5 Pitfalls of Restoring a One Year Only Harley Davidson

Restoring any vehicle is difficult. The slippery slope starts with the disassembly, and as you gain speed on your fun project, you may suddenly realize that at the bottom of this slide is a quagmire of parts spread across every horizontal surface you have-and possibly some you don't (kitchen tables come to mind.) That can be followed by the subsequent realization that the only way out is to laboriously prepare and replace each part in an exercise that can feel like climbing an endless staircase.

Restoring a one-year-only 1936 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead appears to be all of that, and somehow more. (By the way, the contours of the Knucklehead engine's rocker boxes kind of resemble human knuckles, hence the name.)

This is a restoration being done by the team at the Maggie Valley, North Carolina Wheels Through Time Motorcycle Museum. Dale Walksler founded the museum in 2002, and after his death in 2021, the amazing place passed into the capable hands of his son, Matt, a walking encyclopedia of two-wheeler knowledge, thanks to years spent alongside his father.

Each year the museum digs through its stash of parts and restores one motorcycle to give away to a lucky museum patron. This year, Matt has documented the rebuild on the Wheels Through Time YouTube channel to give all of us a look into the process.

Missing parts

While the 1936 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead is a project picked for its iconic nature, it is a bold choice for restoration. While looking at freshly-painted parts on the motorcycle lift, Matt quickly highlights just how many of those parts are one-year-only, or were produced in a limited run. Luckily the team started with a very complete bike, but if they hadn't, a project like this could easily get sidelined by lots of parts hunting.

Devil's in the details

The Knucklehead is a machine that underwent near-constant evolution as they rolled off the assembly line from 1936 to 1947. The machine being rebuilt by Matt and crew appears to have been largely unmolested as it still had many of the parts and pieces that would be correct on the 1936 model, but were phased out over time. It's four-speed transmission is one such part. Others include the rectangular toolbox and unique bezel for the tank-mounted speedometer.

Best-available parts for what's broken and worn out

Of course, in a restoration of a bike this old, there will be parts that need replacing. Maybe it's a part too damaged to be brought back to usable shape, but more often it is a wear item. We can't get mad that our hammer has dings in its surface, the same way Matt can't get mad that this bike needs a new rear brake drum.

That rear brake is a mix of original, restored, and reproduction parts, and Matt points out that getting everything to fit together and function properly is critical. Just matching up a bunch of poorly-fitting parts is not a restoration; sometimes success means waiting for better parts to turn up, or re-working the reproduction items that are available.

There are a lot of different finishes

Yes, the total number of parts on a motorcycle may be smaller than on a car, but a simple parts count is not a great indicator of the difficulty of a restoration. Matt points out that even if you have all the correct parts, it can be tough to determine their correct finish, let alone duplicate it. Proper nickel and chrome plating, polish and paint are just a few finishes that would typically be common for restorations like this, and all of them involve processes that are difficult to accomplish at home. Even if you know what parts need which finish, you still have to find the right place to complete the work for you.

Getting distracted

Maybe this one isn't a problem for Matt and his team, but for me it would be easy to get distracted by the thought of how revolutionary the motorcycle he's restoring was when it debuted 88 years ago for Harley-Davidson. Though much of the technology wasn't necessarily groundbreaking in the industry, it was a step forward for H-D, creating a timeless motorcycle that Matt says can easily be ridden and enjoyed even now.

I'd love to try that-and so now I'm distracted, daydreaming about riding this Knuckle around town. Who knew that me working slower would be something I could blame on a restoration that I'm not even a part of?