Here is a small bit of information on getting this bike back together - least I could do since this site is the major source of information and without it we'd be floundering in the dark.
I bought this bike from upstate NY in November 2020 as a part roller and 3 boxes of bits. The previous owner or perhaps the one before that had started restoring the bike but had stopped. Some parts were rechromed, some not, and the body work was painted red... but it was all pretty much there.
This was what the vendor knew about its history:
"So here is the history as I know it. I got to know the son around some 30 years ago, he was an electrician that come into the place I worked. After a couple of times talking he said he had this bike, would I like to see it. I went to his place and looking at it he told me that his dad ordered new with the speedo and seat special because he want to be able to take his boys out. He said that he used to go out with him on Sundays and ride around back roads. Then when his brother got older he would take it to a small local airport and drag race it. When the dad passed they got it left to both of them. He said that they rode it a couple of times each maybe and it just didn’t feel the same so it sat. I started trying to buy it the very next time I saw him after going to look at it. He always said that they where going to get it going again. A lot of years late he called me to ask about someone to work on it. He took it to this guy and long story short, all he was doing is taking it apart. Each time he went to check on it he would pay the guy some money. Well he got nervous about it and though it just wasn’t going right so he went and picked it up, that’s how it ended up apart. A couple weeks later the guy got busted for selling drugs. Years later again he called me and wanted to know if I wanted to still buy it, I said where and when can I get it. I was surprised when I saw it apart but knowing him I felt good that he had everything and it was still all in good shape. That was my plan to redo it but I really don’t have the time or space to do it.
I hope you get it back on the road and enjoy it."
The bike got delivered to a friend of mine in CT who then shipped it across to me in the UK, is was June 2021 when I finally got my hands on it and gave it to my good friend Tosh who is a very well known old HD [and now Vincent] mechanic here. He had worked on my KRM and has built a WLK motor but this was his first K model engine full rebuild. The strip down showed that the engine was well used [certainly more than the 5722 miles on the odometer] but nothing was cracked broken or terminal - I think the worst thing is an engine that has had amateur hobby mechanics fiddling around and fortunately this was not one of them.
Slowly it all went back together, anything we needed to source we managed to find, mostly from JW Boon in the Netherlands, some from the ebay [not much on there any more I noticed], a few parts from this site but mostly advice, some from friends here and abroad and only as a last resort from Colony/W&W which we managed to keep to a necessary minimum.
You will note from the photos that the bike is not strictly as it arrived to me but it is as original as we can get it [and I want it], scrambler pipes [from someone kindly on here] replaced the stock ones as the front header was beaten to death, buddy seat had been badly recovered, I like the bigger bars, cowbells and magneto - I swapped the Fairbanks that came on my KRM for a Wico and used it on this.
Tosh hollowed out the 6v HD 1960s battery and dropped in 2 small 6v batteries in the cavity - a beautiful touch and a small example of how he does things properly.
Finding the muffler support was the one thing that got the better of me - we ended up using a later one which fitted with a bit of jiggery pokery.
I have never quite worked out the mudguards [fenders to most of you] on the Ks... did they come with short and long mudguards or just long in which case these are later but again finding and paying for a original long rear one is hard - I have an OP front one but its too beaten up compared to the rest of the bike. I did a very simple black spray job and used the template kindly sent to me by one of the members to get the slash [flash?] right - its just tape now, a friend of mine will come and paint it in good time.
Last Saturday we set to kicking it... after about 50+ of those it spurted, futted then fired up and has been 1 or 2 kicks ever since. Its great to ride, comfortable and smooth - really looking forward to getting a good 500-1000miles on it so I can see how it compares to my 750cc. I am a rider and I live in a wet muddy valley so this thing is probably as pristine in these photos as it will ever by - I hope you enjoy it and thanks to those who helped us.