1920 Harley Model F

[T. Cotten]

Half a day!

I could make a living charging four hours.

Sad but true, it does take that long.

....Cotten
PS: Yeah, better solder the friction washer. But not much if you can..
Its included in the flat rate.

[TechNoir]

Thanks cotten, I will go back to the washer before I move on.

Regarding the age old question of cost and value, if you look back at post #67 in this thread (page 7) you will see that the PO paid a guy to rebuild the engine, gearbox, magneto and carb. the bill, in todays money, was about $12k and I am not sure if anyone would want to pay that now. I am certain that the $ represented the time taken but people these days would probably balk at that sort of bill.

Half a day to do the butterfly is my estimate on the assumption that there were a few to do and you got good at them but thinking about it I am not so sure how many Schebler "H" carbs one could expect to come through the door in an average year. Certainly in the UK there would be very few so I am not about to change career.


John

[T. Cotten]

I'm fighting nine on the bench right now, John,..

And they are winning.

...Cotten

[TechNoir]

I'm fighting nine on the bench right now, John,..

Maybe there is a future for me as the European arm of Cotten Enterprises?

John

[TechNoir]

Rewinding a couple of weeks, I needed to repair one of the footboards. The original footboards are badly corroded:



but I have another pair in better condition. These are 1916 boards as they have a few remnants of grey paint and no rivet holes. One board however had had a horrible repair where they are riveted to the pivot arms so some time last year I had repaired it and so now I just needed to fix them to the pivots and then glue the NOS rubbers on.







On to today

I took some time to fettle the carb and then set to finding and fitting the last few small parts. Te sun was out so I blew up the tyres and moved it outside.

The right tank had previously been stripped to bare metal and repaired. I obviously didn't want to leave it bare metal so I have painted it and started to add fauxtina. It is not designed to try to fool anyone but just to make the tank not look too new. I have left the various dents and I will probably add to the fauxtina as I go, certainly the decals are still too bright. The left tank has been left red. I know it is the "wrong" colour but I actually quite like it.

At some point I might fit the original tanks just to see how they look.










I still need to go through the bike and check everything and make any necessary adjustments and then add fluids and see if it will spring to life. This will happen in the next week or so so watch this space.

John

[T. Cotten]

Maybe there is a future for me as the European arm of Cotten Enterprises?

John

Only if you have a small fortune you want to turn into a tiny one, John!

....Cotten

[brettxlch]

Rewinding a couple of weeks, I needed to repair one of the footboards. The original footboards are badly corroded:



but I have another pair in better condition. These are 1916 boards as they have a few remnants of grey paint and no rivet holes. One board however had had a horrible repair where they are riveted to the pivot arms so some time last year I had repaired it and so now I just needed to fix them to the pivots and then glue the NOS rubbers on.







On to today

I took some time to fettle the carb and then set to finding and fitting the last few small parts. Te sun was out so I blew up the tyres and moved it outside.

The right tank had previously been stripped to bare metal and repaired. I obviously didn't want to leave it bare metal so I have painted it and started to add fauxtina. It is not designed to try to fool anyone but just to make the tank not look too new. I have left the various dents and I will probably add to the fauxtina as I go, certainly the decals are still too bright. The left tank has been left red. I know it is the "wrong" colour but I actually quite like it.

At some point I might fit the original tanks just to see how they look.










I still need to go through the bike and check everything and make any necessary adjustments and then add fluids and see if it will spring to life. This will happen in the next week or so so watch this space.

John

Cant wait too see her fire up, please film it , so we can see and hear...I envy you guys wid the ways and means to collect these bikes...

[TechNoir]

Cant wait too see her fire up, please film it , so we can see and hear...I envy you guys with the ways and means to collect these bikes...

Thanks for the comments.

I will film the bike once I have it running which might be soon or might be a while away depending on how the planets line up.

Regarding the "ways and means to collect these bikes" I probably have less means than many to spend on bikes and make up for it by buying things than need work. I have paid my dues for many years fixing up bikes and cars on the driveway and on the road outside in all weathers and it is really only in the last few years when I have had a better workshop and a bit more cash.

John

[Steve Swan]

Thanks for the comments.

I will film the bike once I have it running which might be soon or might be a while away depending on how the planets line up.

Regarding the "ways and means to collect these bikes" I probably have less means than many to spend on bikes and make up for it by buying things than need work. I have paid my dues for many years fixing up bikes and cars on the driveway and on the road outside in all weathers and it is really only in the last few years when I have had a better workshop and a bit more cash.

John

Ditto what John says!

[TechNoir]

I need oil and fuel to start it up. I was out of SAE50 non-detergent oil so I ordered 25 litres which was only 2x the cost of ordering 5 litres. I think it arrived on Friday whilst I was at work but because it needed a signature got delivered to next door. That is fine but next door had gone away for the weekend by the time I got home so the box (which I hope is oil) remains in their hallway, visible but out of reach. I didn't hang about outside my neighbours house for too long as because I didn't want to get ambushed by Paparazzi

I felt unwell on Saturday, I think it was something I had eaten and still didn't feel great on Sunday but did manage a bit of progress.

I spent a bit of time seeing if it was possible to adjust this, I have highlighted with blue arrows what I am referring to.



After a bit of time I came to the conclusion that it is impossible to adjust the "hand" brake to a point where it might be useful. It has to be fitted in the UK as the law when this bike was new required a bike to have two brakes although the law didn't specify if they had to be on different wheels so HD opted to fit the "hand" brake as standard for the UK market which was an optional extra in the USA.

This brake is dismal. The only thing it is of use for is to stop the bike rolling back when stopped on a hill which leaves your left foot free to operate the clutch. There is no way to improve on it by adjustment and setup which I knew before I started but i think I just needed to remind myself.





Another optional extra needed some attention. My bike has the optional front stand, from what I can tell this is a fairly uncommon item. The issue that needed attention was the clip that holds it up.

Here is the stand hanging down



And here is the clip that holds it up



The problem is that this pin has sheared off (highlighted by red arrow)



It was a simple matter to drill it out and silver solder a new pin into place.



And reassemble. Getting it all together with the pre-load on the spring did prove tricky but I did it eventually.



More next week when I get the oil.

John