1953 Schwinn Panther mild custom

[indiana dave]

Found this at an antique shop in town, and they had it outside as yard art.
I said "That's way too cool for yard art" and offered her some cash, and an old womens bike I had in trade.
Obviously missing some parts, but I have a chain guard and a rear rack, and I'm not too worried about fenders.
The guard was spray painted blue, and the rack has been sandblasted. Will have to figure out how to paint them, and do a faux patina to match the bike...
May search down a tank eventually.
I plan on doing a mild custom.
Redwall tires, red and black seat, and red torpedo style grips

As found, it had Stingray bars on it... Bonus...
I did notice it has a badly re-welded frame under the seatpost.... Bummer. May reweld, and touch up that area.
I used WD-40 and a mild scrubbing pad to clean and de-rust the painted frame and parts.
Swapped some more correct bars onto it.
I've taken the wheels apart, and will clean, polish and regrease them, and replace a few broken spokes.
Will also clean and repack all of the other bearings.
I think it's going to look pretty cool.

 

[mike j]

Nice save, great bones. I believe those old Schwinn straight bars started the California beach klunker movement, way back when. Have fun w/ it.

 

[HIGGINSFOREVER]

Nice yard art real bonus with the locking springer

 

[the tinker]

It still has the remains of the 1950's safety decal on it. That bike was in perfect shape when it was awarded that decal.
My original phantom had a couple broken braces and a truss rod had a tiny crack in it. I was told not to ride the bike to school and got no decal. how times have changed. Memory Lane I think still has that same decal that was on your bike in stock . That braze job can easily be smoothed out. Have fun.

 

[schwinnguy]

Skip tooth, springer fork an plenty of original paint is a great save!! Good thing she didn't spray it krylon purple and load it up with flowers or something.

 

[indiana dave]

Yup. She didn't spray paint it, and I saved it before it was out in the weather very long.

 

[Shawn Michael]

Great save and trade there. You can' go wrong there, and old girls bikes make better garden art too.