When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

1955 American paint / primer ?

-
The neck of the fork, hidden from the sun for the life of the bike, is your clue to the original color.

That's not always possible. Check out the picture of my fork above. 😉 Red oxide primer, no aluminum base and then sealed with a shot of the candy red over the primer.
 
Cool! That's the earliest Candy Red Opalescent I've seen! And someone paid a $0.65 premium for that optional disappearing red paint job. The Candy Opals were first used on the lightweights and then the 1954 Jaguars were introduced with Opalescent colors including this Red. There were two types of so called Opalescent colors that Schwinn used and the first from what I know about currently is the early post war Continentals. That early Opal paint was not a translucent paint over the silver base but more of a fine metallic paint. Judging by this example you posted Schwinn began the paint change earlier than 1953 which was when I thought the change came about. Jim's Jag appears to be painted in the "early" Opalescent Red paint and I've seen only one other like it. Schwinn did not paint the Steerer Tubes with the silver base in the 50's, the forks were dipped in primer and then only the translucent paint was shot over the primer on the steerer tubes. See my fork picture above. The Opalescent paint chemistry changed for the 1956 model year so 1955 was the last year for this quick fade Red translucent paint.
So on your fork, I don't see any silver base coat on the fork steering tube even where it's scratched, but isn't that what's showing on the rest below the bearing cup? Did they apply the base coat only on the lower part of the fork?
 
Last edited:
So on your fork, I don't see any silver base coat on the fork steering tube even where it's scratched, but isn't that what's showing on the rest below the bearing cup? Did they apply the base coat only on the lower part of the fork?

Yes, silver base from the crown down. I'm thinking they set the forks steer tube in something with a hole just to shoot the silver base. I'll see if I can find the pics of my other Opal fork's. They did run the silver base on the steer tubes in the 60's and for sure in 1959.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top