Hi everyone!
I'm new to the board and I am also new to caring for vintage bikes. I am a college student and recently received my mother's canary yellow 22" mens continental (after I casually mentioned how cool schwinns are, my mom exclaimed, "I still have mine at your grandmothers house! I got it when I was 13!"...I guess she rode that bike every single day when she was a kid and still rode it when she was pregnant with me!). The other day, I drove down to my grandma's house, picked up the bike, drove back and took it to the local bike shop for a casual tune up. (silly me, I forgot to take photos..grr...) I am so excited to clean it up (literally...I took it straight to the bike shop with dust all over it) and customize it to my liking...

This brings me to my questions...
1) If I wanted to install a rear bike rack on it, would you suggest purchasing a vintage one? If so, would any brand/type do?
2) I'm debating purchasing fenders and putting them on...any suggestions? and if so, (again) would any old fender do?

Thank you! I have NO CLUE what i'm doing and the people at my local bike shop are no help since they really deal with modern bikes so all of your help is GREATLY appreciated!!!

I like Plescher racks and they're available pretty cheap on Ebay. Try going to Ebay and searching for "Schwinn rack" or just "rack" in the vintage bicycle catagory. Anything alloy for under $20, including shipping that looks good to you will work. Steel is fine, too but heavier.
Contis came with nice chrome fenders some times. They're usually available on Ebay but I don't like the prices I'm seeing. My LBS has some chrome plastic ones that look almost the same and are a lot lighter. Cost less than $50, usually.

Rear Pleitscher rack, big vynl saddle bag, chrome fenders, clamp-on water bottle cage, speedometer, and a generator light set were some of the popular accessories back then.

Thank you! Yes, the fenders do seem a bit steep in price...is there any possibility of purchasing another brand? Or will my schwinn be picky and not allow for that? Thank you!