Opinions on 42 Harley WLA

[Shadez1460]

First off let me say I tried multiple times posting in technical forum, under flatheads. I cannot get it to work. I hope it is okay to post here and get opinions from experienced members.
I have been wanting a 42 WLA for a while now, and I found one or at least I hope I did. The story is this - Original owner patrolled Germany at the end of the war. It was brought back after the war in 1948, civilianized and repainted in 1959- rode until the late 70's and parked. Guy passed away family kept it there until recently. So basically the GI stayed with his bike for a number of years. Whether thats what really happened who knows...

Looking at the bike- Theres some obvious things that were changed around and replaced. The seat, lights, paint job... the engine number seems to check out as a military vin #, the crank case number seems to check out.
Bike runs great, no rust/cancer issues. The title is literally the original title in 48.

For those experienced - aside from being civilianized does anything look completely off or any red flags? Any help would be appreciated thank you all!

[Shadez1460]

IMG_1524.jpgIMG_1525.jpgIMG_1526.jpg here are more photos thank you all

[MMasa]

I'm in no way an expert on WLA's or even 45's in general. The one thing that caught my eye was the speedometer.
It's a 1947 only speedo, but that's not all that bad. A 1947 speedo is worth about 50% more than the 41-46 style that is correct. My point is that you could probably end up with the correct speedo PLUS some extra cash.
Mark

[craig (DE)]

As far as "civilianized", your bike still has the military fenders and a few other items most people change to give it a more civilian look. The good thing is, if you ever take it back to the WLA model, you have a great start!

[ihrescue]

Hi Shadez1460 - not a problem to post here it the very general topic forum and I can copy and post this in the Flathead forum. Sorry for the trouble. Do me a favor and send me an email and let me know if you received any error message when you were denied. Anytime you have a problem just email me at mikelove44@gmail.com and we'll see what we can do. If you posted here you should have been able to post to the Flathead Forum as all processes are the same. One thing to check if you run into that problem is to check in the upper right corner of the Forum screen to see if you are still logged in. If you are logged in there will be a tab that says "Log Out." If you are not logged in there will be a tab that says "Register." This is one of the more frequent problems with posting especially if you just had a successful post go through.

Mike Love
AMCA Forum
Moderator
mikelove44@gmail.com

[Shadez1460]

I'm in no way an expert on WLA's or even 45's in general. The one thing that caught my eye was the speedometer.
It's a 1947 only speedo, but that's not all that bad. A 1947 speedo is worth about 50% more than the 41-46 style that is correct. My point is that you could probably end up with the correct speedo PLUS some extra cash.
Mark

Thank you for the reply- Ill certainly keep that in mind.

[Shadez1460]

Hi Mike,

Thank you for the reply. Ill double check the issue- sounds like the latter you mentioned.

[Shadez1460]

As far as "civilianized", your bike still has the military fenders and a few other items most people change to give it a more civilian look. The good thing is, if you ever take it back to the WLA model, you have a great start!

Thanks Craig - I hope to go back to the military look, and this was the main concern when looking for one of these. Something that wasn't completely too far off.

[Ross]

Welcome to the Forum..Nice choice for a project. It goes without saying that you need to have a copy of Bruce Palmer's Book,,How to Restore Your Military Harley. Second edition will make the resto journey a lot smoother...

[Architect]

That is a perfectly good place to start, much better then some of us have started with. The general appearance and amount of military accessories give some validity to the back story, definitely plausible. Not sure if you are looking to keep it Civilian or go back to Military specs, but either way that is a hell of a head start. Good luck, nothing jumps out as 'wrong" besides what has been noted.

[Chris Haynes]

http://www.howtorestoreyourharleydav...d=5&Itemid=106

[Shadez1460]

Thank you all for replying. Would anyone have an idea what a good ball park number on the value ? Is 15k too much for the condition lack of originality? I do plan to bring back to military spec or at least that is the plan

[Architect]

$15k seems like the high end, but 45's as complete as that and in running condition are more then $10k for sure.

[Shadez1460]

$15k seems like the high end, but 45's as complete as that and in running condition are more then $10k for sure.

Thank you, I may have to back out the deal if there’s no equity in it at 15k. In my area I see them for sale 22-30k in military condition. Back east maybe a little cheaper. I figured with it having most of the original guts and metal it would be worth a lot more than a put together bike...I don’t want to be upside down on it though.