ID this Harley?

[vintagemxr]

I snapped this picture of a nicely looking Harley at an antique & classic bike show in Phoenix earlier this year. Unfortunately I didn't note the bike info. Can any of you guys ID the year for me?

Thank ye kindly!

Doug

http://www.corgifan.com/forum/HD.JPG

[TorqueMonsterMT-01]

Doug,
That would be your 1952 or 53 FL Duo Glide with a 74cui panhead engine.

There is a slight chance that it is a Hydra Glide, but as far as I know, they were delivered with painted tank bridges instead of the chrome you show in your photo. However, lots and lots of people put the chrome pieces on the Hydra Glide during restorations.

The tank badge places this bike in 1952 or 53.

The only reason I know this is because my buddy had a '52 when I was a young man. He was a painter and airbrush master that lived down the street. I spent a Friday evening making some shift linkage parts for him on the old Bridgeport mill I had in my garage. When I got back from the races on Saturday evening, he had the old bridgeport painted in a nice shade of pearl blue metallic with gray, black and orange flames on the side and a flaming skull on the headstock. Hell of a nice guy.

Cheers,
Jeff

[vintagemxr]

Jeff,

Thanks for the info. I have another picture and the top of the fork crown trim says HydaGlide on it so the bike may indeed be a bit of a mismatch of parts based on your comments about the badges. 1952-53 is close enough for me.

My wife is an artist and she's working on a watercolor painting from the picture. She's curious to know at least what decade the bike hails from and with old Harleys it can be hard to tell. LOL

Thanks again for your input!

(and that must have been one snazzy looking milling machine!)

Doug

[DarthRider]

Jeff -

"...The only reason I know this is because my buddy had a '52 when I was a young man. He was a painter and airbrush master that lived down the street. I spent a Friday evening making some shift linkage parts for him on the old Bridgeport mill I had in my garage. When I got back from the races on Saturday evening, he had the old bridgeport painted in a nice shade of pearl blue metallic with gray, black and orange flames on the side and a flaming skull on the headstock. Hell of a nice guy..."

Got any pics of that Bridgeport?

[TorqueMonsterMT-01]

Dave;
I wish I did have pictures, but I didn't even own a camera back then.

I worked in a machine shop as a teenageer and part of the way through college. As a way to earn extra cash, I would buy old machines and clean them up for resale. I sold that mill about a month after Greg painted it. It wasn't a very good machine, but it was better than not having one. When I bought it, I was told it was used to make Howitzer parts in WW2. It was old and tired when I got it, and my efforts probably added only 5 or 10 years to its life.

Cheers,
Jeff

[DarthRider]

A friend of mine was setting up his beyond-cool shop with old, worn out machines which he would rebuild & refinish "better than new".

Somewhere he found an old Bridgeport, some kind of "deluxe model" with lots of bells & whistles...and flawlessly enameled in kind of a sky blue. Several of us were kidding him about his new gay mill when he told us the story.

This one was from a Hughes Aircraft plant, WWII vintage. It seems Howard insisted all his machines be finished in "Hughes Blue", despite it being wartime and most things being standardized. When Howard spoke, painters of machine tools jumped!

The mill now gleams with polished and "fettled" parts & farkles like nothing you've seen, making the finest "gizmos"...in a lovely "Hughes Blue" livery!

About 25 years ago, this same guy found a very large, complete, perfect condition Snap-On tool cabinet in a Fort Worth pawn shop and got it for the princely sum of $150.00! No one else was the least bit interested in this particular tool set.

It seems when the American aircraft plants were building P-51 Mustangs during the war, the Government commissioned Snap-On to make some very special, very complete boxes with Whitworth tools to service the Rolls Royce Merlin in-line engines...this was perfect for him as he was/is a Brit bike restoration master.

Now he enjoys his Snap-On Whitworths when he is working on his lovely Brough Superior 680.

Years ago I re-named my friend "Doctor Strangemotor", a moniker he still responds to with a big smile!