20's chief blue color

[ssutherland]

Trying to determine if my bike has original blue paint. I have heard it was almost a black color. my thought is its painted black. In the picture of the tank I think, but have no proof that there would be some pin strip around the white.

Does anyone have a color picture of original 20's blue? Is there anything I can use to try and restore the color?

Thanks in advance
Scott

[gharper]

Scott, Tough to tell for sure, that's a Frankenstein of a bike, as I mentioned when we spoke earlier. I was not aware that there was a blue and cream available until 30, or 31, however I'm sure any color could be ordered at extra cost. The paint scheme on the tank looks similar to that, but there would have been either 1 wide solid stripe, or 2 pin stripes at the border on the tank. There would have been double gold pinstripes on the fenders, chain guard, tool and battery box, none on the frame, if it were original. Because the chassis is 25 or 26 and the engine is 23, it was clearly altered at some point and probably repainted. However, what throws me is the blue paint on the engine cases! The entire powerplant, from the cylinder bases down was painted at the factory in red, same as the chassis, or in a matching color if you paid extra for a different color I guess. The painted cases continued into late 20's. It's odd that the engine cases are blue and appear to match the chassis, somebody went to a lot of work! Unless you're doing an all in restoration, clean it up, get it running, source the missing parts and run it as is! Greer's has the chain guard and exhaust system, for a 74" motor at least. You would need to shorten the header pipes a bit.

Keep us posted on your progress!

Gene Harper

[exeric]

As Gene said, just get it running and enjoy it for what it is because the Big Chief is (and were) the best motorcycle in the world in it's day . Early Big Chiefs are very difficult to do, and hard to find parts for. This picture is of my '24 Big Chief, and selling it was the most ignorant mistake I have ever made in this hobby.

bigchief1.jpg