65 Panhead Hardware

[harleycats]

Dave were did you find the thread and pictures .

thanks, Tom

[rbenash]

Its a shame Underdoggie isn't more active, Folks,

His Winner's Circle '65 is un-restored!

....Cotten

He was helpful for several questions/photos while I was working my restoration project. A great reference.

[panz4ever]

Dave were did you find the thread and pictures .

thanks, Tom

Its on page 3 of this thread #22
http://www.antiquemotorcycle.org/bbo...hlight=rbenash

[rbenash]

There are a ton of photos under different groups. I kept tweaking it after each judging exercise.

I had to appeal a number of dings after the second judging at Jefferson.

That was a good experience, it got written up in the club mag that year.

On the third session is when I got the 99.75 and the Wolverton at Perkiomen for highest point/best restoration.

It had the peaked windshield then, some changes to bolts, etc and corrected cable routing at the bars.

The .25 ding was for oxidation around the swing arm shaft end nut and wrong oil pump plug/screw which have been corrected.

I run it now with an original first year tour pack which of course is post '65. Underdoggie is great go to for original photos/research a great reference. I pretty much have full tilt KOH grouping restoration with pretty much every period accessory which might be a good reference for folks attempting that. The tach is always a hit with folks.

There's a good set of folks responding here as well (Cotton, Upsrod, Chris, etc) that also helped me along the way. I started collecting the parts to get the bike bike to original in 2000 it took me 10 years to do that because of the PIA model year. It was my fathers bike and was 90% That 10% took a long, long time to bring back to the bike.

I didn't touch anything until I had the full set of parts - Chris I think called it a "parts collection" at one point and he was right - that's what this restoration is. It took a long time to get there with a '65. A number of other years are much easier to get to AFA restoration.

I got the bike from my Father in 2000, started the restoration around 2010 and I would say it was finally done to final around 2013.

I was lucky to be able to get Paul Friebus from American Cycle Fab in Bloomsburg, PA to work the project during his "off seasons" he's a magician, and backs anything he works on.

A great person to deal with. He doesn't do restorations as a full time thing but picks ones he's interested in. He treated this bike like it was his. Any accolades for any of the work belongs to him.

Can't even imagine the $$$ for the one year weird a** parts required to do a "true" '65 restoration today. Best thing I did 17 years ago was do research and focus on getting NOS parts first.

There's still minor things that bug me. I really should have color matched slotted screws on the tail-light housing :-)

[Underdoggie]

Actually, I just registered for the Southern National Meet in Denton, going to trailer down, wish there was a way I could camp early and ride over to the kick start classic, but at least I will get the FL out in the open for the first time since about 2012. After my wife got Cancer and then she passed, I kind of lost interest.
http://www.antiquemotorcycle.org/bbo...php?albumid=46

[Underdoggie]

Actually, I just registered for the Southern National Meet in Denton, going to trailer down, wish there was a way I could camp early and ride over to the kick start classic, but at least I will get the FL out in the open for the first time since about 2012. After my wife got Cancer and then she passed, I kind of lost interest.
http://www.antiquemotorcycle.org/bbo...php?albumid=46

[upsrod]

Awesome John!

[rbenash]

Hey John - welcome back. Just FYI I have original accessory white mudflaps with the metal strip.

Just can't get my self to put holes in the fenders now to mount them.

Was thinking about selling them but will probably just keep them for my survivor to sell with the bike :-)

I seem to recall your '65 was your Father's bike? Did he remove the fishtails? They were an item that the previous owner of my Father's '65
removed to make it look like a "new" Harley and replaced with AMF style mufflers.

I new that owner well and new where he kept those mufflers, the half moon boards he removed along with the bag rails etc. They were above his garage. I went to grade school thru high school with his son. He also experimented with his pinstirping skills on the original paint sheet metal - which luckily I still have and were used with the color matching for Hi Fi Blue.

That owner got divorced, his wife sold the house and some very rare parts got lost.... and I spent a good bit of time finding NOS replacements.

[rbenash]

Paint

On another note. I know there are great folks out there doing paint work on Hi Fi color matching, etc.

Things is that all of the new mixes use mylar not silver flakes in the undercoat. That's what makes the resto Hi Fi colors look "off"

Paul Friebus mixed real silver undercoat for my bike - yes, he had a can of HD silver powder and mixed the undercoat himself.

The other thing that folks do wrong with Hi Fi colors is that they put a clear coat on top along with the mylar silver base - it just doesn't
reflect light as the original.

Original hi fi had silver based undercoat and the translucent coat and NO clear coat.

Paul Friebus custom mixed the base and the translucent Hi Fi blue on my bike to match the original paint metal I provided.

When side by side at meets with factory Hi Fi Blue you can't tell the difference as a result.

As far as the white and striping on the tanks - same thing. He custom mixed the white to match. As far as the striping and white pattern on
the tanks he used the originals as a model. He used mics from the badge mount holes to measure and match the track of the white paint and
striping curvature and did an exact replication using that method.

HD didn't do or have any real paint patterns for '65 IMHO in that they did each tank half as a one off. All original '65's if you look under the seat towards the
front will show and offset or mismatch on the white paint striping when mounted on the bike between the tank halves as a result.

I show those photos on previous posts.

Getting that white pattern and striping right is HARD and most people get it wrong. The also get the Hi Fi colors wrong too, Hi Fi Blue being the hardest to
get right IMHO.

Just some random thoughts. If doing a restoration best to do solid colors instead IMHO.

[craig (DE)]

Great looking bike John. Sorry to hear about your wife!

[ryan]

Great looking bike John. Sorry to hear about your wife!

Ditto, ditto and again ditto!

[rbenash]

So cool that you'll get that '65 back out again!

[harleycats]

Getting close