# Elgin or Huffman.... what?



## jd56 (May 23, 2014)

I had posted this bike a while back requesting some info as to what it was.
Clearly it has the Elgin chainring. I will post the serial shortly.

It has been house painted and may just strip to bare metal.  But before I go that route, any idea what Elgin this is? 
It had a brass Western Flyer headbadge (removed).

Thx
JD


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## jd56 (May 23, 2014)

Here is the bike before some dismantled. It was red before the house paint job.

Again I assume it is an Elgin based on the chainring. 

But, this was used at the Ford plant and very well could be a frankenbike of assorted parts. I do know that the rear hub is not a 1" pitched skiptooth.

These factory plants utility dept bikes were often built from whatever was available at their disposal.


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## jpromo (May 23, 2014)

Just an Elgin/Higgins chainring. Pretty sure the frameset is Huffman, 40-42ish.


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## rustjunkie (May 23, 2014)

My guess is the chainring is not orig to bike. Frame looks Dayton to me.


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## jd56 (May 23, 2014)

The "H" prefix gave me the idea it was a Huffman.

Not thinking Higgins though.
I think the Murray rings all were more slotted, even the prewar ones.....right?

1940-42 is cool though. 

Started a little stripping this morning and had to use easyoff to really get it started.
Then some heavyduty goof off.

What a shame as this dark red is a color I like. Some of the pinstripes is still there.

3 layers of house paint on top of the OG paint....blue on top of puke green on top of silver. Lots of OG paint was lost and a good chance why it was painted silver.

Would love to see what this looked like before it's color changes.










Pinstripes


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## jpromo (May 23, 2014)

Definitely a Huffman scheme. They did a color combo of red/burgundy that looked smashing together. What looks like bare metal may just be oxidized burgundy. It's hard to tell in the pictures though. Keep going! It's looking like a real bike again. I have a Huffman chainring for you if it comes out decent.

The Sears chainring that's on it should be a late prewar/early postwar ladies one with the single slot like that.


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## jd56 (May 23, 2014)

Unfortunately there is paint loss on the rear dropouts and rear of the frame. Probably why it was painted again and again and again.....who does that anyway?

Sent you a pm jp on the chainring.
Thanks for the investigative work guys.
It will be interesting once all the opinions are posted.


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## jd56 (May 23, 2014)

I was told to look at the rear of the fork for a stamping......walaa...There it was
"H-6".
Now, what does this mean?
Huffman 1936 or 46?


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## jpromo (May 23, 2014)

It could be '46.. many manufacturers were almost indistinguishable between late prewar and early postwar. You'd need a Huffman guy though, which I am most certainly not.


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## jd56 (May 23, 2014)

Goldengreek thinks the letter indicates the month.

Where and who are the huffman guys?

Please chime in.


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## 41OLDSTEED (May 23, 2014)

*Early Postwar*

I'm not the expert but Frame is most likely a 46 Huffman...I Have 2-Prewar Huffys and the seat clamp is the most notable difference...Although the WF Badge is a Prewar style it might have been changed as was the Crank-chainring...


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## jpromo (May 23, 2014)

41OLDSTEED said:


> I'm not the expert but Frame is most likely a 46 Huffman...I Have 2-Prewar Huffys and the seat clamp is the most notable difference...Although the WF Badge is a Prewar style it might have been changed as was the Crank-chainring...




Yes! I remember now. The prewar bikes had a cinch that was integrated into the seat tube, while postwar had a separate clamp that was brazed or tacked in place. I've seen this WF badge on a couple early postwar bikes. I imagine they used up stockpiles before releasing a new style.


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## jd56 (May 24, 2014)

*Seat tube clamp*

The seat tube clamp is  braised. 










I am curious about this fork stamping prefix though.
Not the typical series of numbers (month and year, as was discussed in 37fleetwood's early Huffman-Dayton-Champion....  thread) 
http://thecabe.com/vbulletin/showth...ion-Mainliner-Owners-Thread&highlight=huffman

The prefix may be an "H" or an "R" or something totally different. Or just a poorly registered stamping.

And Jason, you may be right on the oxidized maroon color....hoping so anyway. 
More cleanup today and more pics posted later. I'm excited to see what I can save.....fingers hurt already thinking about it....lol


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## jd56 (May 24, 2014)

Did some stripping on the fenders....oh what a shame. ...I went to heavy on the stripper. 
Unless it was already worn this bad before it got a blue and green repaint.


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## jd56 (May 29, 2014)

About done with the stripping on these


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## 37fleetwood (May 29, 2014)

at least 2 things make this a 1946 bike. first the seat clamp is postwar, but the serial is the prewar type which which combined make it a 1946. in 1947 they changed the serial system, and before the war the seat clamp was different. the other thing is the fork numbers. Huffman used a month year combo, so that's not an H, it's probably an 11, so November 46?
Huffman had some really odd but neat color combos, very cool find!


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## jd56 (Jan 3, 2016)

It's all about the Rescue / Revival and of course the Tanklights!!

How did I run out of room so fast?

my FB page
https://m.facebook.com/antiquebikerescue


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