Parts Bin Schwinn No. 1: Postwar Straight Bar

[Bike from the Dead]

In order to help me scratch that creative itch that my current Build Off entry can't quite reach, I want to throw together two custom Schwinns out of the parts I currently have in stock.

This is "Parts Bin Schwinn" No. 1: a 1952 Schwinn straight bar I got in a trade for another 1952 Schwinn straight bar. (I also got a 24 inch 5-speed Sears Spyder in the trade, but that's a bike for another day and another build thread.) What makes this particular Schwinn straight bar an ideal custom bike for me is that most of the original paint is either gone or painted over, and there aren't any other original parts included with the frame, making it a perfect "guilt-free canvas," as I like to call it. What that means is I can build and paint this bike the way I want without worrying about "ruining it," whether it's by my or someone else's standards.

The finer details of my plan for this bike right now are still a little loose, but overall I plan to throw most of the parts on this Schwinn that came from my previous Schwinn straight bar build: The Kasual Klunker. Funnily enough, Kasual Klunker is the bike I traded to get this one!

I still have the bare metal handlebars and rat trap springer fork, which I plan on using with this frame, though I'm not sure if I'm going for as much of a klunker-inspired design. I'll know for sure once I start mocking up parts.

 

[GTs58]

That stripped frame is probably a 1946-47, not a 1952. A 52's serial would be on the drop out.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

That stripped frame is probably a 1946-47, not a 1952. A 52's serial would be on the drop out.

You sure? I thought all the straight bars before 1950 had the same diameter tubing as the top, down and seat tube. This one's narrower like all the other post-1950 Schwinns I've messed with. Also, I checked a serial code sheet somewhere on here, and the serial number lined up with 1952, although according to another site, that number was used again in 1957.

 

[GTs58]

That serial number was also used in 1953. I have to go with where the serial number is stamped so an early post war frame. I’ve never heard it mentioned that Schwinn did not use a smaller straight bar prior to 1948.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

That serial number was also used in 1953. I have to go with where the serial number is stamped so an early post war frame. I’ve never heard it mentioned that Schwinn did not use a smaller straight bar prior to 1948.

Huh. Well, now I'm legitimately unsure what year this Schwinn is supposed to be.

 

[RustyHornet]

You sure? I thought all the straight bars before 1950 had the same diameter tubing as the top, down and seat tube. This one's narrower like all the other post-1950 Schwinns I've messed with. Also, I checked a serial code sheet somewhere on here, and the serial number lined up with 1952, although according to another site, that number was used again in 1957.

Looking at the pics of this frame and your other one you traded. The middle tube looks fatter on the bare frame. I always look at where the tube joins the seat tube and down tube. Crisp and clean on a small tube frame vs smoothed out transition on the larger tube frame.

 

[WillWork4Parts]

Yeah, that's a "fat tube" straight bar. Worth measuring to clear up any confusion. Top and center tube should measure 1" diameter.

 

[coasterbrakejunkie1969]

It is a fat bar

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Looking at the pics of this frame and your other one you traded. The middle tube looks fatter on the bare frame. I always look at where the tube joins the seat tube and down tube. Crisp and clean on a small tube frame vs smoothed out transition on the larger tube frame.

Yeah, that's a "fat tube" straight bar. Worth measuring to clear up any confusion. Top and center tube should measure 1" diameter.

It is a fat bar

You know, when I first saw that frame, I thought it was an earlier "fat bar" as well. I'd wanted one for a while now, since it'd make fitting a custom tank a little easier for me. I'll bust out my digital calipers and get some measurements so I know for sure, but there's one detail that @Wildcat on Rat Rod Bikes pointed out that might make it a later model frame closer to what I had guessed.

"It might be a 46 model with the "B" serial and 5 digits.

But I just noticed the scroll type trim on your frame, it's probably a 52 Hornet, as the other models from then didn't show that pattern in the catalog. Leader had that pattern but was a DX style frame. 52 Hornet:

47 began with C or D. There's no records before 1948 because of a fire, but the list before then has been worked on to verify how the numbers may have progressed. When production began after the War, H, I, and J numbers showed up, probably leftovers when production was stopped in 42, as H and I were used in 41 and into 42. "A" then started sometime after the war and they went back to an alphanumeric sequence and production took off.
They all used 5 numbers after a letter until late 1948 when they went to 6 numbers, then back to only 5 numbers in 51. My frame is K53332 and is a 53, but "B" was used with 5 numbers in 52 and 53. Schwinn switched the number from the BB to the dropout in the beginning of 52.
March of 52 or Oct of 53 looks like your bike's manufacture.
The old paint on the straight bar was the clue that makes me think it's a 52 or 53, instead of 46."

 

[GTs58]

You know, when I first saw that frame, I thought it was an earlier "fat bar" as well. I'd wanted one for a while now, since it'd make fitting a custom tank a little easier for me. I'll bust out my digital calipers and get some measurements so I know for sure, but there's one detail that @Wildcat on Rat Rod Bikes pointed out that might make it a later model frame closer to what I had guessed.

"It might be a 46 model with the "B" serial and 5 digits.
View attachment 1855838

But I just noticed the scroll type trim on your frame, it's probably a 52 Hornet, as the other models from then didn't show that pattern in the catalog. Leader had that pattern but was a DX style frame. 52 Hornet:
View attachment 1855839

47 began with C or D. There's no records before 1948 because of a fire, but the list before then has been worked on to verify how the numbers may have progressed. When production began after the War, H, I, and J numbers showed up, probably leftovers when production was stopped in 42, as H and I were used in 41 and into 42. "A" then started sometime after the war and they went back to an alphanumeric sequence and production took off.
They all used 5 numbers after a letter until late 1948 when they went to 6 numbers, then back to only 5 numbers in 51. My frame is K53332 and is a 53, but "B" was used with 5 numbers in 52 and 53. Schwinn switched the number from the BB to the dropout in the beginning of 52.
March of 52 or Oct of 53 looks like your bike's manufacture.
The old paint on the straight bar was the clue that makes me think it's a 52 or 53, instead of 46."

Some of what was said in your quotes above is not entirely correct. I have no doubt that frame is an early post war frame. Schwinn used the C and B serial numbers on the 1945 models also. I have yet to see an A early post war serial number. Both those paint schemes were used pre war and post war and no way will they identify a year on this post war frame. Looking at the chain stay welds at the crank shell on this one, I'm going to say that frame is a 1947 built frame.