1938 Hollywood green

[Daking]

Does anyone have any pictures of a bike painted the correct 38 Hollywood Green? I have been on John P. website and the color chip shown is not anywhere close to the John Deere green that Carl described it similar to on a separate thread......what is the best way to get a good accurate color? Just trying to decide green or blue..the Venitian blue seams to be pretty easy to get pictures of but the green seams a little tougher? Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Chris Haynes]

John Deere Green is nowhere close to Hollywood Green.

[Steve Slocombe]

Antique Cycle Supply used to sell a paint card for the Hollywood Green, so maybe someone out there still has one.

[36 knuck man]

I think Carl's cycle shop site might have a picture of one they restored, thanks, Larry

[jwl]

John Deere Green is nowhere close to Hollywood Green.

I had a set of original paint 38 EL tanks that we used for matching and they were a lot closer to JD green than they were to Pierce's sample on his website. I haven't looked at Carl's website lately but there was a picture of a 38EL with the original paint tanks there a while ago.

[Matt McManus]

I have an original can of 1938 hollywood green it looks the same as these pictures on Carls website

http://www.carlscyclesupply.com/photos.php

[Rubone]

I have an NOS sidevan/package truck fender in Hollywood green if you need pics.

[Daking]

Thanks everyone for the input! I will correct myself as I now realize that John Deere had multiple green colors and with fading etc. It is as questionable as everything else......I will call Carl or see him in Fremont....
Robbie I would like to see your pictures.....does it match the 38 on Carl's website? It seams a lot closer than the Pearce web picture for sure....

[Chris Haynes]

Here is John Deere Green.

Here is 1938 Hollywood Green.

To my eye they are very different.

[jwl]

Chris, I think you have your pictures mixed up. You are correct, they do look different. If you can find a John Deere that is from 1938 and faded out like the bike they will be a lot closer though.

[Todd and Ophie]

While this is an old posting... I will comment. There are TWO Hollywood Green's, 1938 and 1955. The HD paint cans do not say which is what. HOWEVER< here is the real 1938 Hollywood Green color on this special order 1940 http://www.flickr.com/photos/3415079...7639914401586/
and before some of you start commenting it is on a 1940, I have the documents, namely Harley Davidson to the dealer invoices that show this was done, and commonly done.

[Chris Haynes]

Show us the dealer invoice that shows this motorcycle leaving the factory that color. Otherwise it is just hear say.

[Todd and Ophie]

as an ex Harley Dealer, you should be as aware as anyone that HD dealer's do not and did not give their Harley Invoices to the retail customer. Thus, with the few exceptions where an HD dealer actually kept a machine and "magically" the original invoice has not been lost or tossed in the trash, extremely few machines have ever been found with their original Factory Invoice. In fact, today, just having a treasure trove of 352 invoices from Harley Davidson Motor Co. to the dealer, many of them Knucklehead invoices, is a rarity. Most of this type of paper work was tossed in the trash. Even luckier, I also have many supporting documents such as letters to said dealer and back from Harley that actually explain what is happening in the invoices. As a used Harley dealer for the past 33 plus years. and having owned well in excess of 10,000 Harley's, most of them original paint, I can count the exact number of bikes I have personally owned in original paint that I was aware of that at some point had been magically replaced in later years with the correct year and paint of their production time to ZERO. As such, one can logically assume that this particular 1940 came with this paint job. I have traced, finally, the history. The "Uncle" bought it new, the nephew inherited the machine upon his death which being a wise young man he promptly traded it into Wayne Pierce's dealership for a new Sportster and I might add, he had to pony up some cash AND the Knuckle. This is the same bike that was in Greg Field's book, "Original Harley Davidson Knucklehead, a restorer's guide" that came out pre Palmer in 1997. 11 pages devoted to this particular bike. It went in magazines, Calendar's, poster's. Until I bought it, everyone knew and accepted it as an original paint machine. But of course I cannot own anything like that. So people bash it, well, that is their problem. While I don't have the specific invoice to this specific machine, which even if I did, it would still not be 100,000 percent proof that the paint from the invoice is THE paint on it today. Logically, it would be highly improbable for it to not be. However, there are plenty of invoices pre war showing new bikes ordered in Hollywood Green (or various combinations)and chrome packages on youtube. Hunting Harleys. Like it or not, this is original paint, and it is 1938 Hollywood Green with a 1940 Paint Scheme.

[Chris Haynes]

We all know that the customer could order his new H-D painted any color they wanted. I have several order blanks and dealer invoices that show that. Most dealers save their invoices. A friend has a letter signed by William S. Harley to a customer acknowledging you could order your machine in any color for $7.50 extra. This was in 1941. It is simply a few things on this 1940 Hollywood Green machine that are obviously not original. You can fabricate any story you want to justify how a 1939 ONLY transmission would up in a Mid Year production 1940. I am sure that after being in the business of building motorcycles for over thirty five years Bill Harley and the Davidson brothers knew how to have materials as needed on hand and wouldn't suddenly run out of parts on the assembly line. Pointing out incorrect things on any machine is not bashing. It is simply making note of something inconsistant with the norm.
Take the case of a 1936 EL that Jay Leno purchased from the original owners family. The family guaranteed Jay that the bike was all original although it had been repainted. I inspected the bike for him and found it was in a 1941-1944 frame with same era fork. Jay contacted the family and asked about it. The family remembered that dad had an accident during WWII and the bike was taken to the dealership for repair. So in their mind because the bike was repaired at the dealership it had to be all original. None of us can tell what has been done to a motorcycle during its life. Just because the machine belonged to Uncle Willie doesn't mean that Uncle Willie never changed anything on it.

[T. Cotten]

My apologies in advance for butting in with a silly question Folks,

But isn't the History of a machine after it left the Factory equally noteworthy?

....Cotten