Hey all. I've been reading around trying to ID an ironhead frame I picked up in a swap. It has been chromed and it appears whoever had it done also smoothed out smoothed all the castings, deleting any identifying numbers. So long story short, I thought I would ask the experts what I got just to make sure I'm not chopping up a chunk of valuable history......pics attached. Looking for approximate year. I believe I also have the swingarm somewhere in the parts bin, also chromed.

 

Looks to me like a 67-72 Ironhead frame, but I'm no authority on all the possible nuances.

A "Date Code" MAY still be there on the boss to the right of that hose clamp (if the date code hasn't been ground off, it would be a 2 character code, like C1, right side of bike, not left). Failing that, here's two of the best resources I know of, that might help you to identify exactly what you have:

http://sportsterpedia.com/doku.php/techtalk:ih:body01w

https://www.harleykmodel.com/technic...mes/index.html

 

Yep sporty

 

Yes, but since the frame has been ground and chromed it's no longer historically valuable, right?

 

Welcome to the forum. Looks like the frame has a VIN boss and that indicates the steering head is somewhere from late-69 thru early-73. I think the VIN boss was introduced for late-69 (unstamped) in readiness for 1970 models when it would be stamped. This type of steering head then continued thru early-73. But during the 73 model year the steering head was changed and it had no VIN boss although the VIN was still stamped on the R-H side of the forging. The change seems to have occurred when 1973 VINs were in the 46+++ range.

Also notice no braces at the rear of the frame and their absence may help narrow things down a bit more. Braces #47087-74 were added diagonally to the rear of 1973 model frames as per Service Bulletin 656 but that frame doesn’t have them so the lack of braces, when combined with that type of steering head, appears to indicate somewhere from late-69 thru 72.
Eric

 

Seems to fall in the late 1969 category from the advice here. All the references you guys gave agree, and try as I might, there are no numbers to be found. I'm leaning to 69 since I find it hard to believe anyone legitimate would grind enough for the vin to be erased. I get the castings, but most OEMS stamp VINs deep enough that they are hard to obscure. I guess I could try the acid test on the boss to see if anything comes up, but I'm not THAT interested. Thanks for all the help