Need to put this all down because it is silly and I want to document it.
I have been really looking at restored WLA Harley's, full military regalia, gun mounts the whole shebang. I am not sure why but I have been attracted to really anything made from 1932-1948ish my whole life. Especially things that used to be military and then converted to civilian life. 32 Model A's turned into racers, belly tanks use on the salt flats, old flatheads turned into choppers.
I just love the idea that really anybody with a could make something and make a good bit of the parts themselves. Spent a good bit of time looking for a WLA/WLC and there are fully restored bikes and not much else out there. So fun to own, not a lot of fun to operate over the long haul and keep then accurate. Add in that I adore my panhead frame shovel powered chopper which is a rolling pile of different parts and even love my stupid ratty hardtail so I started looking for a decent flathead start.
I wanted a good motor, magneto ignition and some small projects to perform to get my feet wet. Did not care about originality because I am going to ride the thing and I did not want to worry about finding year specific parts for the bike.
So this popped up on eBay, was winning the bid and then it just disappeared with BIN. Was a good bike, fresh motor with 10 miles, magneto, it was originally built by a shop for a client ~25 years back and he ran out of money in the end and they did not finish everything. Was setup like a frisco chopper with a pedal clutch and no front brake, not the right carb, not wired completely. So cheap enough for me to work on and I could have fun. Clearly a civilian WL not a WLA which actually makes it significantly rarer but no more valuable.
I sent the owner a quick text after the BIN was used by someone else and they did not complete the deal I would take it. Continued my search for about another week plus and get a text out of the blue that it is available. Buyer of course never even contacts the seller. Cool I own the bike. Uncool did not read the description right and it's in a town in New Mexico. Call my usual shippers to see about getting it picked up. Cheapest bid was 1550$ from a reliable carrier and they were at least a month plus out.
So took a day off work left San Diego at 9:00PM went to New Mexico with a rented trailer and my dad in tow and 25 hours and ~1750 miles with a few stops to look at cool stuff it was back in the garage. Lots of fun adventures, Dad and I got to talk for 20 hours or so when he was awake. Got to see the the white sands proving grounds. The largest fiberglass pistachio, which surprisingly almost all my family have photos with when doing cross country drives.