Pretending to know what I am doing - 1947 FL

[govmule84]

These jugs are sleeved...





That's it. I'm doing paperwork tomorrow for the title. After I pay the ridiculous amount of tax and my wounds heal, I'll start doing something to it. Right now is "disassemble and clean" time.

I am in PA. If any old guys want to help a younger fella out trying to learn how to do this "don't chop it all up" thing, I'm a very willing student and I like to buy beer.

[govmule84]

Now let's see what came along with it.



This motor mount is busted. Rats.

[govmule84]

Hi. I'm Liam. Until Saturday, I was a chopper guy only. I've built a few bikes before. In the garage presently are some Shovels, a Big Twin Evo, and a Big Twin Flathead. I'm 32, which I believe makes me a newborn in the AMCA. (I kid, I kid.) Choppers have been cheap and fun and I never wrecked a bike to make one... I just pieced them together out of crap I found. I like that you can be creative and a cheap bastard and still make a bike.

A very good greybeard friend of mine (the fella who built my flattie chopper) offered to sell me a bike that he's never offered to anyone: a 1947 Knucklehead. He's a very dear friend, and the bike is very special to him, so by extension it is special to me. He rode many miles on it as a younger man. I went into hock up to my eyeballs. I begged, borrowed, and stole, and scraped up enough money to buy it from him.

I hauled it home. It's in pieces. Everything is rough, but it's all there. I thought I'd try to put together a build thread to sort of give back a little. I shoot pics as part of my job. I'll try to take good ones, but I'm not going apeshit editing them all. They'll be good, not great.

Base information: I am trying to keep the bike as my friend rode it. It's mostly original, but if there's something amiss, don't freak out. It's never going to be judged; I'm just trying to stick a bike together. I'm not chopping, nor am I restoring. I guess I'm just going to wipe the crud off, clean things up, and make it mechanically presentable. There will be some incorrect stuff on the bike; que sera sera, you know?

I'm broke as a joke right now, so this won't be a super-fast build. Current plan is to break it down to the frame and get that solid, then square up the front end and wheels so I can make a nice roller to hold the other expensive stuff.

I guess we should start at the beginning so you guys can see what I hauled home. I think this might be a military bike. The greybeard says it's an old Conservation Dept. bike. It has a First Aid Kit that is falling apart on the rear fender, but my buddy Hutch says he thinks that was a Harley option. It also has a front fender that is not drilled for a fender lamp, which further reinforces the cop-bike thing.



I believe what I have here is a late-production '47 frame as it has no bullneck and a UU casting. Here, look:



The frame needs repair. There's a big cracky right around the bottom of the seat post tube casting. There's also a less-than-beautiful repair at the base of the seatpost tube, so I would imagine cutting out and repairing is probably the way to go. Pretty sure this is a structural hose clamp.



Front end...



...and again...



Here's my kid trying it on for size: