1945 CWC Cycle Truck Rustoration

[10~18kustoms]

After years of looking for my pal Buddy's CWC Cycle Truck with no luck, I began looking for a CT with the idea of doing a clone restoration of his bike.

 

[10~18kustoms]

A friend found this very rusty CWC CT barn find that iwas missing a lot of original parts and had a lot of wrong parts installed on it. The CT had a motor installed at some point in the past but had long been removed. That was probably when the Shelby/Colsen parts were installed. After a while we made a trade and the CT was mine.

 

[10~18kustoms]

I knew it would need a long soak to break up some of the rust before it would come apart so I waited until it got warm to do so. First the rear half got a good soak. Then the front half next.

A lot of the rust loosened up and most of the major parts came off, but a few of the smaller screws like on the fenders had to be cut off. While it was soaking, I also used a small nylon brush to carefully scrub off the years of dirt, bird poop, & powdery rust.

 

[10~18kustoms]

As I was getting things broke down and cleaned up I noticed a couple of interesting things. First, I noticed while cleaning and rebuilding the wheel hubs, aside from how heavy duty the front is, was that the hubs were black out hubs. Hadn't given it much thought before because previous owner thought it was 1941 or 42. But when seeing the black out hubs I decided to check the serial number. Turns out it is D01459, which according to the chart I have makes it a war era early 1945.

 

[10~18kustoms]

Second interesting thing I noticed after getting the frame and fenders cleaned off was that some of the original pinstriping was still present. I'm not sure how this survived since there seemed to be literally NO other paint to be found on the bike anywhere else. A friend did suggest it could have been because the pinstriping paint was a lead based enamel which survived better than the frame and fender paint.

 

[10~18kustoms]

At this point, I was beginning to think it would be a shame to strip this bike and do a restore/clone as I had originally planned. And along with a few other technical issues with the frame and fork that would have required a lot of body work to smooth out before shiny paint would look good. I decided to switch to plan B and finish this as a Rustoration instead of a Restoration. So the rest of this thread will continue with that in mind.

 

[10~18kustoms]

By now I had also found a very small bit of Red or Maroon paint left in the inside of the crank area. This would also explain why a lot of the bike was looking more brownish now once I got most of the orangish powdery rustiness off since red/maroon usually fades to brown as UV destroys the red pigment. There were however a few patches of completely bare metal especially under where the motor had been mounted, and a spot on the front fender where it looks like a previous owner had tried to clean off some of the rust with steel wool or other stripper. So I mixed up a batch of "make rust fast" solution and sprayed it on the bare areas. We will see what happens?

 

[catfish]

Nice work

 

[OldSkipTooth]

I like the direction.

 

[10~18kustoms]

The next mystery on this bike was the head badge. When I got it, it didn't have one, and due to the rust and years of setting outside it didn't even have a head badge shadow for a clue. I assumed it needed a CWC Roadmaster badge as I had seen on most other Cycle Trucks. I had one in my stash so went to put it on, but quickly found out the head badge holes were spaced narrower. A quick post on the CABE and I got several replies and PMs from other more knowledgeable members, that it was probably Western Flyer badged. I found a WF badge with about the right patina, and yes it fit. Now, the mystery is? If this is an early 1945 war era Cycle Truck why was it badged WF, and why was it originally red? I would guess from both of these facts, that it was NOT built as a military bike even though it was early '45 D series pre end of war. I'm just guessing that cycle trucks were probably considered essential vehicle's and thus a small number were still available for sale to civilian businesses that needed them. Can anyone confirm, any of my assumptions?