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1947 Huffman, redeux. Second chance at life.

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piercer_99

Cruisin' on my Bluebird
Ok, so if you are a purist, you probably just want to look at another bike. Just a public service announcement to save you some heartache.

This is kind of a klunker / strandie build. I call it my 1947 Huffman Texas Special.

I first saw this bike, sitting in front of an antique store, during a street fair, and I was sad at how bad it had been treated in it's life.

So, I went back a couple weeks later, negotiated the 200 dollar price down to 40, put it in the back of my truck and brought it home. Then looked at it and wondered what I was thinking.

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It had experienced a rough life, and everything was wrong, although, everything was rusted solid and not moving an inch. I knew it was a Huffman, pretty sure a 47' as the serial number revealed to me later. I had a very limited budget for this, so I did what I could, with what I had. I got a great deal on a Nirve cruiser, with a 3 speed Sturmey Archer coaster, good wheel set. I also had an old Texas Special badge laying in my top drawer of the tool box and figured, A. I am in Texas, and B. this is going to be special.

So the following photos are breaking it down, mocking it up. Finally breaking it down for paint, 2 coats each of primer, metallic dark copper and satin clear, and I finished it tonight, for the most part. It rides beautifully and I like it.

Here you go. It's not for everyone, but I really like it and as I said, it is a fun rider.

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09 mock up phase.jpg


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my bride was checking it out 2 nights ago, I was telling her I wanted to swap out the bars for a chrome set as the black were all scratched up.

She told me I needed to lose the girly looking grips also. :) :)

Anyway, I had a set of super sweep cruiser bars, I had bought for another bike, but didn't like them on it, they are a 33" span, side to side, really big, and they sweep back a bit more.

They are on it, as well as a nice NOS set of black Hunt Wilde grips. It looks better, and steers better now.

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Tarrant County Courthouse
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Sundance Square, Christmas tree.
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Bank of America Tower, Fort Worth
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So for some reason, like when I was a kid, while riding my shoelaces can get caught up in the chain wheel.

Anyway, because of that, I like chain guards, they are handy to keep clothes out of the chain as well as dirt and grease off of me.

I found this JC Higgins chainguard, which has no place on a Huffman, but it looks cool and it belongs on it now. The graphics are in decent shape, I blended the color of the bike into the chain guard and faded it out at the original graphics.

On the thought of the Higgins not belonging on the bike, the Monark chain wheel and the Columbia truss rods don't either, but oh vey.


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