I am thinking about building a vintage bike and was wondering if anyone here has been down this road. I am thinking about starting on ebay with a frame. Any suggestions will help.

 

you cant do it that way - way to many special clips the bolts have heads that are stamped CP1053 - and on and on and on - you will never have a matching number unit when complete -- value is in the unrestored BUT its almost impossable today to find today

you are in the shovel area and vintage would be before AMF and they AMF contracted to buy harley in 1969 BUT did not pay for the complete conpany till 1971 -- so no harley till 1972 has a decal AMF on the gas tanks

now having said that 2 different bikes are involved if your looking vintage shovelhead harley - Flat side motor powered 1200cc units 1966 to 1969 than nose cone units 1970 and 1971 still had pogo seats and internal cable throttles and all came electric start and could have kickers as well delivered from harley before the AMF badge -

but you might be wanting older i am not sure - i just finished this one in the pictures

the last one is a file picture i did not take a completed one its a 1926 JD harely

 

Ditto on the above. Harley had their own screw and bolt making machines and used many non standard threads on them. The specialty hardware would be a near impossible task to try to collect it all one piece at a time. If you want to build a vintage pan head or shovel head one company sells a vintage kit that is basically a rolling chassis, frame, front end, tanks fenders, wheels etc. The advantage is that it would come with an MSO that would make it easier to title.

 

what is that companies name?

 

I just checked their website. I got sticker shock but they have them from rolling chassis to ones with knuckle or pan motors included. vtwinmfg is the company. Look under bike kits in the classic section.

 

i dont know by using america for a location - but 31 july and first and second of august the AMCA has a swap meet and national judging event in CT and we are vending if your somewhat local to that, i can show you what you might be interested in to restore and examples will be for sale as well

 

Bikes are so cheap right now....why would anyone spend 23k on a bike kit that you couldn't sell for half that after you assemble it?....buy a bike, tear it down to the frame and restore it.

http://memphis.craigslist.org/mcy/4552771825.html


http://jonesboro.craigslist.org/mcy/4484565983.html

 

Tom84FXST - I agree with you.

johnjzjz - That is a beautiful restoration !!

 

So is a 72 junk?

Dud amf really change thungs after the first year?

Did quality suffer that bad? I know the mid 79 and changes in the later amf years weren't great but...

Thanks for the info

 

My first Harley was a 72 and I rode it for 35 years until it got run over. I salvaged the motor from the insurance company and resurrected it in a later chassis.

AMF kept Harley in business and put a lot more bikes on the road. In 1973 and 74 they had a lot of labor problems and some complained of poor quality control. An AMF bike had better features than the earlier years. Alternator, disc brakes and a better carburetor. On the down side they started outsourcing parts to other countries. In 72 everything I could find on it was still American but on later years front forks, carburetors, starter motors, instruments came from Japan. They also used parts from Italy, Mexico and Taiwan. That trend continues today.