Chris showed up at our shop with a much ridden, quite cosmetically rough Schwinn Continental. He wanted it restored for sentimental reasons as it belonged to his brother who left this world at a young age. Before his passing, his brother used to ride the bicycle everywhere. It truly was a part of him. Chris shared his fond personal memories of his brother and the bicycle with us. For those reasons, he wanted to have the bicycle touched up and refreshed so that he could continue to preserve his brother’s memory with the bicycle. Noel ordered the Schwinn Air Dry Touch Up Enamel in the original Chestnut brown color. He also sourced original brown Schwinn plastic bar tape and a period-correct saddle which would have been original to the bicycle because the one on it wasn’t correct. Chris decided to go with all new cables, brake pads, new spokes, new tires, new crank and fork bearings, and a new chain. Once the restoration plan was agreed upon, Noel disassembled the bicycle and started the touch-up process. Noel was NOT happy with the appearance of the touch up at all. He contacted Chris to discuss it and told him that the touch up really wasn’t doing the project the true justice that it deserved. Chris understood and decided to have Noel work his magic with a full Schwinn Chestnut Brown paint job and NOS water slide decals. The bicycle came out beautiful! Chris brought his brother’s childhood friend who was very familiar with the bicycle and had ridden it many times to our shop for the restoration reveal. The friend rode a short maiden voyage on the bicycle. He was very impressed with the restoration. It was a very emotional moment! Right, when Chris and his friend began to leave our shop, the rear tire blew off the rim and it sounded like a gunshot! It startled all of us! Noel quickly remedied the issue and we all agreed that Chris’ brother was with us and that incident must have been his way of telling us he approved with a very loud thumbs up! It was such a humbling and gratifying experience. We are blessed to have been able to restore the bicycle that meant so much to Chris’ brother and to honor the touching memories that his family holds dear.