# 1964 Schwinn Deluxe American...girls...



## HARPO (Apr 25, 2016)

Well, here she is, in all of her rusty glory! This was from a Craigslist ad that was fairly local (30 miles), and was being sold by the original owner. She got the bike in 1964 when she was eight years old, but as your can see, not well taken care of before being put away.

It's all original, right down to the bald Schwinn whitewalls. How the heck all the decals manged to vanish over the years I don't know...and neither did she. (Paint is original, I checked.) This will, of course, be a total tear down, but I've worked with worse looking Schwinn's and brought all the chrome back to lustrous life. This will an ongoing project, but I figured I'd show it "as found".

Well...good luck to me!...


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## Jeff54 (Apr 25, 2016)

HARPO said:


> It's all original, right down to the bald Schwinn whitewalls. How the heck all the decals manged to vanish over the years I don't know...and neither did she. (Paint is original, I checked.)
> ]




That is quite strange, no decals but that color does not 'feel' right. It's like there's a tad more gray in that blue then what I expect. I zoomed into your photos and see there's old oil that's migrated into the fork from the bearing, indicating it's been that color, long, long time.. But, zooming into the tank that looks sloppy and repainted. The white is bleeding across the edges.

Not even a hint of any decal anywhere, no residue or yellowing, no paint on fork nor screen printing on the chain guard. Perhaps though, hints of decals under the paint on the seat post?

Yet on the top end of the chain guard, there's white, is that chipped paint? If so, then that's wrong because, it would be red primer under the paint. also on chain guard, at frontt of blue over the edge to the chrome, is that also white hiding there, under blue spray? If so,, that may be a refurbished bike the day she got it?

Could be the colors of photograph not showing the right colors, but dang, that there sure looks like what I did with rattle cans too sting ray's and varsities in  60/70's except, I dipped mine in acid, red primered em,   get the decals too but, unless age makes old rattle can paint better, it would have more chips by now. .


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## HARPO (Apr 25, 2016)

Jeff54 said:


> That is quite strange, no decals but that color does not 'feel' right. It's like there's a tad more gray in that blue then what I expect. I zoomed into your photos and see there's old oil that's migrated into the fork from the bearing, indicating it's been that color, long, long time.. But, zooming into the tank that looks sloppy and repainted. The white is bleeding across the edges.
> 
> Not even a hint of any decal anywhere, no residue or yellowing, no paint on fork nor screen printing on the chain guard. Perhaps though, hints of decals under the paint on the seat post?
> 
> ...





She got the bike brand new as a Birthday gift, so it was brand new. But there seems to be a faded (not covered over) decal on the bottom of the seat tube. Once I remove the fork it will let me know if anything other than original paint is on that. I'll look closer at the chain guard. A scratch with some rust on a rear fork shows only one layer of paint...unless the entire bike was stripped down which seems highly unlikely.
Colors change in photos due to different light hitting it when photographed, along with the fact that on a monitor it's being viewed in RGB. Time will tell all once it's been taken apart...


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## HARPO (Apr 30, 2016)

I used some WD40 and a brass "toothbrush" on the front and rear racks. Being very nervous, I was hoping for the best...and the best it was! It's only surface rust, and the chrome beneath is shiny and perfect. Very minimal rubbing to get the rust off, and the fenders just have a few very small bad spots, otherwise all that rust came right off with WD40 and a 0000 steel wool pad. The Schwinn quality once again shines through all these years later.
I'll post some pics soon...


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## Adamtinkerer (May 1, 2016)

The factory sikscreened the chain guard logos on in the 60s, it did wear off.


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## GTs58 (May 1, 2016)

The fact that every single Schwinn marking is completely void on this American is really odd, especially when the paint is in that condition. Someone had to remove all the decals and screening, the only other explanation is a repaint.


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## HARPO (May 3, 2016)

GTs58 said:


> The fact that every single Schwinn marking is completely void on this American is really odd, especially when the paint is in that condition. Someone had to remove all the decals and screening, the only other explanation is a repaint.




I'm still working on the bike, but I'm now convinced that the paint is original. A deeper scratch reveals only one layer of paint, so if it was repainted, they took the entire bike down to bare metal. No drips, orange peeI or uneven color. Nice job if it was redone! Oh, and the white on top of the chain guard was bird poop...or something. I'll just deal with it if it was redone, but I won't be happy.
I still need to remove the fork to see if that will help in seeing if the paint is different on the post. Crazy that someone would take the time and make that sort of effort to remove all of the Schwinn markings should the paint prove to be original.


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## HARPO (May 3, 2016)

Here's a screen shot I took from the 1964 Schwinn Catalog. Apparently there was supposed to be a headlight that came with the bike.


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## HARPO (May 3, 2016)

RE-PAINT CONFIRMED. Damn. I guess I was hoping against hope, but once the fork was removed it was confirmed. Although full of tan grease, as soon as I wiped it away you could see the gentle overspray. A very, very nice job...but still a repaint. And I see that whoever did it didn't put back the chrome fork crown. Well, all the signs were there that it wasn't original...ESPECIALLY the missing decals which I hoped were rubbed off years ago.

As you can see, though, the front and rear racks cleaned up without much muscle being used...and I still need to do a finishing detail on them. Both are straight as an arrow, so either I keep them for a future project or I begin to part the bike out. Still to early to decide as I just took it apart less than an hour ago.

fred


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## HARPO (May 3, 2016)

Another shot while being stripped down...


