years ago a photographer from Palm Springs contacted me regarding the restoration of 3 bikes.
I agreed to see what he had in mind....
To my shock and dismay, he brought over 3 Schwinn ladies deluxe ballooners...
a Green Panther, a Blue Panther, and a Starlet.
ALL THREE BIKES were about condition 8-9 on a 10 scale.
They were unbelievably killer originals.
I explained the futility of his idea and how they should be left alone...
but he insisted on going all the way with all three bikes..
As in .....full on every nut and bolt restoration.
He used them as props in his photography business and I guess they had to be 'nice'.
They were in such nice original condition I doubt the camera could even differentiate
between the originals and the restored results.
I went ahead and did the work after trying to talk him out of it.
Years later.....he must have tired with the bikes and I noticed he had listed on all three on Ebay for low opening bids of around 300-400 a bike. I wish he would have contacted me
I would have bought all three for what they sold for on eBay...maybe even paid more.
NO details in the auction write up description whatsoever.... piss poor pix.....
Unreal.
He spent around 2K per bike doing EVERYTHING as in 100% restorations...
and made absolutely no note of that in his descriptions.
A local collector here won one of them and was blown away with the deal he got as they all sold for not much
more than the opening bid.
wowsers