American Car and Foundry

The original name of the American Machine and Foundry Company (AMF), which took over Harley-Davidson in 1969. It started off in the railway rolling stock. When rebadging Aermacchis as Harleys and floating itself on the Stock Market wasn't enough to keep the company going, Harley-Davidson bowed to the inevitable and sold out to the American Machine & Foundry Company. The years that followed would be seen by many as a disaster, with over-production of poor qua* machines by an ownership which didn't understand the motorcycle. The reality wasn't quite as simple, and there's a case for saying that Harley-Davidson would not have survived the 1970s without the AMF takeover. For better or worse, AMF logos began to appear on Harley-Davidson fuel tanks. However, when the company was eventually bought out by its own management in 1981, these logos were the first to go.