I received a note in response to Brian's commentary on "the Grandmas" who did the framebuilding on Paramounts during the 'boom years':
" Don Mainland, who was building Paramounts for Schwinn in the 70's under contract, [said] that the chrome frames were almost always made in his shop in Wisconsin because the brazing was cleaner, and the chrome frames reveal workmanship more than paint."
This individual found his 72 chrome Paramount to be quite well executed, something that I also find in relation to my all chrome 73. An interesting observation and one that I can not take further without some assistance from our resident Paramount experts.
It would seem that there is little middle ground here, with those that disdain Paramounts as second rate on one side and those who avidly collect them on the other side of this debate. One thing does appear to be coming to the fore is a lack of adequate information about how these frames were built. The information at the Waterford site does not cover the 'outsourcing' information I just received. And, while Richard Schwinn has been very helpful with providing information when I have called (the last time searching for data on my then-newly acquired 1959 frameset), his own involvement with Paramount post-dates this era.
Any more data of this sort out there?
Dave Novoselsky
Chicago Illinois