Bronco Bronze Chapter 1 - Teardown
We introduced this 1952 Harley-Davidson FL Hydra Glide in October 2020 when told the story of Prism Supply owner, Jake and Zach Hindes, buying the bike from the seller who passed it off as a “pile of rust”.
Today, we’re working closely with Dice Magazine and Harley-Davidson to do a mechanical restoration on Bronco Bronze as we’ve affectionately named it as a node to the factory paint color “Bronco Bronze Metallic” it proudly boasts.
While our friend William Simmons helps us document the process by way of video, we’ll be showing you a chapter-by-chapter blog series of our progress. We’re officially done with the tear down and all of the individual components have been disassembled from the frame. We’ve even broken into the engine thanks to Duane’s Powertrains - more on that in the next chapter.
So far, we’re really encouraged by what we see. Below, we’re going to walk you through a few critical moments of the teardown and detail exactly what you’re looking at and why it’s a good (or bad) sign as we push toward this restoration.
Documenting the bike with William Simmons one last time before we tear into it.
Admiring the bike one last time in its untouched state.
This is the original owner’s Freightliner employee parking pass from Charlotte, NC.
Ben and Mitch working on taking the tanks off.
Dumping the years of grim from the tanks while admiring the surprisingly good condition and original paint.
The original wiring harness making an appearance beneath decades worth of crust.
We’re hoping to reuse this peaked windshield, but getting it to come clean may be a little tricky.
Even though the speedometer reads 32,494, the components (bearings, bushings, etc.) sure do look good. The bike must’ve been treated really well.
Dean questioning why someone would chrome the original primary cover.
Half a century worth of gunk.
And the engine is out, one busted finger later.
Pretty wild thinking about the age and condition of this bike and engine - all the places this bike’s been and seen - excited to hear this engine start up again.
Last moment it’ll be a roller before the full mechanical restoration.
Stay tuned for Chapter 2 where we’ll dive into the engine itself and start bringing all of the original components back to life.
