Last night Miss Brittney and I trimmed out Vern's tanks for his 46. The emblems are new old stock and fit the tank perfectly. The emblems are just a shade lighter than the sky way blue. Which gives it a really nice contrast. When I was 15, I bought every color of new old stock war time emblem from Frank Fritz at Davenport. I bought one at a time over the course of the weekend. I still have them in my tool box.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
snow pictures and misc. pics
It finally looks like winter in south Dakota. We got four inches of snow and it feels great. We had unusually high temperatures in December and most of January. There was even a day when the temperature was 60 degrees in January, my dad was able to take his o.p. 41 for a ride. This is unheard of for most everyone that calls the Midwest home.
Here is a picture of a clutch pedal that is worn down. I built it up with weld and re staked it, but didn't take any pictures. whoops
Monday, January 23, 2012
chino bike almost switched over and 1946 knucklehead wiring detail shots
WHOA look at this bike mechanic.
Miss Brittney did a good job on this project. Go check it out at the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis from March till August along with a bunch of other great bikes.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Miss brittney prepping the Chino bike for the Eiteljorg Museum in Indy
About a month or so ago we got a call asking us if we would loan the Chino bobber to the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis for six months. My dad said it was no problem. We put together the chino bobber recreation a couple years ago for a show in sturgis, It was based around my dad's 53 panhead with some dulled down parts. It had a cool superior muffler, wla bags and a 49 and 50 rear fender. We never fired the bike up in that configuration. After the show, we put the pepper red sheet metal on it and the backwards facing seat so my dad could haul Mike Lichter across the country on the cannonball run.
Vern's 1946 FL knucklehead
I got a lot of stuff done on Vern's 46 since the last update. The rear fender is on for good as is the rear crash bar.
The front fender and lower horn mount went on very easily. I love final assembly. Pre fitting all of the parts makes this a breeze.
Vern wanted to go with 12 volt electrics because he plans on riding this bike a lot. That means that batteries are more common, the lights are brighter which makes the bike safer. This also solves the problem of finding coils, batteries and light bulbs out in the middle of nowhere if they happen to fail. Plus it only takes three or four hours to switch a bike from 6 volts to 12 volts and the conversion does not damage any original parts. I trimmed the coil cover down and will have it powder painted gloss black next week.
The wiring under the seat is almost done, I just have to make a ground wire and put an end on the positive wire.This is very nice and tidy. all of the wires are shellacked with model airplane dope and the correct 46 47 wiring flags are installed.
The wiring under the seat is almost done, I just have to make a ground wire and put an end on the positive wire.This is very nice and tidy. all of the wires are shellacked with model airplane dope and the correct 46 47 wiring flags are installed.
I took this picture to show the oil lines. They fit up very nicely, because they are all re cad plated originals that have been with the bike since it was new. Check out the parkerized fitting nuts on the overhead oil line. This is standard practice for 43, 44, 45 and 46 knuckleheads. 42 overhead oil lines were nickle plated and 47 overhead oil lines were cad plated.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
46s
I spent the morning working on loose ends on Wayne's black 46. My dad went out for lunch and picked up the sheet metal for Vern's 46. The paint is so nice. Mike did a great job on it as always. The color is Skyway blue which was used in 41, 42, 46 and 47. These pictures make it look lighter than it actually is.
Monday, January 16, 2012
52 motor pics and misc
Friday, January 13, 2012
misc.
Here is a 57 motor that my dad is putting together.
This is a pile of frames that the tubes are getting ground out of. Some guys try to heat up the castings and pull the tubes, we like to grind them out, It is a lot less invasive and doesn't damage the precious original parts.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
back from a 2600 mile trip and a week on the road
Miss Brittney and I went to Minneapolis to build a custom frame, pick up a batch of parts, drop off a paint job and pick one up, then we went to Indiana, then Illinois then back to Minneapolis, and back home. It was a whirl wind adventure and it feels good to be back home working in the shop. I took a couple hundred pictures, and will post some over the coming months. Here is a picture of miss Brittney by the Ohio river in Indiana.
Here is the frame before we put it together.
We worked on it with our good friend Chad Pearson from Pearson Customs. it is quite a bit different from a stock frame, so we used his adjustable custom jig for building chopper frames. The frame we built has pretty much stock dimensions, but all of the tubing and other pieces were different.
After Chads, we went down south to a surprise birthday party for our friend Doug. Scott and Brooke came up from Kentucky to hang out. I got to ride the 29 jd and the blue 46, they were both really nice running bikes. Scott rode one of Doug's 36s. I took this picture of him leaving the garage.
Here is number 5. I love seeing this bike whenever I am in town.
Here is the frame before we put it together.
We worked on it with our good friend Chad Pearson from Pearson Customs. it is quite a bit different from a stock frame, so we used his adjustable custom jig for building chopper frames. The frame we built has pretty much stock dimensions, but all of the tubing and other pieces were different.
After Chads, we went down south to a surprise birthday party for our friend Doug. Scott and Brooke came up from Kentucky to hang out. I got to ride the 29 jd and the blue 46, they were both really nice running bikes. Scott rode one of Doug's 36s. I took this picture of him leaving the garage.
Here is number 5. I love seeing this bike whenever I am in town.
After the surprise birthday we went up to the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa Iowa to pick up a 28 jd. The museum is truly overwhelming. I went to the grand opening two years ago and it was awesome then. In the year and a half since I last visited, the place has filled up with bikes, memorabilia and tons of stuff. You could get lost in that place. John has a motor wall with all sorts of motors from the teens all the way through the mid fifties. This was the only one that really caught my eye because I had no idea what it was. It looks European, but I have no idea, can any of you guys fill me in?
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