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## CrazyDave (May 5, 2016)

I'm working on a pink/white '62 model of the same animal (gotta get the GF lovin some Pre-war bikes instead of these darn things, but one step at a time...) Anyhow if your happy with the bike and the paint, why not call up Memory lane for some decals (cheap and great folks to deal with IMHE) and finish cleaning her up! It looks like she cleaned up real nice and they do make good lookin rides for a lady! Just my 2 cents man..


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## Ridge Rider (May 5, 2016)

Upon a close look at all of your photos, I am not convinced that this bike has been repainted . I see the difference you are talking about on the fork, but the color looks to be the same and this  is a very difficult paint to match. 
I do see the correct color red primer at the dropouts and on one spot on the front fork. There is also a tell tale of rust at the electro-forge welds on the bottom bracket which I have seen only on original paint bikes. That said, I am looking at photos, not a 3 dimensional object. Take some polishing compound like Maguires #2 to a small portion of the frame and then hold it next to the  steering tube of the fork and compare the color.
I believe that some elbow grease with the right compound and a fresh set of  decals  will do this frame wonders.
The tank will need to be stripped and sprayed. But that is an easy task since it is white paint.
My 2 cents 
Dave


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## HARPO (May 6, 2016)

CrazyDave and RidgeRider ...Upon even closer inspection, you can see on the fork in the attached photo where there's a chip that's been covered up with paint. You can't have a chip like that without paint missing. Also, the back of the chain guard has blue overspray and the screw head has blue paint on it. And, last but not least, the head badge was never removed when this person painted it. There's a slight rim of blue paint on it where it wasn't masked off properly. 
It was a nice paint job, and even as jeff54 saw, the white paint on the tank was sloppy at the edges. So, do I go the decal route after polishing it all up? Or, do I part her out. Decisions, decisions.
Also attached is a photo of a 1957 Schwinn girls Corvette I had gotten from the original owner. I did my usual polishing/detailing on it and it came out almost like new. Not bad,


 

 

 considering it's 100% original!


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## Jeff54 (May 6, 2016)

HARPO said:


> RE-PAINT CONFIRMED. Damn. I guess I was hoping against hope, but once the fork was removed it was confirmed.



That grayish appearance must be the metal flake. Whereas, it's a Flamboyant or Opalescence color; primed, silvered and coated with transparent blue, moreover, a blue tinted clear coat over a silver colored metallic that wrinkles. .

Something I didn't know in the 60'/70s albeit, I complained to the Schwinn shop's sales guy about how their paints and touch-ups never match, back then:  Cant get that in a rattle unless you use two cans.


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## HARPO (May 6, 2016)

Still, the blue overspray on the chain guard and screw, along with bad masking on the head badge is, proof.


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## Jeff54 (May 6, 2016)

HARPO said:


> Still, the blue overspray on the chain guard and screw, along with bad masking on the head badge is, proof.



Well, no because, The point I'm trying to make is: The metallic in the over coat is on the surface. The over-sprays are incidental compared to Schwinn's semi-candied paint. There's no depth in the over sprayed paint.. So, with just that to consider, Just one look, 'in-person' is all ya need. [wink]

And even in your camera, it's the metal flake in it that made me wonder. 







> that color does not 'feel' right. It's like there's a tad more gray in that blue then what I expect.




Schwinn was  doing this on the Chicago bikes in the 1980's too. From about 1954 and apparently, up too, depending whether  Murray did it too, up too 1983 +.


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## HARPO (May 6, 2016)

I might just bite the bullet and finish a de-rusting on all the chrome. Then, I'll do a compound and polishing on the paint to bring some life to it. I want to see about getting the head badge off next and see what's under there. I'm sure it's nice and shiny and a brighter, richer blue...like at the top of the tube on the fork.


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## HARPO (May 6, 2016)

I just went to take off the head badge, but the screws are really in there. But what I did see was some paint lightly scraped off the head tube...with the nice, glossy blue beneath it. I took a finger nail and started scraping more off, so that's it for me. I'm going to strip the bike and keep the parts for other Schwinn projects I have. 
The wheels will clean up nicely also, so I basically have everything I need to do up a boys bike of the same vintage. Or, a girls bike with original paint in nice condition. Like this 1960 Schwinn Debutante I have. The front and rear carriers would look great on this, along with the proper grips from the American.


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## HARPO (May 6, 2016)

HOLY CRAP! Look what I forgot I have tucked away!!
This is what happens when you own to many bikes. It's a *1962* Schwinn American Deluxe in blue!!! I boxed it up after taking it apart last year. I just started looking through some photos and found these. Well, project is back on...depending on how good the paint is. I now remember the head tube being pretty scraped up and missing the badge, but I'll see when I get to it.


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## Freqman1 (May 6, 2016)

A lot of middleweights for the balloon tire section?


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## HARPO (May 6, 2016)

Freqman1 said:


> A lot of middleweights for the balloon tire section?




Duh, You're right! I got carried away and didn't realize it. My mistake!!


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## CrazyDave (May 6, 2016)

HARPO said:


> Duh, You're right! I got carried away and didn't realize it. My mistake!!



Rock em fenderless and throw some 2.125's on em! lololol


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