by jOe » Thu Nov 12, 2015 12:06 am
Hi Erik-- I'm with you, all the EARLIER H-D pieces,painted black don't appear to have been primered. My '69 XLCH which was on the assembly line at the same time as the '69 XLH had all the black pieces blasted clean so I can't compare. The sheet metal had much of the original paint and they had no evidence of a zinc chromate primer . That yellow-green stuff is on the frame,swing arm and handlebar riser (on the XLH)and in my estimation it appears to be factory paint. It seems unlikely that an individual would use zinc chromate as a primer, even back in the '70s as other primers were much more easily accessible.
I touched up the chips so the yellow-green primer ,whatever it is, is still under the paint. If it is indeed zinc chromate, it's really nasty, toxic stuff and I'm not motivated enough to remove it right now. Both of these bikes are very high serial numbers and were produced in the Summer of '69.
To me it looks like zinc chromate.
Just wondering if the factory switched over to it at some point.
It wasn't me that did your top end..............someone around here works on K Models?