Harley Davidson Parts Catalog 1930 - 1949

[leomags]

I recently purchased this book and I'm disappointed with the parts photos for the 1930 to 1936 VL models. They look like copies of copies of copies, very faded with little detail. I would have thought they would have made an effort to use their best quality source for something like this.

[Chris Haynes]

You need to buy a book from the VL era. Tom's NOS Parts has a good one.
http://www.tomsnosparts.com/cgi-bin/...rt_number=L516

[Rubone]

One thing to keep in mind on the '30s (and earlier) parts books is that the pictures are not to scale and often poor quality. So a bolt may appear as large as a wheel in them. They are an important reference but by no means an assembly guide or even a realistic ID guide.
Robbie

[Chris Haynes]

Robbie is correct. VL Heaven should have a good book of illustrations.

[Steve Slocombe]

Dear Chris, thanks for the nice words. The 1926-39 and 1930-40 parts books are both available as reprints and are more accurate in the sense that they were produced in the VL period. Note that they still routinely miss out lock washers, and later parts books revised the history when parts were superseded. For instance the domed red taillight glass introduced in 1935 was soon given the 1920 part number because it fitted back to then. Likewise the 1934 full pan seat got the 1925 part number because that's when it fitted back to. Surprisingly, Harley seemed to take new parts photos each year for the parts books, so hard core guys try to collect parts books from every year of interest. Likewise accessory catalogs.

[Lippy]

I have original Harley-Davidson Spare Parts Books from the 30's. I've scanned them in at 800 dpi and I can tell you the images of the parts are not good even when enlarged. They are nothing like the Spare Parts books from the 40's. The 40's pictures were line drawings, those from the 30's were photos. Steve's book is your best source for newer VL images. Lippy