Balooney
Look Ma, No Hands!
Just picked this one up a while back. The numbers say it is a 1948 Murray build. It has a Hiawatha badge and this creates some questions for me. I have never seen a Hiawatha with this format. Everything about the bike says Mercury. It is the exact bike that is shown in the 1949 Mercury brochure. It was missing the tank so I added one from a Higgins. I am not a fan of rust, scratches, dents or bad paint so I plan to repaint and re-script but I am not sure what to make it? I am very much tempted to re-badge it to Mercury. I can only assume that someone at some time added/swapped parts etc? I probably will not repaint to exact specs so true originality won't be a factor for me. I know it still has a few incorrect parts such as the seat, front light and 1 wheel. What would you do???