1938UH build

Made more progress. Oil tank is ready for boiling then mocked up and paint w/ an oem 38 decal.

wow. cherry tank

getting things together for cad and chrome plate.

here's the difference from early to late.

what's the different dampner levers ? years?

I've seen 3 different oem ones of this style 37 thru 48. There is two height's of them. Early has a lower profile and is straight. 2nd is a low profile with an arch. 3rd is taller with an arch. Maybe 42 is when they changed the height. Not exactly sure on that. Same part # though.. That goes for the horn switches as well but only 2 different heights on them and they also have the same part # but prewar are brass. But no book will tell you that...

Getting things ready for plating of chrome, cad, park, paint. Friction washers for the dampner and foot clutch needs to be cad plated. Pic of nos ones on how they came from the MoCo.




Then i found the steel insert for the shifter stud which has to be pressed in. Early is a double thread stud and later is the one side thick stud and then even later takes a narrow stud with a brass bushing.

Originally Posted by choppa

Nice! I should have PM'd you and stopped by on the way to Born Free! I went right through. Great job!

No problems there, you should have pm me for info..Maybe next time.
Haven't had much time for the 38. Been busy and then my nephew took himself out with a shotgun last wk. Funerals tomorrow. he was 27 yrs old.

Jesus, 38, I'm sorry to read that. That's way too young. I hope you all find peace sooner rather than later.

Just found this thread. So sorry to read about your recent loss, 38K.

As for the thread, it reminds me of something. My Dad was an amateur astronomer when I was a kid and he had a couple of really nice telescopes. Not the kind of made in china shit that you buy from a catalog now, but telescopes that were worth a grand in the late 70's. I remember looking through those telescopes and seeing the surface of the moon, mars, saturn, jupiter and all kinds of other cool stuff and just thinking, "wow, that's some amazing, beautiful stuff. Total drag that it's so far away and I can only see it by looking into this little viewfinder."

That's kinda how knuck restorations are to me. Haha!

Originally Posted by Nottso

Jesus, 38, I'm sorry to read that. That's way too young. I hope you all find peace sooner rather than later.

Thanks Nottso and nosebleed
It sucks that life can be so bad that thats the way you end it..

...and since I was looking at this at work and was kinda distracted by your screen name, I referred to your Flatty build as a Knuck build, haha. Oops.

This thing is going to be beautiful.

You going to do your own parkerizing? Keep the updates comin'!

Kewl frame, good looking vin and nipples on the cases.
they are a hoot to drive and start.

Originally Posted by billdozer

You going to do your own parkerizing? Keep the updates comin'!

Yes i do Bill. It's easy and i'll post pics on it...
Here's my early transmission plate. Notice the spacing on the front mount holes and the dowel pins. Later does not have the pins but has the same spacing then the mount hole's changed for even later frames. It split on me so i'll weld it and then parkerize it. Last pic is the difference..Just letting guys see the difference in case we run across some transmission mounting plates and what to look for. Left to right. Early knuckle & BT except 36, 2nd- later knuckle & BT. 3rd is panhead and up.

Made more progress. Last night i was able to parkerize some parts. I've been doing this for several yrs and have a pretty good system down..I probly should do a "how to" thread cuz it's really easy. Parts came out nice. Higher the carbon, darker the parts.





Rare rear brake arm 1937-38 only







Then i had a beer

OK... I, as well as quite a few others would really dig it if you could do a "parkerizing" how-to. That looks exactly like what I want to do! The build is comin along awesome, can't wait for more!

I got my generator back from being rebuilt and my early springer rear leg fixed. My good friend Dave Barker @ "Speedmetal" did an awesome job on the leg. I have a mig, not a tig and i figure i would leave this job to the experts as he is worlds beyond my capabilities and a master at what he does. The early rear legs have a "forward sweep" in them for the early 25 degree frames and anybody who doesn't know this would think it was bent. He has a jig to make sure everything is right. The gen and rear leg came out nice and i'm very pleased with both.

off track. I finally picked up my 38 sidecar frame and tub.

Still more progress. 1st is an overall view of the parkerizing setup..pretty simple and the results are great.


I finally scored some oem rear motor mount bolts from Australia and an extra nos brake rod lock so now i can
shim and cinch down the motor properly..


Then i found my nos springer rod bushings.

Next is my early OHV and BT B2 ignition switch and useing nevr-dull to buff up the chrome. Nevr-dull is the shit
to clean anything up.

Is that a matching numbers frame and motor ? I have a 2004 - 110ci Road Glide I'll trade you for that bike as is and I'll bring it to you..