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Identify Vintage Harley hardtail frame

5K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  dbkp 
#1 ·
Hello,

my Name is Bernhard and I am from Germany. and sorry for my English I am not a native speaker.

by chance I came across an old frame which was in a barn find chopper.
After sandblasting of the heavy molded frame and grind out some of the sheet metal covers, following came up.

The neck is from a shovelhead frame.
It goes from the gas tank mount to half way of the down tubes.

The down tubes goes all the way in one piece from the shovelhead neck welds to the rear axle plates and both tubes have a smaller diameter as the shovelhead neck, the diameter of the tubes are 1 inch, exactly.

the foundry mark at the seat post says "XE-624" and is much bigger as usual.

All joints are brazed, only the visible later additional stuff is welded like the third gearbox bracket. The later done weldings are easy to realize because this ones are bad done, but all the brazing is nicely done

On the down tubes there is some trace braze roundabout 2 1/2 inch above the front motor mount.

The brake window at the left end is open.

but please see the pictures and help me identify the frame.
 

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#2 · (Edited)
1936 or 1937 Knuckle frame with shovelhead neck. Early frames were fully brazed, and 1936 -7 frames had die number on axle plates but no revision code. Would be a '2' on left axle clip for late 37 frame as well as XE-7 die code. Open brake stay is 1936 - mid 37.


Could also possibly be a 1936 frame as the sidecar loops were brazed on and bottom rails were continuous all the way to axle plates. Loops may have been removed.


Large script is Knuckle rear engine mount.
 
#3 ·
I agree with Zeeman. Since the early frames have such a steep neck angle it was common to rake them or just cut them apart for hardtails.

This appears to be a later neck as it has the FX front tank mount. Has the number pad been ground off?
You may find a year/month (A-M) number on the motor mount bracket right in the middle of the top tube that should give you an idea how old the front section is. Also look on the opposite side if there is none on the right side.
 

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#4 ·
I agree with Zeeman. Open brake stay. 1936 and 1937. The factory welded them closed starting mid 1937, until the new closed stay forgings were stocked in mid 1938. The factory also offered the weld on front piece in 1937 so shops could weld them closed there and prevent brake failure on the open stay frames. My friend has a welded closed stay on his early 1938 frame here. I believe this to be accurate. Corrections welcome.
 
#6 ·
It appears the front half of the frame is from a swing arm bike, grafted to a rigid rear. It's more then just the neck.
You can tell the way the frame tubes curve around and under at the front motor mount. Side car loops have not been removed, as it never had any.
 
#7 ·
It is probably a 36 frame with a later shovel neck, backbone, and partial front downtubes. The graft on the downtubes can be seen. The 36 frame had the curve under the front motor mount similar to the swing arm frames. 36 and 37 had the open brake stay. I would say the shovel section was grafted behind the rear tank mount/upper motor mount and midway down the downtubes above the front motor mount. The one year only (36) brazed on sidecar mounts have been removed. Someone would pay good money to get that frame and restore it to full 1936 specs.
 
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