Timbo's '64 FL Restoration

Well here she is, finally complete and out for her last shake down run. We stopped at a scenic area and shot a few pictures before I have to hand her over to the owner, Tim. I took my buddy Sal along. He's the only one I have available to kick start this old gal. Sal owned a couple of Pans in the past, and he has the starting sequence down pat! With gas off, kick her through a couple times, gas on, breaker retarded, half choke and a little throttle, and Ka Bam! She starts right up!Riding the Pan is an art form in itself. The steering is spot on; it will turn on a dime! The suspension is ...

1964 was an interesting year for Harley. it was the last year of the 6-volt electrical system, and last year for the kick-start only. In 1965 they stepped up to 12-volt system and the first electric start and massive batteries started to appear. So let's get started, I removed the primary, to my surprise it had a belt drive in it. Someone wanted a step-up from the original chain drive, unfortunately it's covered in oil that leaked from the main shaft seal and chain oiler that was never shut off. I might be able to save it with a healthy cleaning, we'll talk about that later. After removing the primary drive and clutch, I thought the transmission would be a ...

After the engine was removed from the frame, I mounted it on an engine stand and clamped it to a work mate. This worked perfect, as I have limited working space due to all my daunting, ongoing projects. I got lucky with this engine, as I later found out it had recently been rebuilt and had just .010 over in the bore. However, the rocker covers were both leaking and the front head gasket blew. This was a perfect time to for a complete top end job. I planned to replace all the old leaking OEM gaskets with state of the art new gaskets and seals, and check all the tolerances, while looking for any potential problems. Tear down was straight ...

Well, here we are, past the point of no return. In this chapter I cover the reassembly of the 1964FL restoration. I have been working on this classic for the past nine months. I know it says frame above, but the frame was bone stock, no dings, or mods. The customer requested paint over powder, so off it went. We sandblasted it clean, checked for cracks, magna-fluxed the frame for imperfections, and checked all dimensions for tweaks. This puppy was straight. With new neck bearings and cups from J&P the frame flew back together. We cleaned the paint off the engine and transmission mounts and went to work. Assembly was straight forward, almost the reverse of the disassembly. Engine goes ...

Not too long ago, my good friend Timbo approached me with a proposition, restore his 1964 Harley FL, I agreed. Problem was, it's in a box, literally! So after a brief discussion on exactly what we wanted to do, how much it would cost and the possible value at the end of the rainbow, I started the Hard Ride back from Hell with the old '64. I picked up the bike, basically a roller and all the boxes of parts that came with it. As you probably expected, this will be a frame up restoration as close to factory specs as I can get it. There will be some minor changes, which I'll talk about as we go along. First ...