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1945 20" Schwinn DX?

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prewarmachine

Wore out three sets of tires already!
I was looking at this little guy and was mostly intrigued by the chrome dropcenter wheels it has. Spray bombed black of course. Was reading that H serial with 5 digits is an indicator of maybe a 1945/6. Kickstand angle and strange braze/electro welds behind the crank sound like 45' ish.
Curious if anyone knows when the 20" DX started? And if this might be a 45'?

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I was looking at this little guy and was mostly intrigued by the chrome dropcenter wheels it has. Spray bombed black of course. Was reading that H serial with 5 digits is an indicator of maybe a 1945/6. Kickstand angle and strange braze/electro welds behind the crank sound like 45' ish.
Curious if anyone knows when the 20" DX started? And if this might be a 45'?

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Is that black original paint under the red?? If so a 20” black and red paint scheme on a 20” ballooner would be super cool! And to see an original example of it!
 
Unfortunately, it looks like it has another layer of red under the black. A black with red accent would be really cool on one of these though!

From what I can see in the paint layers is that was originally black and the red underneath the black looks like the red oxide primer. The prewar frames do not have primer and I'm not sure when Schwinn actually started doing the primer dip. I doubt that's a real early frame, but it has some of the telltale features. I believe the prewar serial numbers were repeated later postwar and that H stamping has the later thin font. Check out Just Jeff's thread on redoing his 1945 DX. No primer found when stripping his frame.

 
So, if it has the primer than probably leaning more toward a 1951 when a low H serial number was being used?
On the serial # reference on here under the crank doesn't get up to H6XXXXX, but low numbers would be H06. I guess knowing if that is red paint or primer would be a big key to this one.
 
So, if it has the primer than probably leaning more toward a 1951 when a low H serial number was being used?
On the serial # reference on here under the crank doesn't get up to H6XXXXX, but low numbers would be H06. I guess knowing if that is red paint or primer would be a big key to this one.
I’d hit that with some oven cleaner and see if you can unveil the original paint scheme! Even if it’s in crap shape it would be cool to see if that truly is red and black two tone!
 
So, if it has the primer than probably leaning more toward a 1951 when a low H serial number was being used?
On the serial # reference on here under the crank doesn't get up to H6XXXXX, but low numbers would be H06. I guess knowing if that is red paint or primer would be a big key to this one.

The primer would help with the dating if we knew when that actually happened. The rear dropout gauge will also help. The drop center rims are possibly still being used in 1948 on these little guys so that detail is of no help. Schwinn repeated the serial numbers multiple times and the H series I believe is one of them but going from 5 to 6 numerals when it was repeated. That's still an early postwar piece. Maybe @bobcycles can shed some light on the time period when the frames showed up with primer.
 
I had to dig this one out for comparison...verdict is still out whether that's an E or F, but the lower line looks more off kilter, so I'm leaning towards 1949. Definitely a ballooner and definitely primer under the original green.
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I wonder what kind of jig they used to hold the stand housing in place while brazing. They definitely couldn't just set them willy nilly. I find it odd that the one in the original post is touching the bottom bracket. Possibly brazed on there too?
 
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