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1943 Huffman military bike?

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Neat old military bike with a long family history. If the orig paint under yellow brush stuff is impossible to revive..
and you are willing to invest in restoring the bike to former glory, there is nothing wrong with that approach...you're
golden with most of the bike intact.
Original unrestored NICE examples have earned the most respect in the collector realm... that being said...
this would be an ideal candidate for restoration as original and the value would jump considerably tho you
will most likely spend more doing it right than end value is worth.
Restored bikes have taken a hit in popularity recently for 2 main reasons..
A large % of restored bikes are poorly executed hack jobs
and many new collectors are unwilling to spend the $ to do quality work...
end up being happy with shabby original bikes that should have been restored.
And there is a long list of bicycles that aren't worth restoring period.

If money is not an issue... do some research...there are extremely well qualified restorers
around the country and even here on the CABE who are willing to ship across country.
Pretty simple to pack a bike like yours for shipping anywhere.

Whatever you do ...make sure it suits the sentimental value you have for the machine!

Good luck!
 
Sent you a pm. I doubt you want to sell it, but I'm in eastern PA and would love this one in my collection:) Just don't paint it red!! lol.
 
Awesome piece of history. Don’t touch it. The original military bikes are so much more valuable if left alone. Take the time to clean it not to change a thing. And!! Leave the yellow paint on it. Although I can’t be 100% it looks to be the same paint they was used on the vietnam era flight line vehicles. Here is a military Columbia bike that I have. Came out of Tinker AFB. Made during WWII used thru 1971 with the Military airlift squadron. Still has the inventory tag on it.
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This reminded me of an old Army quote, “If it moves, salute it, if it doesn’t, paint it”. Good luck with it, however you go.
 
This reminded me of an old Army quote, “If it moves, salute it, if it doesn’t, paint it”. Good luck with it, however you go.
I haven't ruled out not painting it...but your yellow looks in much better shape than mine. What condition was your bike in before you cleaned it up? This bike is peeling and rusting everywhere. I can appreciate the yellow hisorically and even more for my personal memories but I'm struggling with the whole cleaning it up process. There is a lot of rust.
 
It seems that a lot of the military bikes were sold off as surplus after the war. It also seems that when these bikes were prepped for sale they were painted red, yellow and maybe some other colors. My bike was completely painted over with red and silver. I have seen others in the same red. I'm assuming that some bases painted their bikes red, while others, yellow...I am still working on my bike, this is a preliminary photo, I have left some of the red paint on to give it the wounded warrior look and to preserve part of its story.

dayton-1.jpg
 
It seems that a lot of the military bikes were sold off as surplus after the war. It also seems that when these bikes were prepped for sale they were painted red, yellow and maybe some other colors. My bike was completely painted over with red and silver. I have seen others in the same red. I'm assuming that some bases painted their bikes red, while others, yellow...I am still working on my bike, this is a preliminary photo, I have left some of the red paint on to give it the wounded warrior look and to preserve part of its story.

View attachment 951296
Very cool!! I love the "warrior" look!
 
You might get a different crowd of opinions if you post this in the military forums on here. Some very knowledgable people in there with these bikes.

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