Tuesday, March 31, 2009

staggered

This pic is from a month ago, kind of neat, we were trying to figure out the best way to fit them on a lift. You can see the pic of all 11 motors in the previous entrees.

whoa man!!

Monday, March 30, 2009

38 to 47 oil pressure switch terminals!!!!!!!

Today was a great day. For the last six months I have been working on making an acurate reproduction of the push on terminal for 1938 to 1947 harley davidsons. Well I finally got them back from plating this weekend, and put my first one on a project bike. I have spent over 600 bucks on making these things. The break even point for this project is too far away to think about. At least I have the correct terminals for my customer bikes, my bikes and my friends bikes.

Noose ends


I started wiring the other 46 bobber today, I did self made terminals on most of the terminals. These are so neat looking.

A first for me

This is a n.o.s. (new old shit) front knucklehead. When hd machined the casting, the sunk the cutter into the head a little to deep, and cut into the combustion chamber. There is no way this bike would idle correctly with a gaping hole in the intake port. I welded it up and fixed the head into a useable piece. Any day that you learn something, or see something new is a good day.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

extra parts!!!

here is one of the empty cans of oil that came with the bike. It also came with a couple of glass jars of oil too.
Here is the muffler cover, it has a bunch of old grease on the back side. Pretty neat!

Here are some aircooled plugs too. There are some nos switches too, I have never seen a spark plug box like the one at the top of the picture. Pretty neat stuff.



Here is a n.o.s. chain, in the box. There was a n.os. hummer chain too, it is in the box below it. The funky chain at the bottom came with the bike too.


The 49 take offs.

Here are the screws for the fork tins, the rear floorboard bolts, and the original paint peacock blue hinge bolts. Al didn't throw anything away, this is so cool!!
Here are some n.o.s bags with old parts in them. Al put the used parts in the bags that the new parts came in.

The bike has -55 d rings on the heads, I was kind of bummed out about them and we planned on taking them off. The boxes of extra parts had the original panhead cover screws in it, all 24 of them are there. It is pretty neat that they stayed with the bike all these years.




Here is the original cycle beam headlight, the bike has a t3 motorcycle sealed beam on it now, It is pretty cool that it is still there. The bike also came with a really old rear chain, I am pretty sure it was the original chain. The original owner wasn't the type to throw things away.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Our new 49 panhead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The bike came with the oil tank mounted oil filter and lines, but it apparently cracked the tank, so Al updated it with a -50 filter.
Look at that proud new 49 owner. This bike rocks it on so many levels!!

Actual mileage, I don't know what the cotter pin is for??




I don't care for the little sportster muffler, the bike came with the 48/49 only muffler cover, but it was missing the 41 to 49 muffler. I wonder where or if I can get an accurate reproduction muffler? lol!!!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

da da duo glide doo wap

I put a 64 chassis together today. I don't really work on half frame rocket ships too much so I was kind of intimidated by it, but once I got started it wasn't bad at all. I actually enjoyed it. I love those round swing arms and upper shock covers, they are so cool looking!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

fire in the hole.

I fired this bike up today. There are a couple of things that need to adjusted, besides putting the headlight bracket and headlight on it. This bike fits me like a glove. I will build one for myself. Second bike that we have started up in the last six days, I wish we could have more weeks like this.

Monday, March 23, 2009

another 46 bobber

PURTY WHEEL!!! I love these little cms hubcaps, I bought a bunch of n.o.s. ones from Tom Faber, but the chrome was bad on all of them, so I had to get them replated. They still look really cool though. Our 46 from Watertown had one on the front wheel, when we got it, it is the only bike that I have had that was equipped with them for a long time.
Rolling Chassis making progress.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

another one bites the dust

I made a lot of progress on this 46 bobber over the weekend. I will be firing it up tomorrow. I am pretty excited.

