H-D Under Fender Paint

[40 Nuck]

Posted under knuckleheads to no avail, and realized I should've posted here. Anyone know the standard for painting the underside of fenders for 30's - 40's Harleys ... specifically a 1940 EL. I've seen a couple of original paint fenders on ebay (one a 1938 and one a 1949) that look like they have the reamains of the topside paint color underneath also. Can anyone confirm this, or is what I am seeing simply overspray? If not exterior paint color, then was it painted a flat black underneath. I assume that if the exterior color was painted on the wheel-side of the fenders, that the paint was simply sprayed, with little effort at finishing (sanding/polishing, etc.). Anyone have info here.

Thanks,
Vic

[PaintPro]

H-D Fender painting

Prior to the 1960's all painted pieces were run through the paint shop on an overhead conveyor system where the parts were sprayed by workers and then run through a baking oven to cure the paint. All piece received a primer coat, usually red oxide, and then the color. Two toned parts made another trip down the line for their second color. In the 30's and 40's quality control for the paint on the inside surfaces seems to vary. I have seen OEM fender s with good coverage of the final color and others where is barely covering the primer color. I those days coverage was controlled by people and subject to errors and crappy attitudes. Todays robotic controlled system produces a better quality topcoat but the insides don't get hardly anything at all.

[bmh]

I've asked this before and I know it's a bit of this topic but maybe someone here knows.What is the black layer under the factory color coat? It is not parkerizing as many believe. I know this because if you find a spot on an original paint machine where the paint is wore through to bare metal you can see all three layers. a red oxide primer, a flat black coating, and then the color coat. a great place to see this is on 52 and up footshifts where the clutch cable rubs the front of the tank. Have noticed this on original paint machines back to at least 40. If it was parkerized it would have to be done on bare metal and the red primer over top. I recall someone once calling it "bonderizing", but what is it?? I'm sure the factory thought it was an important step or they wouldn't have wasted the time to do it or have done it for so many years. Bye the bye, have started peering into the underside of original paint fenders, most seem to have been sprayed with a coat of the color although it doesn't appear to have been as well applied as the top side. Of course this could just appear that way from thousands of miles of the tire throwing dirt and gravel at the underside.
Brian

[23JDCA 808]

http://www.antiquemotorcycle.org/bbo...ghlight=fender
...bill

[Snakeoil]

Vic,
I'm in the process of resurrection a one-owner Skyway Blue 1947 EL. The bike threw a rod in the early 50's and was put under a tarp where it remained until last year when the son-in-law of the original owner dragged it out of his mother-in-law's garage when she died. He's 60.
The bike is as original as they get, short of dings, and add-on's that were done by the owner way back when. The yellow paint stampings are still on the crash bars and seat pan.

The inner surfaces of both my front and rear fenders are fully painted with Skyway Blue. I carefully cleaned them last week, which amounted to removing 48,000 miles of road tar, oil dirt, stones and who knows what else. If you send me your private email, I'd be glad to send you some pictures of what the inside surfaces of my fenders look like after being cleaned.

[Chris Haynes]

In this photo you can see the inside of the fender if fully painted the main color. Also sheetmetal was Bonderized before painting. This is an automated process where parts ran on a conveor and were sprayed with a rust proventive chemical and run through an oven that made the chemical stick to the parts. Much like Parkerizing but the parts are not submerged in the chemical.

[bobdo]

Great pics Chris.
The second one showing the guy painting has put me in a daze. The hanging location is very interesting to me. Does anyone know if there was a secondary operation to paint the fender flip overlap area & the strap fastener locations? Obviously they would get little overspray at best. I have a feeling most restored bikes are "over restored" if this is the case, including mine. I figured they were painted separately then assembled.
Have a great holiday everyone, Bob

[Snakeoil]

Sorry to go off topic, but what do you suppose the life expectancy was for those poor painters with no masks?

Those are great photos. Thanks for sharing them.

[40 Nuck]

This reminds me of a prior life restoring a 1965 Corvette. There is so much more info available on the Corvette, and that was one of the surprises I got when getting into the old bikes. I ran into a guy who, in looking at an original low mileage, original paint car that the hood was painted after testing the hood latches ... he did this by noting that there was a splatter pattern on the overspray of the hood latches ... when the hood was lubricated (grease/oil) and tested by being slammed shut, some of the lubrication splattered from the male hood latch onto the female body latches, and when the paint was sprayed, it did not stick where the lubrication splatters were. He replicated that when restoring his own car. Another guy carefully cleaned off the grime from his wheel wells and determined that the undercoat had been sprayed in a counter-clockwise direction ... and he replicated that. I'm not sure if that is incredibly faithful restoration, or incredibly nuts ... but I like knowing that someone out there is taking the time to do the research.