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The front fork shelf

The spare front-ends don't fit in a tub.
OK, most all the tubs in the Gorilla Rack are done, now to the top shelf to unpack the front ends and organize things.

As you can imagine, I just tossed a lot of stuff up here as I unpacked from the move to Florida.

I did have the Gorilla Rack in California, although the shelves are pretty crappy chipboard, I made the top shelf from some laminated wood from Home Depot.

One day I will get all this stuff apart and make an early model front-end for my 1962 Sportster.

It only occurred to me recently that I can bolt the earlier side-mount drum brake to the 1964 and later front end.
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Right off the top, there was an early Sportster trumpet horn and a handlebar riser cover on the top shelf. I tossed them into the tub with the gauges.
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There was also some tin from the front forks. This exact piece is bent on my 1952 K-Model, so I tossed this on the K-Model workbench. I will figure out if this one is repop and post the differences.

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I had a couple of fiberglass fenders on the top shelf. The white one is a custom part made by a guy in Nevada or Utah. He took forever to make a tank and fenders, after taking my money, so good riddance, I will sell this off on eBay. The blue fender is genuine XLCR stuff. I got it when I bought an XLCR tank to replace the self same fiberglass tank I just mentioned. The original tank leaked at the seam, the replacement bubbled up in places. No, I will take steel for gas tanks, if only so there is no fireball after the crash.
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I love the older chain guards. The progression of Sportster chain guards mirrors the decline of American industry might. The older piece on the bottom is clearly the nicest, with the part getting crappier and crappier until by the 1970s they were just a cheap piece of tin.

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This little piece of tin goes just in front of the bottom lip of the rear fender. I used to toss them, until I realized it keeps the rear fender form vibrating and cracking.
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Here is the first early-model front in as packed by Spartan Movers in California.
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Pretty complete, the sliders are chromed, and the factory used cadmium plating. Sportster_garage_front-end-shelf-08
The brake cable tube got bent in the move.  I can hammer this straight.
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Here is the second front end as-packed.
Sportster_garage_front-end-shelf-10The cadmium plate is rough, but better than chrome. I hope the bushings are tight, this might be the basis of a keeper.Sportster_garage_front-end-shelf-11
The stem on the triple tree is not parallel to the fork tubes on these early front ends.		 border bar
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The third front end that was carefully packed by the movers in California. Sportster_garage_front-end-shelf-13
This one looks newer, but still might be a good parts source. Another set of chrome sliders-- drat. Sportster_garage_front-end-shelf-14
The third front end had the non-parallel setup between fork tubes and triple tree.		 border bar
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I also have a couple fork tube mounts. This one looks like the tubes are more parallel to the triple clamp.

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Same deal with this triple tree and clamp-- it looks more parallel. I set another triple clamp up against it, and you can see that it is different. 		border bar
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This shot shows how different the two triple clamps are. They are both early steel with the mounts for the "eyebrow" headlamp mount, but radially different geometry. It might be one was for 1973 and later brakes or maybe something else changed in the frame rake. There is a guy on eBay, Camaneye I think is his handle. I am hoping he can clear this up for me since he does gorgeous restorations of Sportster front ends. Once we figure it out, I will post the differences in the BOM section.

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You can see the differences in the triple clamps in this shot too. One has webbing and the other simple oval hole.
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The front ends came with a wheel, This is a stock steel rim and the pre-1964 side-mounted brake.

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The other wheel is an aluminum rim. It is way lighter, I will take the tire off the other one and post the exact weight difference.
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I bought these fork tubes for the early front end over a decade ago-- yeah, been meanin, and round tuit. Now that I am unemployed I hope to have time to rebuild all this stuff.

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Down on the floor I had a late-model front end for tubes.
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I designed a Bates style headlamp mount and had a machinist buddy make me up one. Its pretty nice, but I don't have my 1996 any more.

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Here is the Gorilla Rack re-organized. I have that one tub to still do, and I need to look at the engines on the bottom shelf to see what they have or what they need.
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