What do I have? Pre war? Noob needs help

[CaptBrent]

Back seeing the advice of those who know. FrankenSpit has a very old and poorly done red paint job. I removed part of it with stripper and there's a faded red enamel with thin white pin stripes under i (see pic). That looks original, as there's only metal below that. That doesn't jibe with the paint scheme I've seen for that year on Spitfires. Thoughts?

 

[GTs58]

I know of -0- Schwinns having pin stripes in that fashion. The later Tornado middleweight had three pins per tube. I'd have to say someone did those pins after a previous repaint.

1957 Tornado middleweight

 

[CaptBrent]

That chain guard looks like mine. But the stripes are different. And the paint/stripes I see below the bad repaint look original. Wonder if what I have is a Tornado? Could the serial number lookup have been wrong?

 

[vincev]

Have fun and be creative.Enjoy the ride.

 

[CaptBrent]

All right, I'm having some fun with the old girl. Completely disassembled, readying for paint. Will be a Spitfire frame job with a pre war fender paint job. Celebrate the differences, I say. Surprised to find the chrome cleans up well. Learned the chain ring is a CWC (Cleveland Welding Corp) 26t Paisley. CWC made bikes back in the day too.

One last piece of the puzzle. The space between the head badge mounting holes on a standard Schwinn badge looks like 2 9/16", while the space on FrankenSpit is 3 1/4"". Anyone have a theory or knowledge here? Pictures below.

 

[coasterbrakejunkie1969]

All right, I'm having some fun with the old girl. Completely disassembled, readying for paint. Will be a Spitfire frame job with a pre war fender paint job. Celebrate the differences, I say. Surprised to find the chrome cleans up well. Learned the chain ring is a CWC (Cleveland Welding Corp) 26t Paisley. CWC made bikes back in the day too.

One last piece of the puzzle. The space between the head badge mounting holes on a standard Schwinn badge looks like 2 9/16", while the space on FrankenSpit is 3 1/4"". Anyone have a theory or knowledge here? Pictures below.

View attachment 1611592

View attachment 1611617

View attachment 1611618

The older badges were larger pre '60 I believe.

 

[CaptBrent]

Looks like I need one. Anyone have one, lemme know. And anyone wants that red badge, same thing

 

[WillWork4Parts]

Schwinn's tall badge...I think it's easier to spot them by their fatter font. https://www.ebay.com/itm/333129846693?campid=5335809022
They made a few distinct versions for that hole pattern. Unfortunately I don't have any to go with red bike.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313962579979?campid=5335809022

https://www.ebay.com/itm/384251257706?campid=5335809022

 

[CaptBrent]

Well, I knew was going to learn a lot when I adopted this bike! Thanks for the info. That red badge looks like the ticket, thanks for the link