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My son in law inherited a 71 Electra Glide from his dad and now wants to restore it. The bike is a literal basket case and I did let him know that he would likely spend a lot more money than the bike is worth. It was his dads bike so this trip is a sentimental one, so that that.
Anyway, here are pictures of the bike as we received it. A day at so later we spun the engine to make sure it was not locked up. It wasnt. Then we gave the bike a once over before the fun began. We disassembled the bike leaving just the engine , transmission and primary in place. We ordered some specialty tools that we will need to disassemble the rest of the bike. This is not my first bike restoration but it is my first Harley. Ive got several decades of automotive experience in both mechanical and auto body with many a restoration along the way.
My son in law is willing to do as much of the work as possible with me doing the big stuff like the engine, transmission, wiring and stuff. We have the factory service manual and a fully equipped garage so we will post pictures as we go. Looking forward to picking the brains of all the gurus here when we come across any bumps along the roads. So glad to be here and thanks to all of you in advance. Richard and Robert. Apparently it has been sitting since 1995. Sure looks like. Odometer reads 9000 or so miles. I doubt that but at this point, I dont think it matters. Her we are getting ready to separate the engine and transmission. It may look a little crusty but this old shovel head still looks cool .
Awesome looking fwd. To following this. If this does or if you do move over to a Shovelhead section say so we can go find the project and follow along.
I think this is a bit better than a basket case.
I guess I see things differently. No doubt it will take a ton of work, but I wouldn't call it a basket case. Not even close. Looks like nearly everything is there, and for me, the hardest part is trying to figure out what WAS there, if it isn't. I think the idea is novel and I really like that he's willing to put in the work to get it back to life. Hopefully you all can see it through. It's easy to say at the beginning you're going to finish, but actually getting there is a lot harder.
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71 Electra Glide resurrection
