Let’s see some late 70’s/early 80’s Cruisers and Spitfires

[Mondo]

I picked up this deluxe cruiser this weekend. The tires are shot, the seat needs recover, but the paint and chrome should clean up quite well and it looks mostly original. The guy I bought it from said it was an 80. I don’t know that this is a keeper for me, but it’ll be fun to clean up and cruise for a while.
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Nice find. I picked up a Ladies 1980 last year and the seat needs to be redone as well. I’d like to know how the seat recover goes.

 

[hm.]

Is that a 78 model?

Some parts from 77 and 78 on a 79 frame with earlier year S-7 rims.
Had all this stuff scattered about so went ahead and made a complete bike.

 

[TurtleDove]

View attachment 747698 my 79 SPITFIRE

Beautiful bike, that is the final product I am trying to recreate, or find for sale.

 

[TurtleDove]

I'm sure there's literature out there to support this but I have personally seen girls factory 5's with big collections and single bikes, the frames on OG's are factory spread wider not just stretched, a friend that started one of the biggest collection way before any trends, he kept the best ( 9++ ) 35-40 bikes some never ridden, going thru about 200 over the years keeping best, including a few of the best og girls and sold a few. there is a couple of Cabers here that have them if they see this and post. It's kinda like people told me for years Schwinn didn't make factory emerald green, white & frost silver early 80's cruisers even tho I and others had then till they showed up in a Schwinn dealers catalog!, so anybody with dealer catalogs lets see. A couple of pics of part of the collection before it was split up but never thought about taking any of the girls bikes but might have some somewhere.View attachment 1160007
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Any Sky Blue Schwinn’s for sale?

 

[TurtleDove]

Any 1979 Schwinn Spitfire parts for sale? Need forks, handlebars, gooseneck, balloon tires/tubes, cranks, pedals, badges, reflectors, etc. Or, a ’79 spitfire for sale, preferably in Sky Blue? Thank you, and thank you for accepting me into thecabe.

 

[SoBayRon]

TurtleDove, it looks like you have most of two red ones and parts of a black already. Blue ones seem to be a bit more common, hope you find one for your color trifecta!

 

[Xlobsterman]

I just saw this one on Ebay this morning. This is very typical of the bikes from that era with the way they were customized.

 

[TurtleDove]

Gotcha. Okay, though I could probably only use the handlebars, gooseneck, and saddle. With that said, my next big question is: do Schwinner’s sand blast, powder coat, and apply Schwinn decals to make their bikes appear new, or do we adore our bikes with all their blemishes and just keep them shinny? Because, I’m debating to take one of my ‘reds’ and have it sandblasted and powder coated to the ‘sky blue’ I want so badly and add-on the decals. Again, thank you for your time and your answers.

 

[sarmisluters]

Gotcha. Okay, though I could probably only use the handlebars, gooseneck, and saddle. With that said, my next big question is: do Schwinner’s sand blast, powder coat, and apply Schwinn decals to make their bikes appear new, or do we adore our bikes with all their blemishes and just keep them shinny? Because, I’m debating to take one of my ‘reds’ and have it sandblasted and powder coated to the ‘sky blue’ I want so badly and add-on the decals. Again, thank you for your time and your answers.

Just find your blue Spitfire.

No, most Schwinn Spitfire or cruiser connoisseurs
would frown on powdercoating.
Any Spitfire with the top decal and chainguard as good as your red ones should be left alone.

What are the shop decals on your red bikes ?

 

[TurtleDove]

This is the disassembled red spitfire.