68 shovel head project
As for the "squished" exhaust part that goes below the motor: yes, I found that quite tricky, too - but it would (although barely) go in/out after I remove the rear floor board mount, too.
Interesting also the paint job - I found that this color combo came from the factory on 1958 (or so) Duo Glides only, but it looks too good to pass :-) Yours got pinstripes too which I don't have.
I wish you luck and fun for your project... eager to learn about your progress - and please let me know in case I could help in any way!
Nice to see what my bike will look like when I get it al back together. Got some work to do to her as nice as yours!
The Best of Harley-Davidson for Lifelong Riders
I did, during that time (and still do) constantly look for all kinds of details in bikes similar to mine - pondering what might be "original" or at least mandatory for a "drivable" bike - and which of those details to pursue, and which to ignore :-)
I see, for example, that yours still has that nice internal throttle grip mechanism which, alas, has often been swapped for a much less elegant "external" one - as I have been told, usually because many Early Shovels got their Tillotson "updated" to a Bendix quite early in the 70s already. This requires reversing the direction of the throttle cable and also replacing the solid by a flexible core. Alas, this has been done on mine, too (a quite early Bendix, 36 instead of the usual 38 mm) - and a fixed sleeve welded over the handlebar end
- as a base for the new, external throttle grip. I had to make quite some efforts to remove this sleeve and go back to the original style (but direction reversed) mechanism. Do you still have the Tillotson carb?Also, I'm interested to see what kind of mufflers you have and how those will be mounted - as your pictues show some kind of tab (with a drill hole) on both muffler supports which I haven's seen on other bikes of that vintage yet.










