Has anyone taken their late model Road King apart for repainting? The reason I'm asking is, I really like the two-tone Turquoise/Sand paint scheme. I've got a source that will repaint my bike for a very reasonable price but I have to do all of the disassembly and reassembly. Does Harley have a manual that shows how the bike is put together?

 

I have an '05 RKC I just finished rebuilding / painting due to an accident last year. Every colored piece on the bike had to be replaced so I did a color change while I was at it. If you have any kind of mechanical know-how it should be no problem. I would strongly suggest getting an official Harley shop manual (it's a good thing to have anyway). Also, go to the grocery store and get a box of some cheap "snack size" ziploc baggies" and a box of the standard size; also get a roll of 2" masking tape. As you start to disassemble the bike "bag & tag" the parts, nuts, bolts, etc and their location (if you want to go that far with it). Do it in sections; rear wheel assembly parts, rear fender parts, front fender parts, etc. The manual will come in extremely handy for the reassemble especially with regards to the required torque specs.

Manual part # should be 99483-07


Brian

 

Do what he said and you should be fine. I NEVER do anything on a bike without the book in front of me.
I was an H-D tech 20 years ago and my co-workers used to give me chit cause I always had a Manual in front of me for every job I did. I just ignored them and did it my way and my "Come Backs" were a very small fraction of what theirs were.
Take your time....Do it right!

 

As posted, take your time, bag n tag.

Mine come apart every winter, for thorough cleaning and detailing. And sometimes, right down to the frame.

Something else that 'may' assist you in your project, key tags. The kind with a string and a small tag. Use them to number your wire connectors, etc. (Actually, I use stick on electrical wire number tags to label them, IF it is one I haven't done before. Leave them on, for the owner's use in the future.)

Also, it sounds sorta 'kiddish', BUT Dad taught me, and I taught both mine, until you have a handle on it, put the bolts back in the holes they came from, provided they aren't gonna be in the way.

Also, a GREAT reference for the 'order' parts go together, is the Parts Book, for your model. They give you all sorts of good pitchers to look at.

AND if you are REALLY in doubt, take pictures as you pull things apart. BUT if you are as puter savvy as I ain't, it'll take ya longer to finger out how to re-access the pics, than it does to jus' hit and miss, bolting it back together.

MOST important???

PRACTICE, first:








IF you can hit a "moving target", jus' think how E-Z it will be to hit an inanimate object, like a gas tank !!! (I KNOW, you are 'farming it out', BUT maybe THIS gotcha ta thinkin'. )




.

 

I am in the process of doing just this with my fat bob after a crash. All good suggestions.

 

If something it is fatal, I do read the manual first. Otherwise, I take it apart and if it all fails, I read the f*ucking manual. It is the weekend thing, I don't do it by the book. On the job, yes.

 

This is a great idea. A friend of mine just disassembled a 30' cabin cruiser and did this. Another thing he did was take polaroids of particularly complicated items before disassembly and put the pictures in the bags with the hardware