Okay-Thanks Guys. "Love the Bluebird, by the way..." I see the difference in the blue color. My Blue is more a Cobalt- Purplish Blue. Not the same as the 20s Bluebird, I see that. I`m sorry that I cannot show you better," there is one color of paint on this frame." There is also a partial illegible decal on the seat tube that also is original, See Photos. Under it is blue paint. This bike was never red or black. There are scratches on this frame and anywhere there was red or black (or ivory) underneath would stick out like sore thumb. I have had this Bike all to pieces. Color is baked on enamel - anything less would have scrubbed off by now, or at least started to.--- 0000 Steel Wool and WD...followed by some light compound. If this bike had been repainted ever- it would be several colors now-- but its not.
I understand that the tank was an add on but the blue is a perfect match. As I said in my previous post, I believe that someone (pretty smart) in one of the Stores maybe assembled this bike, because it was the lesser model and had not sold ( no ivory arrows on the frame or fork - no chrome fenders). This bike has the deliberately abbreviated spikes of ivory coming off of the headtube and single ivory pinstripes on the sides of the fork and on the length of the tank to match.This frame left the Westfield factory that way for sure--BLUE. The Cheap Blue Bikes could have been a test run by the company that we`ve never read about. They might have abandoned it but let a few slip out. It might have come down in a memo from upstairs to outfit these plain blue bikes with extra accessories to get rid of them. "Here, I`ll send You some Blue Tanks that match to help"... Who Knows? The light blue stripe on the tank (that I actually like better) was an ivory pinstripe that was almost completely removed during cleanup- leaving only a faint white translucent line over an undisturbed blue background. I think they made this bike off of their accessory shelf-- to help move it on down the road. It could have been one bike or one of several. It was just too plain to sell otherwise with all those Fancy Red or Black Deluxe Bikes around." I think they ended up with a good looking Bike. I would not misrepresent anything about a piece of Junk ever and it`s all junk." Color is baked on BLUE- COBALT BLUE. Nobody in the 1940s, 50s or 60s ,70s- whatever would have gone to the trouble of completely restoring this bike in Blue baked on enamel. It wasn`t worth anything then. Nobody wanted one. They wanted a Black Phantom or a Crazy Krate Bike.The wear on this bike is consistent with it being 80 plus years old. I have owned a lot of Vintage and Antique Bikes, toys, pedal cars and other and can tell original paint from repaint.
Under the Blue Paint is a factory red oxide primer (like Schwinns and others used) over the bare metal- but it is not Red Paint.
I bought this bike in the late 80s- it was rusty then. I hung it in the barn for about another thirty years. I bought it because I had never seen a Blue one.
It doesn`t really matter, It`s not gonna be sold and -I`m not trying to make a Bluebird out of a molehill. I`M GOING TO BED...
God Bless--Cowboy
Yes, I know I`m long winded. One more thing... Anything that didn`t go well for a major company like Elgin or Sears is not gonna be preserved for posterity. Let`s tell them about "all those blue bikes we couldn`t sell in `35". Ha, ha, ha.
