taking her for her first ride in decades is quite a thrill I'm sure you all know. 

I've added quite a few pics. I love the graphics and colors of this beauty. The front hub is a blackout New Departure and the back hub is a regular chrome New Departure so I'm guessing they ran out of one or the other and were just using whatever they had. Not sure if this was late war, early war, or what the exact year is. I was told 1943 but as you know it's hard to date these. My frame shows the exact same chipping areas as the other 1940's Shelby Hiawatha I just saw sell but the vibrant colors are still visible in some spots. I would have loved to have seen this as a brand new ride.

I hope I didn't bore you too much. I'm as obsessed with these old bikes as the rest of you. Thanks for reading! Ride on!

PS - if anyone has a reliable but used Goodyear Airwheel 26x2.125 they would part with please let me know. I would love to put those back on this bike.


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## cds2323 (Mar 1, 2016)

Nice job on the clean up. I have one in blue with red trim. I'd say yours is probably an early post war bike. The Hiawatha head badge is the post war version, the prewar had the streamlined train and was a different shape. 
Enjoy the ride!


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## Mybluevw (Mar 1, 2016)

I sent you a conversation regarding the G3 tire. I think I have one that will work.
Reply with your email and I will send you a pic.

Mark


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## Hawthornecrazy (Mar 1, 2016)

Nice job Hawkster......


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## rollfaster (Mar 1, 2016)

I used to have its sister bike.


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## hawkster19 (Mar 1, 2016)

I would have bought that gal's bike from you in a second! My wife would have loved that ride.


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## rustjunkie (Mar 9, 2016)

Nice work and great pics


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## spoker (Mar 10, 2016)

if you have a morrow rear hub,there will be a small 2 diget code that will narrow down the year,example would look like this,g3 or f4,or f2,ive seen the 2 differant badges on differant years,yours has rear drop outs,maby one of the shelby ppl can tell when they went to forward dropouts,and your bike came out great,gambles and hiawatha originate here in mpls,gambles is gone but ther is a lot of hiawatha sites and things of thar sort here


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## azbug-i (Mar 13, 2016)

I like me some shelby badged hiawathas


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## hawkster19 (May 27, 2016)

I wanted to update my pics of this bike as I love how it is a few months after the original images. I added a working Delta Rocket Ray with the perfect amount of patina, upgraded my grips (thanks rideahiggins!), and also had my seat recovered since all that was left was the padding. We used the original padding and all other seat parts, used some motorcycle seat tricks to keep the pan from cutting the leather in two places that the padding was a bit thin, and then distressed it with some dye and cooking oil. My buddy used a spot on the deer which had some scars to further add to the distressed look. He killed it with the seat, I am more than happy with how it matches the bike.


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