It had been 42 years since the engine locked up. During those years the bike had been through a lot, being moved from spot to spot on the family farm, sitting and collecting dust in the corner of the barn, surviving the barn burning to the ground, and sitting patiently on an old metal milk crate in my father’s shop. The time had come to start the project of restoring my grandfathers 1948 H-D EL Panhead.

It was Christmas of 2005, I had just graduated from Kettering University with my BS in Mechanical Engineering and in a few weeks  would start my first full time job. That job was with Harley-Davidson Motor Company. There was no better time to start this project then now.

Working with my dad we spent several days cleaning and organizing his 16ft industrial shelvis in the shop. The idea was to clean off a space that was dedicated to only old Harley parts and nothing else.

Finally it was time to start working on Grandpas old bike. I began by snapping pictures of any thing and everything. Having started to restore my 1954 Chevy pickup in high school I learned quickly that pictures are worth more then 1000 words, I refused to make the same mistake on grandpa’s Bike.

Four Days and over 700 pictures later my father, Phil, and I had grandpa’s bike disassembled into sub assemblies Every thing had been tagged and sat neatly on the shelves. Pictures were taken detailing bolt directions, wiring routing and anything else that looked important to have, after all the film is free with digital cameras.