1929 Harley Davidson JD 1200cc given traditional hand painted pinstripes and hand brushed fuel tank emblem.
You don’t get this sort of rare collectable motorcycle come through our sign shop doors too often with the high level of restoration that has painstakingly gone into it by its dedicated owner Darren Young from over South Gippsland way. So I knew it would be a challenge when he walked in with a pile of Harley Davidson books and paperwork under his arm to use as a guide etc, we chatted, a start date was settled on and what I lovely bloke to btw, he loves his old bikes.
So over the last week during the Christmas break I’ve come and gone from the sign shop often, just doing a little at a time, mostly early mornings to midday when I’ve been in the mood and like I said, not rushing as time was on my side, but thoroughly enjoying the work as I went along.
The bright red and metallic gold pinstriping are all hand painted, so too are the “Harley Davidson” tank emblems in red, gold and black. I had a new unopened water slide decal to copy off but Darren was very keen for the badges to be hand painted as he mentioned that he’d never seen them hand brushed before in his travels, so I agreed to give it a shot, it came up bloody lovely although the “Made in U.S.A.” at 3.5mm high in gold was a challenge for the eyes.
I enjoyed this job a lot and I’m grateful for the opportunity to be given a chance at it. The prepping, the reading and studying old pictures prior to laying the brushes on the tinware is the interesting part, my actual work is the fun bit and I certainly hope it gets to hang around and be enjoyed for another 90 years – Cheers Grant
