Guide to hardware finish

[keiser]

Anyone ever seen any books, etc that guide you on the finish for bolts/brackets on the panhead? Palmer's book seems to leave a lot of this out. A lot of bolts seem to be available in park or cadium/zinc finish. I would assume older models used park, but on my 60 FLH, not sure which finish is correct.

Probably nothing out there but seems that AMCA judges must have some info to go by when judging and shouldn't that info be available to members to help us get it right to begin with?

[Johnny]

I would think a good place to start would be the photo set available through Antique Cycle Supply. Original factory photos show incredible detail.

[Paquette]

Just as a note: Harley-Davidson has always been about getting motorcycles out the door. As I have been told by sources at the Motor Company, the guy on the line had a bin of parts that he used until that stock ran out so he may have started on Monday with parkerized parts and ended on Friday with cadmium plated parts. Judges go by what they think is correct and many times they are off base. I have found this to be true especially with seats and saddlebags as Harley never produced seats or bags with white thread so use what you want and to heck with the judging. IOW if the factory don't know the answer, how do the judges?

[exeric]

I saw a motorcycle get gigged at Oley last year because of a color variation in cad plating. The finish of the parts were not in question, just the color of the cad. To me, that is over zealous and somewhat vindictive judging. Anyone that has ever worked in an industrial enviornment knows production doesn't stop becuase the new washers are a different shade of silver than the old washers.

Johnny offers good advice. I used pictures from Antique Cycle Supply to determine finishes on my 51 FL and the detail is so good you can read the serial number on the engine case.

[keiser]

Thanks for the input. I'll check out the pictures you mention. I am not trying to get too carried away. I don't intend to put the bike in an AMCA meet but I would like it to be pretty close to original finishes. I understand that all this is pretty subjective.

[partshunt]

There is a book by Bruce Palmer available. Its a 640 page book called "how To Restore Your Harley Davidson". Very well packed with info. He obviously spent a lot of time to get this one to press. Maybe you have it, its in black and white so there are no color or shade samples if thats what you are looking for. This book shows up on Ebay now and then.