See the bike build videos on The Time Machine...

Several months back, we were tracking the progress of one of our latest bike builds here on my blog.  The bike being built was quiet a rare one -- a 1942 Harley-Davidson FL Knucklehead.  We captured much of the build on video, and as of today, you can see them in our Time Machine Video Archives!

The project at hand came to my doorstep in an interesting way.  One day at the museum, a fella pulled up with truck and trailer, came up and introduced himself, and let me know he had something that may be of interest to me.   After talking a bit, we made our way out to his trailer and, to my surprise, he uncovered a 1942 Knucklehead.  "Its for sale" he said.  And after a bit of talking, we made a deal.

The bike looked good at first, but after a few days to look at it, we decided it wasn't all that I thought it was.  It was a real "look before you leap" story.    After removing a few parts, and then a few more, then a few more, we had the bike torn down to a bare frame and set of engine cases.   Not were I expected to be.  

So after a bit of brainstorming, we came up with a great project.  Being that very few '42 Knuckleheads were produced, and of those produced, few were available to the public, we decided to build it as a "Civil Patrol" Knucklehead.  Kind of a cross between a civilian bike and a police bike, if you will.

The project was a fun one.  With plenty of parts around the shop to choose from, we scrapped most of the parts that came off the bike, and began building something truly different.  A set of widened gas tanks from Harry Molenaar's old-time H-D dealership in Hammond, Indiana were perfect for the project.  I'd had them for 25 or so years and had been waiting for the right machine to put them on.   Lots and lots of chrome really help to set the bike off as well.  I've been collecting old chrome parts for years, and this was a great opportunity to dig into the stash. 

To many oddities to list went into this one, and when we finished, we all agreed that we had one sweet running piece of motorcycle history. 

Catch the build in our Video Archives, here.

Until next time,

--Dale