Hi folks,
I'd like to share my latest find with you all. Hopefully you all like the pics. and some of you schwinn experts can give me some insight on a few things.

A few questions:

Which model year is this bike, my best guess is that this is a 1965 model? There are a couple things that confuse the identity. The serial number doesn't seem to coincide with what I would expect, as there is only one letter.

Using this resource:
THE SCHWINN DATE CODES BY YEAR,MONTH AND DAY

Another funny thing is that the front wheel appears to have Stainless spokes but the rear does not. According to the Schwinn catalog '65 model's should have stainless spokes. Both rims are the same (unfortunately the rear wheel has a pretty big gouge in one spot that may make it unusable).

Also are the front and rear brakes original to the bike? They are different.
Another weird thing about the brakes is that the right brake lever is currently attached to the front brake and the left lever controls the rear, just the opposite of every other bike i've had. Would this be something somebody did aftermarket?

A mechanical issue:

As you can see in the picture of the pedal, somebody messed up the threads on the left pedal by trying to force it in (probably turning it the wrong way). Fortunately they stopped after only going in a little bit. The worst of the damage is to the pedal but the first thread or two in the crank looks a little rough. I thought about buying a tap and die set and trying to repair the pedal and crank (i've never used tap and die) but being reverse thread I guess I would need a specialty set. Do you think taking the pedal to a bike shop would be the best, cheapest way to get this fixed? Or should I just plan on trying to find a replacement crank and pedal?