INDIAN MOTORCYCLE PRINCESS SIDECAR 1934 - 1939 CHIEF

Description

Princess Sidecar for 1934 to 1939 Indian Chief

Not for a Harley

RARE - you can find earlier and later models of the Princess Sidecar easily but these with transverse leaf springs and brake are hiding! It took us forever to even find a picture of one 

Item condition: Used. disassembled. beginning restoration in surprisingly good condition - for its age

DETAILS: We are offering a vintage 1934-39 era Princess sidecar (Princess sidecar with the later design fore and aft transverse leaf springs and brakes) for Indian V-twin hardtail motorcycles. We understand that there exist adapters that can pair this sidecar with later years of Indian motorcycles. and maybe the 4 cylinder Indian. but this sidecar's soulmate would be a 1934 to 1939 era Indian V-twin (she deserves a Chief!). Look at what you could get them to look like together!! Beautiful couple aren't they?

EXTREMELY RARE!

We have searched for evidence of a sale of this series of Indian Princess Sidecar in the last few years. Using Google. Yahoo and ?ˆ?Keith Martin's Motorcycle Collector?ˆ? as the principal resources. and going back to the late 90's. we have found only 3 of the 1934-39 era Indian Sidecars sold ?ˆ“ 2 attached to Indian motorcycles that had been owned by Steve McQueen (ultra-expensive) and one sold on eBay in 2013 with a 1938 Chief (the sidecar. an earlier version than ours without a brake. is described as being in poor condition and needing extensive work).

FRAME

The chassis is in surprisingly good shape and remarkably original. includes original frame (believed by Wilson Plank. owner of American Indian Specialists. who has made an inspection. to possibly be ?ˆ?New Old Stock?ˆ? [NOS] with scratches and chips from moving and storage).

Frame and attachment parts have what appears. but is not guaranteed. to be original paint with NO evidence that we could see of sanding or bead-blasting and repaint. The clevises that attach the frame to the motorcycle are all there and appear to have original paint and cadmium plating. The springs look to be original with original mounting hardware. The sidecar comes with original brake drum and backing plate and original brake linkage. It appears that it has the original fender. with both fender brackets and fender stiffener. The wheel is original. but the hub. spokes and wheel have been chromed. The hardware appears to be all original except a few nuts & bolts. Even most of the nuts. bolts. tension springs and washers are original. many with ?ˆ?witness marks?ˆ? that mate up. There are several nuts with washer faces. Wooden mounting parts appear to all be original as well. with well defined witness marks and proper spacing.

BODY

It includes an ORIGINAL BODY. This is an extremely rare attribute. Most older vintage Indian sidecar bodies rusted beyond repair and were replaced by aftermarket replicas. This body is the one sold by Indian! There are some rusted pinholes at the bottom (see photographs). No guarantees. but we couldn't find any rust-through in the upper part of the body.  

There was body filler on the outer surface that may have been put there in about 1970 and never finished.  I removed most of that body filler and lightly sanded the surface to reveal the condition underneath.  There are brazed repairs at the front of the body and filling in 4 of what appear to be mounting holes that perhaps held an aftermarket top or sunshade.  

All rust seems to be surface rust (except the pin holes). The door and trunk lid appear to be original as well and we have checked fit and found the hinges mate properly. We don't have the hinge pins. Body stiffeners appear to be original. though someone chromed the small body braces that go under the seat. but those still appear to be original.  

 

WHAT'S NOT ORIGINAL

There may be some items that look to us like they are original but are not. but from what we can tell. the following appear to be either not original or have been altered:

One of the carriage bolts at the front mounting point is wrong.

Some of the nuts have chamfered corners on both faces. so they are probably not original.

WHAT'S MISSING

While we can't guarantee that this is a complete list (we're not sure that we know all the things that were there originally) from what Mr. Plank and I can tell. these are the items that should be there but are not:

The seat and seat back are missing. as are the arm rests that were attached to the body. There is no windshield. That appears to have been an optional or aftermarket item. A wooden floor was originally supplied that covered the square hole below the passenger's knees and extending forward to where the passengers feet go. That floor is missing. The lug bolts that secure the wheel to the brake drum and the break springs and adjuster are missing. Trunk lid key is missing (the latch is there but not the key mechanism). There is no wheel hub nut. a few (I counted 4) body attachment bolts and nuts (I counted 8) are either missing or damaged and should be replaced.

We will gladly cooperate with buyer's packing company and freight forwarder to assure a smooth transaction. but this is an ExWorks shipment with packing not included and all packing and shipping costs and risk are the buyers responsibility.

We are not offering returns or refunds so PLEASE. look carefully at the pictures and ASK QUESTIONS. and ASK FOR MORE DETAILED PICTURES (we already have over 50 pictures we can share) if there are parts that you're not sure about or additional details you'd like to see.  

We reserve the right to pull item from listing prior to close of auction.

Also published at eBay.com