Which man didn't already considered to restore a vintage car or motorbike screw by screw?

Who did it? Family, business and private obligations - there are many reasons to postpone such an adventure - in most cases it will never happen.

But sometimes you just need a kick in the ... to start with such a project - so as me.

I bought the bike - a 45er Flathead (1944) WLA in civil look - in March 2002, as shown in the images aside. After I did some small repair jobs by myself, I drove the bike nearby 10 years. There were always some minor issues, which bothered me, but I never had the drive to fix them seriously.

Until a ride in September 2012, as suddenly a loss of engine power combined with a significant oil smoke out of the exhaust muffler happened. It seems obvious, that the engine might require more attention as usual.

My plan was to repair the engine as much as required and not further. The plan was as simple as wrong!

Because usually a normal guy, with limited budget in time and money - like me - will perform such a project only once in life, I decided to start a restoration log.

On the following pages I picked out the major topics during my restoration project.

Due to the fact, that I'm not a native English/American speaker - have patience with my poetry. Nevertheless, enjoy reading the log.

To read further, just click the blue button on the left-sided navigation bar.

Best regards! - Uwe