1946 and 1947 wiring flags.

This morning I used up the last terminal that i had bent up. I bent up 150 of these terminals six months ago and thought they would last me forever, i was mistaken. Luckily i had another 150 blanks cut out. These terminals were primarily used on 46 and 47 hds. they are bitchin and just like originals.


anyways, I was completely out of bent up ones and had to make some for the 47 and to fill some orders of different guys working on their own restorals. Here is the tool to do it. check out how the two separate diameters on the pin share a common line.



and here is a finished one. It is very tedious to make each one of these little guys, but I am glad that i do it and happy that our customers appreciate the work.

parts, bottom ends and hiked up pants

I shipped this small order out to my friend in South carolina yesterday. The springs are 1936 to 1938 inner fork springs. I think that this might be the first set that I have sold. I had them made up six years ago and dumped a ton of money into the minimum order of 200 springs. I will probably have them until I am ninety.


I have spent most of the day photographing parts for our parts list and web page. This is something that I have been avoiding for a long time. I love figuring out how to make parts and making them or having them made, but despise working on lists and taking pictures. anyways we have over 130 parts and the complete list will be available soon.



Here is a neat pic of the seam on our 41 to 49 mufflers. Let me know if you need one for your bike, they are pretty much identical to oem ones.




My dad is putt ting Vern's 46 motor together. My dad told me that the flywheels were a real challenge to true up, but he got them with in .0015 on each side. This is how we check endplay on the bottom end. This bike is going to be so nice.





My dad found a magazine rack to use as a walker and wanted to do a staged photo of him acting like an old man. I always threaten to throw him in a retirement home and change the name on the sign to Matt's Dad Cycle Supply lol. Honestly though, he is still pretty sharp and always seems to pull some neat old trick out of his sleeve when I least expect it.

Waxes and Ypipes

I picked out the exhaust for the 42 today. This is the original panhead y pipe that we will be using. there were some holes in it where someone screwed the exhaust together, and a few tiny rust pin holes.


Here it is all welded up. The little pinholes really opened up into bigger holes as soon as they got hot! It is a challenge to weld thing sheet metal. This is a little easier than most things since the roundness of the pipe makes the metal stronger.



HEre it is all ground up and ready to fit




I hung out with my friend Dan from loveland. He is in town making some neat molds, he delivered some waxes and picked up some more parts to take molds off of. We are making some reallly neat stuff coming up that will be amazing. I'll keep you posted.





I ordered 40 more generator saddles, but he only had time to cast 16 of them. I am shocked that I sold out the first batch that we made up. I guess it is a lot better to use one of these little guys than to cut up an original case. Let me know if you need one out of the next batch for your ul, knuckle or panhead.

some neat reproduction parts progress that has happened over the last couple of months

This oil site guage project has been the most difficult part that we have ever made. My daddy and I are finally satisfied with the seams of the mold, the clarity of the tube and the overall product. We have over 20,000 miles on two proto types and are ready to go into production. I already have a small list of people on the pre order list, if you want one shoot me an email so that I can set you up when they arrive.


This morning we got a couple of our proto type switch terminal boards. They look great, I still have to fit them up and see how they work. Original ones are always warped and cause problems with your switch working properly.



Here ios the bottom. The part looks beautiful, I will know how it performs later in the week!




And finally we just got four 36 to 38 brake light switches in the mail too! These are nearly perfect!





OOOOOOHHHHHH AHHHHHHH I cant wait to put one on my 36 and wheelie test it!~

parts, frames and ferners

Check out the1913 to 1916 sears twin muffler castings that I got for approval today. The aluminum ones on the left were the samples that I got from Steve Huntzinger, and the cast iron ones are the ones that i had made. I am happy with them.


I also welded the foot board frames on the 47 frame that I am workin on. The weld on the cross plate is just fill and cosmetic. Somebody had cut the bar to look like a panhead frame. Knuckle bars wrap all the way around the tube, so I had to fill it in. Once I am done , I will post a pic or two.



And the first guest for our birthday party on Saturday showed up.....all the way from Gibraltar. Tim is back in South Dakota, I already put him to work lol.

The last couple of days!

My daddy finished up the transmission for Doug's 36 today. I love the way that these look when they are set up for with the chrome package. Check out the 36/37 kicker arm and clutch arm!


Early 36 kicker covers don't have a boss for the vent, and the case is spot faced where the fitting goes in. The casting is completely different when compared to later 36 covers. The top is different too, check out the stop for the clutch arm, I wish that hd would have kept doing this, it is a cool deal.



Here are some of the wheels that jesse laced up yesterday, they are very beautiful! He did three more sets, but they are all getting trued up.




Here are some prototype stainless steel pushrod clips that got mailed to us for approval. These are correct for 1940 to 1942 knuckleheads. The clip part is .020 to thin. The die is being modified, and we should have them in a month or so hopefully!

CHROME!!!!

We got a cool package from Pat today. The handlebar lock plates are 36-38, and the oil filter top is the one that we modified for tim in an earlier post. This stuff turned out great!

36 shift arms

we got another batch of 36 shift arms in the mail earlier this week. It is a shame that HD only made these levers for one year. They are such a nice looking piece compared with the 37 to 46 style shift lever.


