Old Thumper. Allison Park, PA
Looking through one of my photo albums today and came across some photos of my first Harley-Davidson and scanned a few of them to share.
Around 1972 I purchased a 1963 Harley FLH Police bike that was pretty beat up but still ran. I paid $600.00 for it. After only riding it once or twice, I decided to turn it into a chopper. At that time several of my riding buddies had choppers so that is what I wanted too.
Stripping it to the bare frame, I did metal fabrication (cutting out the frame tube above the engine and welding in a contoured plate), completely rebuilt the engine and transmission, had tons of parts chromed, extended the forks 8", had a 21" front wheel laced to the stock front brake, designed and built the sissy bar and foot clutch assemblies,( I wanted a jockey shift) and fabricated a shifter from an old Knights of Columbus sword. I then painted her myself (I had painted other motorcycles for my friends before this one) with candy apple red and did all the gold leaf work and smothered her with many coats of hand polished clear lacquer. After fully wiring and reassembly was completed, I enjoyed many miles of riding.
Wish I had a photo of the old police bike that I purchased before I started but I wasn't much into photography in those days.
I'll have a couple more photos to post tomorrow.
Old Thumper. Allison Park, PA
Looking through one of my photo albums today and came across some photos of my first Harley-Davidson and scanned a few of them to share.
Around 1972 I purchased a 1963 Harley FLH Police bike that was pretty beat up but still ran. I paid $600.00 for it. After only riding it once or twice, I decided to turn it into a chopper. At that time several of my riding buddies had choppers so that is what I wanted too.
Stripping it to the bare frame, I did metal fabrication (cutting out the frame tube above the engine and welding in a contoured plate), completely rebuilt the engine and transmission, had tons of parts chromed, extended the forks 8", had a 21" front wheel laced to the stock front brake, designed and built the sissy bar and foot clutch assemblies,( I wanted a jockey shift) and fabricated a shifter from an old Knights of Columbus sword. I then painted her myself (I had painted other motorcycles for my friends before this one) with candy apple red and did all the gold leaf work and smothered her with many coats of hand polished clear lacquer. After fully wiring and reassembly was completed, I enjoyed many miles of riding.
Wish I had a photo of the old police bike that I purchased before I started but I wasn't much into photography in those days.
I'll have a couple more photos to post tomorrow.