1965 Pan Questions

[bmh]

Lots of that went on. Here in Pa up untill a decade or so agoour MC license plates were a different size then anyone else in the country and you couldn't get a frame to fit them. A local metal shop started folding frames out of stainless and sold a lot of them. They were in the display case at almost any shop you stopped at.

[Chris Haynes]

The smooth covers were an aftermarket item.

[Underdoggie]

I think Brian may be right. For example, on mid 70's superglides the battery covers always had a window cut in them to see the water level in the battery. I hated that, I wanted one like the FLH's so I had a buddy at a fab shop make one, it looked exactly the same except for the window. After a while lots of guys who saw it wanted one. I still have two left after all these years.

[rbenash]

A simple flat cover could've been fabricated by any good metal shop. Just two bends on the right size piece. Could've even had it done out of stainless and polished it rather then the time and trouble of chrome. Just my thoughts as that's what I would most likely have done.

Yeah, pretty easy to fabricate them I'm sure. But I also think that by say June of 05 there was a good 9 months or more for the 3rd party folks to crank out some accessories and the dealer may have sold them. Those covers do look smooth to me, but again the photos are small (they actually look like they might have been taken with a 126 cartridge camera) and hard to really tell. The photos in themselves are pretty cool though.

[bmh]

A simple flat cover could've been fabricated by any good metal shop. Just two bends on the right size piece. Could've even had it done out of stainless and polished it rather then the time and trouble of chrome. Just my thoughts as that's what I would most likely have done.

[rbenash]

Cool photos! Looking at the red, blue, and black '65 bikes along with the dates on the photos these got modified pretty quick. Probably bought them in mid to late 64? The red one in the last photo already has the covers polished ;-) In the other photos it does look like that battery side cover is smooth. Hard to tell though for sure. I'm going to guess that 3rd party accessories were available several months after the new model introductions. Would be good to know. Fun looking through these.

[rbenash]

Ray, Take a look at the post I did previous to this one, you can see the cover clearly.

Yes, that's the one I was referring to. Looks like a smooth cover. Not to early in the year that there may have been 3rd party accessories perhaps. I like these photos, nice for added reference!

Thanks for posting, still early enough to make some copies. The posts are still up.

[rbenash]

Here they are:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Circa-19...1%7C240%3A1318

[rbenash]

What's the search string you were using to find the listing? If it was a recent auction you can do an advanced search and still find it by looking at completed auctions.

Let me know if I can help.

[Underdoggie]

Ray, Take a look at the post I did previous to this one, you can see the cover clearly.

[rbenash]

UD - thanks for the post/info. Looking at that photo the cover appears to be smooth, but can't really tell.

[Underdoggie]

battery cover

Well,
I went to ebay this morning and I will be darned if I could find the item with all the pictures in it again, it may be finished. I did keep several pictures tho and here is another one dated June 1965 with a bike that has a chrome battery cover. I also noticed that this bike plus the previous one I posted have some different saddle bag bars.

[Underdoggie]

Battery Cover

I check ebay about once a week to look at 1965 harley stuff, once I saw a bike for sale that was one serial number off from mine. Anyway, a couple of days ago (3/31) I saw an item for some old pictures for sale, they were of some runs in California back in 1965. Notice the battery cover on the attached picture dated July 1965. There were two other 1965's in the group of photos and all of them had the chrome battery side cover.

[rbenash]

Old wives tales are a tough one. If my father - who has a pretty much photographic memory, and beieve me I've tested it over the years - to my detriment tells me that he saw (and not the bike I am restoring) a close friends brand new 65 (I knew this guy and saw that 65 when it pulled up in the driveway) fresh from the dealer purchase and it had chrome pipes it has to make me question validity of even factory docs that say 65's would only come from the dealer with silver painted pipes regardless of group option. There's a question there. Not saying what you have in front of you is wrong at all Chris, and your information is irreplaceable - but when it comes to a 65 I don't know that everything is really known 100%

[T. Cotten]

I suspect that MOCO Dealers delivered a lot of brand new machines that the AMCA would now declare "incorrect":

http://nostalgiaonwheels.blogspot.com/2009/03/1965-panhead-california-road-trip.html

....Cotten