Tim decided to put one on his 46. I wasn't sure if there would be enough room for the trim strip, but there was. Tim is going to paint his gate and lever black, it should be pretty cool!

wing nuts ready to plate!!!!

Here are some 5-16 18 wing nuts that we just finished up and are getting ready to ship off for cad plating. The pre war wing nuts were brass and the post war version was steel. These are really nice. They have rounded edges just like originals. There are some other guys making them out of pot metal, and the threads strip out pretty quickly.

front fork leg repair!!!!

This front leg is really messed up, it is all dimpled, kinked and bent out of shape. The other leg is in good shape, which is strange, but it's still a good thing. Roger and I made up a ton of front legs a couple of years ago, they are flat on the inside and dimpled just like originals.


In this pic, I have cut off the old leg, and ground what was left of the original fork leg out of the forging. These legs were pinned and brazed together when they were new. Some guys heat up the casting and try to pull the tube out, which is not good.



I have the fork bolted down and straight when I do the plug welds. This picture is what the leg looks like after being ground and filed. I still have to silver solder it so that it looks cosmetically right. The plug welds and tight fit of the tube in the forging make this a strong enough set up to run as is.






Here is the finished repair, this is a great fix that will last a long time.

Frog Eye Plugs

Here are some plugs that our friend Delmar made up. They are for converting knucklehead rocker arm shafts to run frog eye covers instead of chrome knuckle nuts. There is no way that you could drill and tap an 8-32 hole into the end of a 50 Rockwell shaft, so we made up these plugs to include in the kit. I will do a tutorial on converting the shafts in the next month or so.


OOOOOO SHINY

Intake inserts

Notice the lip on the intake port, this is stock. All large port heads should have this lip. Unfortunately some heads get damaged or modified and the lip disappears--like the head on the right. This causes problems with the distance between the two heads when they are on the motor, and it makes your intake manifold too short.


Here is the solution to the problem. My dad made up a ton of intake inserts, and had a couple special ones made up. The stock one is on the left, and the special one is on the right, notice that the threads that stick out of the head are longer to compensate for the missing lip. My dad is a pretty fart smeller, or is that smart fellar? You be the judge.

1946 to 1948 handle bar lock plates

We just got our last few handlebar lock plates back from the polisher today. These are perfect reproductions of the original 1946 to 1948 piece. They are made out of Stainless steel just like originals. The other reproduction ones on the market are made out of steel, and they rust, which is not exactly what you want your handlebar lock plate to do. Send me an email if you need one, they are going fast!

two styles of late 47 necks

Here is a pic of the neck on the new 47 that my daddy just bought. There isn't a UU embossed on it. Our new 47 is in the 10,600 serial number range.


Here is the other side of the neck. This is a late 47 neck casting.



Here is the embossed uu that was on another frame neck. This neck is one that I just got from the foundry. There are pics of the mold and waxes in previous posts,.




New neck!!!! It still has to be machined though. I am re tubing a late 47 frame, and I figured that I should make some necks in case I needed one some day. I am glad that I did.

Early 36 Frog eyes!!!!!

It has been a while since I have done a new parts update, so here is a new deal that I am really excited about!!! These are frogeyes for early 36 knuckleheads. I found an original one at Wauseon last year and had a die made up to punch them out. They turned out really well. My friend Joe made the die and did an awesome job. I still have to have some screws and plugs made up, so they can be sold as a kit.

Oil tank sight guage progress

This morning I checked my email and was pleasantly surprised to see some pictures of the trial run of our new oil gauges. The mold shop is having some difficulties with the center pin coming out of the mold and making a concentric hole. You can see the irregularities in these trial samples.. I know they will get it perfected. It makes me so happy to see a project like this progressing along.


Here is the revised box, I had our shop's website and my blog's address put on the box. Shameless self promotion 101, take notes.

Free motorcycle part contest

This is the prototype lay out for our next reproduction part


Sometimes I feel like I am just posting on this site for myself. I know a lot of people read this blog daily, and I would like to see more comments on here. So I am having a contest. Here are the rules, The first person to correctly guess what this box is for, will get one of our prototype mystery parts that goes inside of it. The contest is over as soon as I post a picture of the prototype part. The last rule is-- if I have already told you what the part is, you are not allowed to guess.

The only clue that I am giving you is that the mystery part is for big twins and fits 36 to 64 big twins.

Check out the cool stuff I got in the mail while I was on vacation!!!! Part 1!!!!

Here is a stack of 36 to 38 handlebar lock plates and lock pins. These are perfect in every detail, I just have to put them together and send them to Pat to get chrome plated. The rivets are different when compared to 39 and later plates, plus they are chrome plated steel rather than polished stainless.


Here are some intake manifold plates, I posted the blueprint for these awhile back, and I finally got the finished parts.



Here are some 39 and later handlebar lock plates, these are stainless steel, I have to send them off to get polished, these are bitchin. You can not tell these from originals. It makes me so happy to make good reproduction parts.




Here are some clips for horn buttons. we were down to 1 clip, so we made up 100 of them. we are looking into making the complete horn assembly. I will have to see how it prices out before I commit to anything. If you are interested in a perfect reproduction horn button for your bike let me know, and I will put you on the list.