1936 Wards hawthorne Silver King project.

sandmangts

Senior Retro Guru
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.

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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!
 
That's a beautiful frame! Hope you still love polishing alu after you finished this bike :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:
Any ideas on the parts you are going to use?
 
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.
 
$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.
 
MCsanandreas":24bac0zs said:
$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.
 
who wouldn't??

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