Cant see it in the pics but below the two punch marks I can see faint numbers but would need to scrape if off to see and I dont want to do that because the frame has been painted. Correct black or not I dont know but I dont feel like gouging it off unless necessary.
Im back to not knowing what colour this bike was originally because Im finding confusing details. Both fenders have the reddish paint on the undercoating and the rear has a blueish flat paint like a primer maybe right on the metal. Both the hinged part and main fender have that bluish coating. The problem is the rear hinged section has two indents Im thinking would be for a light bar like the bike should have but the only holes this fender has are for a tombstone light. The bolt spacing when compared to my RK are just too far apart to accept the rectangular light. This fender is far from new but could it be a repop? Or from an earlier bike? Google isn't helping.
The front fender has the reddish paint too and has various plug welded holes and not in the best of shape. 2 additional holes were filled in the top of the fender like it had one of those lights that looks like the light on the front of an old boat. I only see two plug welded holes for the fender badges. Deluxe has two pins, hydraglide and electraglide have 3.
The hinge on the rear main fender looks like the rivets were pulling through in the past so they welded it to the fender and the rivet heads are under the cheese. Front fender rivets are cheesed over as well all of which I saw when I first looked at the bike and my paint thickness gauge went infinity in some spots but I was more concerned with engine / frame at the time.
Last edited by hellonewman; 07-28-2018 at 08:17 AM.
Just had an interesting phone conversation. Up here in Ontario we need whats called a sellers package to sell or buy a motor vehicle. It shows lien info, salvage history if any and previous owner history with just a name and a city along with when they purchased the vehicle. I have a list of 6 previous owners dating back to 81, two of them being women. After some googling I talked to a guy this morning with the exact same name who isn't a previous owner but knows the guy who was the owner (now deceased) and rode with him having the same name including middle initial! The PO's son also has the same name and middle initial. Kinda weird but he remembered the bike well, said it had a sidecar on it at one point due to a handicap as he got older and that it was a blue of some sort in 1984 but also said he didn't know if that was original or not.
Last edited by hellonewman; 07-28-2018 at 09:00 AM.
Found the burgundy paint on top of the cheese so that answers the question about the red inside the fenders = not original. No sign of other colours below the cheese. Front fender isn't happy but if its an original fender its worth fixing I think.
The plug welds are so tall they had to load the filler onto it to make it straight. I have an idea......next time grind the welds down flush.
Die number looks like 40 and is good for a frame made in August 65. I suspected either 39 or 40 as I mentioned above. Thus far I know number 39 was on frames made in Jan, Feb, March and April 65. The earliest example I had with 40 was made in Oct 65 but now I can add August to my files.
Additional ID numbers on the steering head are often hard to read but at least you know they are present. They were on Big Twin frames for 1962–69. Some, not all, 1970 Big Twin frames had them too even though 1970 frames had a VIN.
Hard to say what colour that is. According to The Legend Begins, standard colours for a 66 Shovel were black with white tank panels and indigo metallic with white tank panels. Optional were hi-fi blue with white tank panels and sparkling burgundy with white tank panels. Police standard colour was birch white without panels. Eric
Die number looks like 40 and is good for a frame made in August 65. I suspected either 39 or 40 as I mentioned above. Thus far I know number 39 was on frames made in Jan, Feb, March and April 65. The earliest example I had with 40 was made in Oct 65 but now I can add August to my files.
Additional ID numbers on the steering head are often hard to read but at least you know they are present. They were on Big Twin frames for 1962–69. Some, not all, 1970 Big Twin frames had them too even though 1970 frames had a VIN.
Hard to say what colour that is. According to The Legend Begins, standard colours for a 66 Shovel were black with white tank panels and indigo metallic with white tank panels. Optional were hi-fi blue with white tank panels and sparkling burgundy with white tank panels. Police standard colour was birch white without panels. Eric
sparkling burgundy is a very very nice color on the early machine - the original paint turned pink because the lacquer clear was yellow and the photo stuff bleached the burgundy pink - hi fi blue is the can I have of factory paint enough to do a spray out to get the code
sparkling burgundy is a very very nice color on the early machine - the original paint turned pink because the lacquer clear was yellow and the photo stuff bleached the burgundy pink - hi fi blue is the can I have of factory paint enough to do a spray out to get the code
The only thing I have to go on to date is it was blue in 1984, the red overspray on the insides of my fenders are from a respray decades ago. Ill continue to dig but blue is what I would like. I already have a black bike.
07-27-2018, 03:14 PM
