Hello from a Newbie

[TieDye]

Welcome!

 

[gkeep]

Parts were coated during the war years to conserve chrome for the war effort. Your bike clearly was built during those years. Fantastic find and a sweet piece of American history.

 

[szathmarig]

Lots of repo tanks available for this model on Ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/COLUMBIA-B...:VQgAAOSwaRRcdeuq:sc:USPSPriority!20783!US!-1

 

[Mercian]

Look for another stamping above the long serial #. It should be one letter and one to two numbers.

J73437 is around mid 1945. Just slightly earlier than this (March 45?) they stopped stamping the one letter and one to two numbers dating system. This bike probably doesn't have it, but I would be pleasently surprised (and eager to know what it is) if it does. It would probably use the letter N.

Best Regards,

Adrian