Mechanical rear brakes

This picture makes all the hard work of parkerizing, masking and painting worth it. man o man


I can't think of very many things that are as pretty as a properly restored rear brake.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Wicked Biggest Loser

I heard about the wicked biggest loser contest on www.cyrilhuzeblog.com today. The contest is like the biggest loser, but for motorcycle people. Chris Callen set it up, and I talked my dad into getting into the competition. I am going to work him like a dog, to get his weight down. I am excited to see how much weight he loses

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

53 fl 80% done

Here is a pic of a 53 I have been picking away at lately, still have to wire it, trim fenders, etc.. It's a pretty bike, and I like working on it, surprisingly?

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

clutch pedal stop!

Since I am running the short floorboars, I don't use the oem front floorboard mount, This is no big deal on the brake side, but I ran into a little problem with the clutch pedal stopping in the correct position. I adaped a 45" and early knucklehead set up to the late style clutch pedal and bracket.
Here you can see where the forked piece was lengthened. I had to reinforce it with triangular pieces of metal to prevent twisting, and to make the clutch pedal stop in the correct spot. I also had to weld a keeper on the tang of the metal disc. I just hated the idea of the pedal being rocked 30 degrees past the correct stopping point.

Here is a pic of the bracket and seat mounted on the bike. I still have to parkerize it.
Here is the front mount, This goes in the seat post hole, The pivot is a vl shift quadrant, and the bushing is from a 39 to 65 shift pivot.


Here is the finished piece.

Here it is welded onto the bracket. The bracket is an o.g. buddy seat bracket that I twisted and cut up.





Here is one of the bungs that the seat springs sit on. I cut a groove in them, so that they slip over the bracket that bolts through the top fender mounting holes.


Monday, March 16, 2009

The ultimate 36 to 57 axle plate fix!!!

This pic is pretty neat, I wish I knew how to make it spin on the computer screen.
Close up pic check out the xe7-dtf-3. This is the coolest fix, I am so excited to use them on frames

Here are the replacement pieces for the left axle stay, I still have to machine them, but your get the paint



Here is a chopped axle stay, I have four frames that need the centerstand section welded back on.


Late 47 Necks!!!!

I had a late 47 bigtwin frame in for re tubing at the shop, so I made a mold of the neck, and had some waxes poured, I have a lot of money in these molds and waxes, but I am pretty confident that it will work out in my favor. Check out the xe-35 and hallmark detail!!!
Here are the five waxes I had made. I am only going to cast up five at a time, to see if they work. If I can get the fixtures and tooling dialed in, I will make more, probably bullneck castings too. I would hate to go through all of the work and expense, for the project to not turn out. We will see how it turns out.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

short floorboard mounts

I had to twist the rear brackets for the floorboards so that the boards went up at an angle. This is what the front bracket looks like on the left side. The bolts are n.o.s. seat mounting bolts, and the spacers are knucklehead coil spacers that I drilled out for a 5/16 bolt.

Here is what the the bracket looks like for the right side. These boards are so cool! I think I will cast up a couple of aluminum pairs.

ELC gas lines???

I bought these lines in Davenport this year with a bunch of other parts. I am pretty sure they are for an ELC (military Knucklehead)

They are set up for 42 to 49 compression fittings, I would love to use them on a bobber, but they would start to leak pretty quick. I have never had much luck with nos rubber products, and the thought of using them with gas kind of scares me.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

motor pic2009

Here is a pic of my dad, Jesse and me with 11 motors. What a bunch of work....
Laying on a bed of knuckleheads isn't as comfortable as you would think.
Notice how my shoes have been removed.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Daytona memories

Here is a cool pic that Horst took of me riding on the beach, I was really close to the water, I think it looks really cool. I was only this close to the ocean for 10 or 15 feet. I pressure washed the whole bike as soon as we were done with the shoot.

Here is another pic Horst took of me showing Micheal Lichter how to work a rocker clutch.

Here is a pic I took of Horst, I like this one because it looks like he is dodging a falling tree.