You can't go wrong with Torrington 8's. Were these identical in details for all the years they were produced, highly doubtful.
Highly doubtful indeed. There are many variations, and it doesn't seem to be as simple as prewar vs postwar. I've been watching for a while now and I can't make any sense out of it. Even Torrington's model numbers don't make any sense.
I have seen Schwinn Bottlecaps, Meteor 3, Torrington ?. Does anybody out there know what was correct?
If you wind up having to guess, I'd skip the Meteors and anything else that is swaged together so you can't service it. Torrington 8s and most other main line Torringtons are rebuildable and have high quality spindles that don't bend easy. That's why they are so popular.