# building  a 1940 Huffman



## 37fleetwood (Oct 25, 2010)

I've recently acquired a couple 1940 Huffman mens frames and some parts. seemingly most of the parts are falling into my hands to build one. I plan on documenting everything pertaining to this build in the CBF Blog section of my site. I thought I would make a post as well in the forum here. I'll be sharing my experiences and some of the technical details as I go along so check in once in a while and see how it's going.
For now this is the Model I'm aiming for. of course that may change if something comes up.


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## kyle (Oct 26, 2010)

I saw one of tese super delux's go for 150 on craigs...alllll perfet orig. Cond. And nice...   What's te real value of these bikes.. As it seems, you can buy a rusty old frame and buy it for 150-300 on ebay... Why would anybody do that?   Are they more valuable rusty and delapetated?


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## kyle (Oct 26, 2010)

also why do columbias look like that bike pictured?


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## akikuro (Oct 26, 2010)

Cool! I'll be following to get ideas for my 1941 Special Line Dlx rebuild...Scott can u send me pics of those items we talked about at the Pike Swap?
Correct springer fork without light bar and the GY DBL Eagle?


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## 37fleetwood (Oct 27, 2010)

Ok, the frame and tank finally came! took a bit over a month but the guy I got them from is a good guy so I wasn't worried.
let's see if I can answer the questions raised. feel free to ask as I go along, that's the purpose of the project. that and me getting off my can and actually putting a bike together.
Kyle, your first set of questions and your last question may all be related. let's see if I can make some sense out of them. There was a time, a few years ago, when you couldn't get Huffman parts at any price, they just never showed up. they seem to come up a bit more now. the old collectors valued Huffman parts higher than say Schwinn parts because they are harder to find. Some of this still holds true but some of it is changing. After shipping I paid almost $400.00 for the frame with the tank, I got it off ebay a month or so ago and it bid up to what I paid. truth be told the thing that made these two pieces go so high is the fact that they are 1940. not 1939, or 1941, but 1940. it's funny how one year develops value and another doesn't but that's the nature of collecting. I think some of this may make more sense if I clarify that there is almost no difference in the 1939, 1941, and 1942 frames. in 1940, for one year only Huffman welded the kickstands to the frame, also 1940 was the last year for the Zephyr tank, and it is slightly different from the earlier ones and in 1941 the tank was completely different. there seems to be a fair amount of 1941-2 bikes out there, I've owned a dozen or so, and still have at least 6 now, the 1940s are a different story, these are the only two I've ever owned and I have had to pay the price to have one. even now in gathering the parts to build this one, I'm paying much more for parts than I ever did for the several 1941-2 bikes I've put together. for example, I paid $39.99 plus shipping for a rack for my Huffman made 1941 Firestone Pilot and now I have a line on a 1940 Huffman rack that's missing parts and the owner is offering me a good deal at $150.00. some of the value of a 1940 clearly is in the idea that most collectors would use it as a start for a big tank Dayton. You can't touch one of those for less than $3500.00 or so.
my guess as to the one you saw on Craigs list for $150.00 is one of several factors.
1 your statement that it looks like a Columbia may mean that what you saw wasn't a Huffman at all and may have been something else.
2 it may have been a Huffman but was a different year and therefore not as rare.
3 the seller didn't know what he had and it went cheap.

so, what's the value of the one I'm building? good question, it depends on several things. first I'm intentionally not building the most valuable 1940 model. to do that would be much more expensive. 
second consideration is the value of the parts. as mentioned I paid $377.77 for the frame and the tank and not much else. these tanks usually go for $300.00 or so. the 1940 frame would go around $100.00 (as opposed to $50.00 for a 1941-2 frame) the correct fork and trusses would be $50.00 - $75.00 depending on condition.the rack would be hard to determine as I've never seen a real one sell before, but I'd guess a complete lighted 1940 rack would go for $500.00- $700.00?
I may have to make a few concessions and build a lesser model than I truly wanted just because I can't afford the top stuff. A big 1940 lit tank would likely cost $2,000.00 if I could even find one. This is just the tank mind you. so you see it is difficult to truly value these. I guess I could put it on ebay after I build it and we could see what it would go for, I'm guessing as a restored bike all correct as a Deluxe Special it should bring $1,000.00-$1,200.00 depending how nice it was. A friend here on the Cabe just sold a pretty nice original Firestone Pilot. he may be willing to say how much he got, but I'll say it was considerably more than $150.00.

Rhandy! while taking photos of the bikes I got a few photos for you. we can discuss them later but I'll post them here while I'm at it. they're under the photo of the bikes.






http://classicbicyclefanatics.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10062/P1020969.JPG
http://classicbicyclefanatics.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10062/P1020970.JPG
http://classicbicyclefanatics.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10062/P1020971.JPG
http://classicbicyclefanatics.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10062/P1020972.JPG
http://classicbicyclefanatics.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10062/P1020977.JPG
http://classicbicyclefanatics.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10062/P1020973.JPG


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## SailorMac (Oct 27, 2010)

Can't wait to see this one come together.  Great intro.


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## 37fleetwood (Oct 27, 2010)

lots more photos on the post in my forum if anyone's interested.
http://classicbicyclefanatics.com/f...83&t=443&sid=6eb98750c5b68ada83c8180a45aa8fa5


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## fat tire trader (Oct 29, 2010)

Thanks for the info. I didn't know the difference between 39, 40, and 41. I have a few ptrwar Daytons in my basement. I'll lokk at them later today.
chris ioakimedes
Fairfax, California
www.fattiretrading.com


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