1936 Wards hawthorne Silver King project.

[sandmangts]

I have always wanted one of these but they are hard to find at a decent price. This frame came to me when another MTBR forum member sent me a link to the craigslist ad and offered to go get the bike for me and send it to me and the price was very fair. I love polishing aluminum and I have gotten pretty good at it. I did a test polish on one fork leg and it came out like a mirror. Working the tight areas is going to be a pain and the fork has part of a stem stuck in the steerer so it may not be usable.

 

[seadog101]

Steerer problem

Any decent small engineering firm should be able to ream out the steerer for you at a not too expensive price.

1936 Aliuminium, wow must have cost a packet in it's day!

 

[Rio]

That's a beautiful frame! Hope you still love polishing alu after you finished this bike
Any ideas on the parts you are going to use?

 

[MCsanandreas]

wow,i like that a LOT!!

excuse my ignorance but what bottom bracket will go in there? bmx?

 

[sandmangts]

It uses a bmx style bottom bracket. There are adaptors available that will convert it to english but I doubt I will go that route. I intend to use the parts off my 41 Elgin and sell the Elgin frame. I can't justify having more than one beach cruiser.

Possible build spec:
Araya 7x rims polished to a mirror finish.
Morrow rear coaster hub with fresh chrome.
Polished Sachs front drum.
Brooks b-72 saddle.
re-chromed cranks and front skip tooth sprocket.

The original cost for this bike in 1936 was $77 dollars.

 

[otherself]

Looking forward to the evolution of this .

 

[MCsanandreas]

$77 in 1936? how much of a months wage would that have been? quite a lot i bet.
will be very interesting to see when done and out in the sun.

 

[sandmangts]

$77 in 1936? how much of a months wage would that have been? quite a lot i bet.
will be very interesting to see when done and out in the sun.

average yearly wage in 1936 was around $1700. A new house cost $4000. You could buy a Studebaker car for $665. Basically is was like spending $5000 for a bike today.

 

[Dr S]

Fantastic. I really want one of those too.

 

[BobCatMax]

who wouldn't??

really looking forward to seeing this one finished, and making me want a cruiser even more