64' HD oil bag

[Chris Haynes]

Thanks much Chris, one other question on this matter that you may help clear up. I too always thought that gas tanks and fenders were parkerized before paint because of the reasons already mentioned untill a year or two ago when Steve Barber pointed out to me at the judging at Oley that on original paint footshift models, where the clutch cable rubs the front of the tank you can see three layers of coatings. The color coat on top of course, a black layer directly underneath( always thought to be parkerizing), and the red-brown primer under that, over the bare metal. Was that bonderizing? If not, how did they get the primer under it all? As you already mentioned the insides of good clean tanks are obviously parkerized. Have seen this on more than one machine so it was not a fluke or someones old resto work. Any ideas?

Many times dealers would repaint new bikes. The MoCo would repaint sheet metal. There are many reasons for layers of different colors.
Parkerizing/Bonderizing is a process done to bare metal. You can't do the process to anything painted or primered.
My NOS tanks are red oxide primer over Parkerizing.

[Chris Haynes]

Brian
Years ago when I wrenched in a dealership I observed several odd things as far as finish. It was not too unusual to see an original paint machine that had a different color coat under the final color on tanks or fenders. The way I understood it at the time was that if a paint job was flawed it went back through the paint shop for repaint. The final color was what they were painting that particular day and not the first color used. I did all the wreck repair and warranty work as well as most new bike set-up so saw lots of sheetmetal. It was common to discover lead repairs on new tanks when the paint was knocked off as well as a different color under the final color. This was on NEW production bikes. Also, The replacement tanks sold in primer often were primer over another colorcoat. The Motor Co. was not into wasting anything. I dont know how long this practice was used but I am sure it was standard practice in the late '60s and '70s. It makes it hard for someone trying to restore a machine with original paint and another color is discovered underneath!
Robbie

During the AMF era I bought several new crate motors over the years. Of course these were immediately torn down for hot rodding. A few had STD bore cylinders. But several had over sizes up to .040. One had an .040 front and a .010 rear. I guess if cylinders didn't meet inspection the got re bored and put back on the line.
In '69 during the strike I opened new crated bikes and found parts missing. During the AMF years I uncrated bikes that wouldn't start or run properly. Some needed engine rebuilding right out of the crate.

[Rubone]

Chris,
I used to set up all the police units when they came in. One engine would not pump up the lifters when started. while inspecting it I discovered no oil to the lifters and tracing back found a broken drill bit jammed in the passage. Pretty sorry state of affairs. Most new Sportsters were oil burners. I used to tear off the top end for the 1000 mi service and rebore and fit new pistons since the cylinders were so out of round. Sometimes they wouldn't clean up and needed new castings since the early 1000s were only able to go .030 over! We built our own torque plates back then as the Motor Co did not acknowledge the problem. The paint issues were minor compared to the mechanical ones! The overpainted tanks/fenders were usually parkerized,primed, colored and then a second different color coat with possible body work in between.
Robbie

[bmh]

Thanks again gentlemen for helping cross a few more little mysteries off my ever expanding list. I didn't know the factory repaint thing was that common. I did however know of the lackluster quality of the 70's.