I have seen Cleveland Welding bikes from that period with either New Departure or Morrow rear hubs so your rear hub could be original to the bike. The date stamp on the hub will date the hub and show if it is date-appropriate to the bike. Conversely the hub date may help pin down when the bike was assembled.
Are there any signs of original paint hiding under the black? I would expect a color with a second color for head darts, which is the standard CWC paint pattern for these bikes.
I have also noticed that bare CWC frames are among the heaviest; their fenders are also stamped from thicker steel than many of their contemporaries.
Over the years I have seen several of these frames turn up with the initial holder fenders. Catalog documentation is great but it is generally just a snapshot of what a company offered in total. Distributors where often looking for, and trying out arrangements with new suppliers to increase their options and profits. Some of these deals were smaller batches that never made the catalogs (A good example is the special curved tube Westfield Elgins which were produced in reasonably large numbers but never shown in the consumer catalogs).
My conjecture is that Firestone cut a deal with CWC for bikes in 1937 and asked for the special front fenders to align with this special feature used on the rest of their line. CWC obliged, the fenders are not generic, they are CWC stampings with the letter tray divot pressed into the front. At the time CWC was expanding their market and experimenting more broadly than in later years. CWC actually pressed some fenders specially for mounting defender taillights and hornlight bases at this time.
The ?B? serial number generally equates with 1937, a small number would be early in the year and a large number would probably be late summer 1937, I believe the C series bike production started before the end of 1937.
I?ll go a bit further in conjecture and say that if the serial number is low it probably means that CWC approached Firestone early in 1937 and offered to build bikes with fenders to their pattern. If the serial number is high it might mean that Firestone was able to get a good deal on overstocked frames and special fenders as CWC moved on to the next version of the frame with the more widely spaced top tubes and an optional tank.
Either way (or whatever actually happened) enough of these bikes have appeared that I have no doubt that CWC did manufacture these bikes for Firestone. It also appears that the contract was short lived and perhaps limited to this one model. (Any girl?s variants out there?)
Phil
