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Prewar Western Flyer

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Thanks Jeff I read through that thread as well and I saw C 37 I was hoping for a D maybe 38 I have a G I don't think each letter means a year
https://vimeo.com/123894194
This is a knockout hub I have been told cool as can be.
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Pic reference of another Morrow I have

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Those hubs could be worth a good chunk of $$$.
Anyone looking for Morrow Eclipse hubs for a military bike would give good money for them.
JKent
 
Thanks Jeff I read through that thread as well and I saw C 37 I was hoping for a D maybe 38 I have a G I don't think each letter means a year

This is a knockout hub I have been told cool as can be.

Pic reference of another Morrow I have

The hub is free floating?/ concur, Whaaatt?? lol.. Ingenious! What's to stop that wheel from "free floating" into your danged rear bars, fenders and chain!.

And as far as C being 37,, that's the problem with that dang thread, it's a fricken hodgepodge of posts that don't fit into the checker board puzzle so well..

But that quote by the op, does make the most sense. More sense than most anything else inside there.

I had not completely understood it previously, in fact, as overall the whole is so confusing but..

It sets up the reason for the confusion for the letter reversion that makes it so tough.. You have to unite the letter and drop out to discern the correct letter to its date. .
because of CWC's early abandonment of the letter and 5 number set which begins to start a new date sequence, addition of the Cw stamp after the set, it gets more confusing!!..

But, that's what post war is missing.. take the end of 41 as a K, and new set as an A.. 42-A, 43-B, follow through until the Cw stamp appears,, 1948 or so?? and the following years CWC uses a Letter preceding the Cw stamp, ACw. BCw until 1951 CWC puts the year "51 Cw".

So, early war letter sets of A-1942, B-1943 are also deducible by the changes in the rear drop-out used, then the Cw stamp indicates a set change. You could take that backwards too, '51cw-1951, BCw=1950 ACw=1949 and Cw could or would =1948. A 1942, B 1942, C-1944, D-1945, E-1946, F-1947 and if there's extra letters issued mid year they could squeeze into the year span preceding the Cw stamp which you can get to by counting backwards from 51Cw. .

Following that logic, and because that whole thread is so mixed up,, counting the letters backward pre-war is a piece of cake.

Or lets just say, it's the dammed easiest way out of the reckless riddle. [grin]

And I'll add, CWC didn't always make it so simple on their bikes, try dating this CWC, Western Flyer pre-war BB. Only the rear dropout helps narrow it down to 39-41.
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What to do....

I'm actually looking at this bike trying to figure out what I want to do to it. What level of cleaning, polishing??
I have a crusty original bike that came to me for what it is. My Challenger came from a collection; a discard. I love it.
I have wanted as many Ohio Mfgrs as I could get in my budget, timing, and shed. CWC has been on my list; this one is pretty awesome the more I look at it.
I delivered 150 newspapers 2 mornings a week in Huntington Beach on any bike that would take it until I broke it. We could not afford a Schwinn, but I wanted 1 forever...until I started driving.
This bike would have been better than anything I ever owned to deliver papers on. So I'm stoked to get it.
Sometimes I think polishing all the lines and removing all the crust is like trying to restore my Mom. She's perfect with all her wrinkles and grey hair and "age" spots she call them. I would never take that away.
Its just a bike though seriously; I want to ride it. I probably won't have the patience to do much. I want to tear it apart and replace every bearing with new balls.
repack and Ride... and then see....
It won't be until I find a shop that has my bearings on hand. I have a few to choose from...

