I have #1065. I was the third owner when I bought it. It had been fiddled with by the previous owners to the point where getting it back to original stock condition would not have been easy. But I tore off all the junk and put it back so it LOOKed sort of stock. The bike was my daily ride at the time, so I did replace that uncomfortable Sturgis seat (still have the original), and the cans had dents, scrapes and corrosion to the point were they were junk. Replaced them with drags.
After riding around the Houston highway for a couple of years, then engine (especially the front side) and tranny were pretty sand blasted. I rebuild the top end in '99 and painted the engine and tranny with high temp flat black paint. On the top end and inner Primary, I had the rest of the powder coat stripped and redid those with Poly Dyn (teflon). This is a very durable coating that did not have the same problems as the powder coat.
So the bike looks pretty much like an original Sturgis especially when I put the OEM seat and backrest on it. I have the wind screen and all the bits that would put it even back to even closer original condition.
I don't intend to get rid of it. It is my little bike. But it needs some TLC since the tranny is shot and needs rebuilding. When my round tuit arrives, I am gonna rebuild it completely - splitting the case and gutting the tranny. I will rebuild the engine and install a 6-spd Builder's Kit in the tranny. Will still keep it LOOKING as close to stock as possible though.
Good luck with your project. Let us know what number your bike is, and take pix of the project as you go. Will be great to see it in-process.
Here is my top end project from '99:
1991 Sturgis Rebuild - 1999 Slideshow by TQuentin1 | Photobucket (when the slide changes, move your mouse to see the caption - you can also slow down the transition speed)
Cheers,
TQ
