prototype Jaguar

[mrg]

Special order, I found my OG 1980 Flamboyant Lime green Cruiser after seeing them special order in a Schwinn catalog and a few others greens and whites have showed up and look at the black StingRays so you never know!

 

[Pantmaker]

That bike isn't alone. My opalescent red Jaguar also shows gold where the color coat has aged.

 

[Jim sciano]

Yeah but didn’t other bikes that were painted opalescent red also tend to fade to gold? I just figured it was from the opalescent color fading and not that the red was painted over gold. Who knows, maybe we’re on to something.

 

[mrg]

Schwinn used silver or gold undercoat for different shades of red. gold undercoat made for a darker red.

 

[GTs58]

In the October 53 Schwinn Reporter informing the dealers that the new Jag was ready for delivery, it said colors: All Schwinn Opalescent and Black.
I believe the Opals were first used on the earlier lightweights which included the Violet Opal. Gold was the original base coat but for some reason there was a product problem with the Red candy. This red fade out issue was also very common with the early 60's Flamboyant Red. I have not seen an Opal middleweight with the gold base coat, yet. Only other model that I've seen with the gold base under the red is the Phantoms. Here's a 58 Phantom that stingrayjoe has for sale.

 

[GTs58]

Special order, I found my OG 1980 Flamboyant Lime green Cruiser after seeing them special order in a Schwinn catalog and a few others greens and whites have showed up and look at the black StingRays so you never know!

I've read that it wasn't uncommon for Schwinn to produce certain models with non standard colors or parts if there was an order from a high volume dealer and the quantity ordered met the minimum Schwinn required for these special runs. I wonder how many of those Lime Cruisers were made, I've only seen a handful with most of them being in California.

 

[GTs58]

That bike isn't alone. My opalescent red Jaguar also shows gold where the color coat has aged.
View attachment 996502

Is this beauty for sale? By chance, have you pulled the fork out to take a look at the hidden paint?

 

[Pantmaker]

Is this beauty for sale? By chance, have you pulled the fork out to take a look at the hidden paint?

This ballooner Jag is still sitting in a corner of my garage with the same dust on it that it carried when I found it..."unmolested" as you call it. When the time comes, you are one of very few people on this earth to whom I would sell this beautiful beast. Peace.

 

[Jim sciano]

So, I recently purchased a late aug. of 54 balloon jaguar because it looked mostly original, don’t come up for sale often and for being a red model, I didn’t see much paint fade. So, I had to have it because I didn’t want my early jaguar to be lonely. Since it’s not a early model, it only has the one mount on the rear. Not a big deal. We already knew the early ones (prototypes) seem to be modified phantom frames. I just tore the bike down to start refurbishing everything. What I noticed is, the primer under the paint on this bike is the typical schwinn brown primer. I don’t see any traces of a silver or gold base coat like the faded red jags out there. I wonder if they did change things up with the paint for whatever reason. I think it’s still the opal red but I wonder if anyone has noticed any other late 54 or 55 jags that faded to the copper color? Or, could I possibly have another odd duck? Sorry, just thought I would try to make things a little more confusing for these mystery jags.

 

[Freqman1]

Why did you have to go and open this can of worms again? The reason you see no gold is because your paint has not oxidized. Despite the best arguments there was no gold base coat. When the red oxidizes it turns gold leaving some to believe there was a gold base coat. Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, pots 'o gold at the end of the rainbow--you can believe in anything you want I suppose. V/r Shawn