Monday, March 24, 2014

1955 fl

We have overWe have also been picking away at Bev's 55.  This bike was a high school graduation present for her husband back in 1955.  We have gone through every nut bolt, washer and seal to make it mechanically perfect while maintaining as much of the originality and history as possible.   The color is Hollywood green and it is a one year only color.  I don't thing that there is any other color that Harley offered that embodied the fifties as much as this color.  It is awesome 
We have over 100 hours in cleaning and detailing out each part on the bike.  It is challenging on stuff like this because you have to be so gentle when you work on it, if you use the wrong brush or too much pressure you can damage the original paint or plating.  The bike was in really tough shape when it was brought to us a couple years ago.  The trans had been run with put oil and the top
End was toast.  It's all sorted out now and will last another 60 years or more. 
The rear head needed a new exhaust port welded on, on this photo you can see that some of the original patina and Iowa dirt was left in tact through the process of repairing the damaged head.  The combustion chamber is perfectly cleaned and sorted out while everything on the outside is as it was the last time it was ridden.   
Here is the original paint frame and bottom tree before going together.   All of the plating is original too.

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