Alright, back to wrenching, tripple3, you're burnin' daylight here: we expect to see that bike on the road for tomorrow's What bike did you ride today? post.
;)
 
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I'm actually looking at this bike trying to figure out what I want to do to it. What level of cleaning, polishing??
I have a crusty original bike that came to me for what it is. My Challenger came from a collection; a discard. I love it.
I have wanted as many Ohio Mfgrs as I could get in my budget, timing, and shed. CWC has been on my list; this one is pretty awesome the more I look at it.
I delivered 150 newspapers 2 mornings a week in Huntington Beach on any bike that would take it until I broke it. We could not afford a Schwinn, but I wanted 1 forever...until I started driving.
This bike would have been better than anything I ever owned to deliver papers on. So I'm stoked to get it.
Sometimes I think polishing all the lines and removing all the crust is like trying to restore my Mom. She's perfect with all her wrinkles and grey hair and "age" spots she call them. I would never take that away.
Its just a bike though seriously; I want to ride it. I probably won't have the patience to do much. I want to tear it apart and replace every bearing with new balls.
repack and Ride... and then see....
It won't be until I find a shop that has my bearings on hand. I have a few to choose from...

There's quite a few touts about using this: oxalic acid. It's easy to buy and peps swear that it removes the rust and saves the paint and major bonus, your plating will be nickel, if you're not very carful it'll wipe right off. . I've never tired it but if I'd your bike, it would be 1st thing to conceder. wouldn't touch it with steal wool, Nor the paint with any abrasives, not even a plastic kitchen pot scrubber. no other rust eating agents, but something soft like olalic acid. Somebody has mentioned a new WD-40 rust removing product with great results, but might be more pricy.

There's many a bikes shown looking similar to yours with incredible results. so, hunting down a good safe rust remover that does not touch the paint or even worse, scratch that nickel, is a must do in my book. Then after, you can conceder your options for tossing news print.

You are likely to be very surprised once you uncover that rust to see that, there's very high odds the bulk of it is on top of the original paint. those pin- stripes may return, the white can be very flaky if you touch it too.

I can see the pitting on your paint, but it's more likely growth, organic rust: 'Iron Bacteria: These nuisance bacteria combine iron (or manganese) and oxygen to form deposits of "rust," bacterial cells' that have grown over the paint, verses under. In the case; those are not under mining pits but over growth piles piercing through tiny, tiny even microscopic holes in the paint and chrome/nickel plating that have grown over it all. . . .

If you can get that rust off without etching or scratching the paint and nickel you could see it return to close as possible to that burgundy red you see under the bottom bracket and at least a matte finish, nickel-silver verses spray painting the nickel. . . after that you can coat it with something to protect it further on.

It's what drew my attention to your bike, 'Iron Bacteria', a little x-ray vision, those rims look so nice, made me wonder how cool that bike would look if cleaned carefully. And I have a western flyer with that burgundy, it's nice but, in my case, I've been slowly trying to get the house paint off to reveal that color,, much harder task.
 
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I say service,wipe down & ride as-is, ala

I started the service tore apart the front hub went and bought all new bearings at a local bike shop that has been there since I was a kid. I found out that my serial number starting with G makes my bike 1940 thank you Jim from Jaf/co
It's a standard model Western Flyer with special ordered heavy duty Hubs and spokes how cool is that…
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parts list in the island Catalog give me the bearing sizes I need to get; thank you Scott rustjunkie. I am taking one step at a time and don't know when I will get to this next but probably as soon as I get a few hours again. I think I am the first one to get to tear it apart for many many years. the only thing the guy at the swap meet said was it has been hanging for a long time…

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I say service,wipe down & ride as-is, ala my '37 Merc & Scott's(well, it was his 'til recently) '36 Hawthorne


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I completely agree. I love the look of it. It's a great bike mark. As I've told mike this before, that old merc is still one of the coolest bikes I've seen on this site or anywhere else because of its look. In my eyes, it is a true work of art. Rob.
 
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1940 Western Flyer

I replaced all bearings with new, fresh grease, clean and 1 step wax for now. I found a part in the rear hub dated J4 1940 Oct-Dec
The rack was missing some screws so I left it off. I like the look better without it too.
The bike rides super solid with zero rattles. I have a set of Western Flyer pedals on their way to put a little personal touch to a great original bike.
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