VL Manifold - Extreme Makeover - Before & After

[sny]

A few pics of my VL manifold before and after. It took me days of soaking just to get this off my engine and the metal was very rusty with sharp edges everywhere from flaked plating. After a lot of blasting and dremel work it still looked like hell due to the amount of pitting. I dreaded the thought of trying to get a good seal on it.

Then I sent it to Cotten (Liberty Specialties) for an extreme makeover... new PEEK seals and a lot more cleanup and refinish. Wow it looks good now!

Thanks Cotten!

Manifold_Before_And_After.jpg

[HDSmitty]

Impressive job there. Looks like you found the right man for it .Nice work Cotten.

[T. Cotten]

Thanks, Smitty and Sny,

But the only part that took skill is pretty much hidden by the nuts.

A "resto-fanatic" would have wanted all of the pits dressed away and re-textured. The difference between "conserved" and "restored" would have been at least[/u] two hours (@$60/hr), since the pits went nearly to China: residual copper plating indicated it had probably been 'triple-plated' in an earlier life, which everyone knows allows a part to decay far quicker in the elements than if it were left alone.

....Cotten
PS: I may have to raise my rates if repop nuts continue to vary widely, since I now have to measure their internal angles for certainty.

[sny]

Thanks, Smitty and Sny,

But the only part that took skill is pretty much hidden by the nuts.

A "resto-fanatic" would have wanted all of the pits dressed away and re-textured. The difference between "conserved" and "restored" would have been at least[/u] two hours (@$60/hr), since the pits went nearly to China: residual copper plating indicated it had probably been 'triple-plated' in an earlier life, which everyone knows allows a part to decay far quicker in the elements than if it were left alone.

....Cotten
PS: I may have to raise my rates if repop nuts continue to vary widely, since I now have to measure their internal angles for certainty.

The pits provide the character needed to offset those overly clean manifold nuts (from Colony.)

[T. Cotten]

The pits provide the character needed to offset those overly clean manifold nuts (from Colony.)

I coulda patinated them easy, Sny!

Meanwhile, Folks,..

What is the consensus for when the nuts went from nickel to cad, and when the manifold went from cad to parked?

Thanks in advance,

.....Cotten

[Steve Slocombe]

Dear Cotten, I'm more sure on the manifold, as Harley announced the cad plated manifold new for the 1934 season. That could mean some 1933 bikes, particularly the 33 VLD introduced that year with the same manifold, also had cad manifolds.

On the nuts I'd say the general change from flat nickel to cad was around 1930. I haven't yet noticed any original 1930 VLs with nickel manifold nuts.