How to Restore Your Military Harley-Davidson, 1932-1952 (Authentic Restoration Guide) [Paperback]

Bruce Palmer III (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1998

During WW2, Harley-Davidson plunged its reso urces into the war effort, building some 88,000 bikes for mi litary purposes. This book shows how to restore the most pop ular Harley-Davidsons built for military use between 1932 an d 1957. '

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Motorbooks International (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0760304297
• ISBN-13: 978-0760304297
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,024,299 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great companion to "How to restore you Harley-Davidson", December 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Restore Your Military Harley-Davidson, 1932-1952 (Authentic Restoration Guide) (Paperback)

Bruce Palmer is already well known for his book: "How to restore your Harley-Davidson", that is considered world-wide as the bible on restoring older HD's. His new book is presented as a companion to that book. So it does not cover the restoration process itself but concentrates on describing the correct parts and finish. It gives detailed descriptions of the relation between engine-numbers, war department registration numbers and U.S.Army contract specifications. All military HD's built between 1932 and 1952 are presented. In total 38 types, including of course WLA (For the 42WLA alone 7 flavors are distinguished) and WLC, but also XA, the big twins and others. Very valuable for WLA restorers is the matrix describing all parts that differentiate the 17 types of WLA (40WLA - 52WLA).

Using both books it is possible to restore your military HD to factory-fresh specification. An exception is the rare experimental XA (the BMW R-71 clone) that is described to great detail in this book, but lacks support from the first book.

Restoring to `motor pool' specification (bikes as seen in the field) is not treated in the book beyond the pointing to common pitfalls. For unit markings the reader is deferred to U.S.Army publication AR 850-5. There are about 250 pictures in the book. In general I would have liked more photo's of bikes in actual use to support the restoration to `motor pool' instead of `factory fresh'.

This is really a most wonderful book, that is bound to get again the label 'bible' attached to it. And rightly so! In my classic HD club there's always a lot of discussion on what is right and what is wrong for a certain WLA or WLC, and until now nobody was really convincing because the supporting material was lacking. From now on if anyone disagrees with this book, he (she) better provide proof! In short: recommended!

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars please add this to my initial review..., August 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Restore Your Military Harley-Davidson, 1932-1952 (Authentic Restoration Guide) (Paperback)

The pictures are in general too small. I would like them at least twice as large.