Let there be light!

Bouncing all over the place today, Danny's machining, I'm making a new headlight housing because the round bucket never looked good with that tank and oil bag, even after blasting.  Most of the bike is square and hard edged now, needs a light to go with that style......

Groovy, baby!

39mm Showa forks fitted to the Ironhead, now one leg shaved and grooved, one more to go.



Take a seat

wasn't exactly sure how I would feel about the leather seat, whether it would go with the austere and cold bare metal.  The formed aluminum seat did look killer.  But, now that it is on there it really kicks the bike up- and with the leather grips to match it will REALLY look complete, maybe even a small tool case for underneath the oil tank. 

Not bad for a FIRST attempt ever at a scratch built pan, hinge and tooled seat.......

Machining Moderne

Danny machined these simple but ri-donk-ulously complicated art deco risers for the Ironhead.  Completes the top of the streamlined triple perfectly!
Next up:  fork legs......

*Cough!*

*Pow!* * Spit!*  (I'm just guessing that is what it will sound like, being an Ironhead and all).  But,  at least it will look snazzy doing it!

Not entirely sure if this air cleaner assembly merited as much effort as went into it-  3 days to be exact (to form and weld the top, drill and channel it, make the back half fit up to the top half exactly, weld a box on the back that bolts to the carb, and form the stainless mesh into a dome inside).  But, it's done now and at least matches the bodywork and accents of the bike much better than the round cleaner.   In retrospect I would have made the base FIRST,  and made the grill cover out of aluminum strips or rods.  Instead, we formed flat aluminum sheet, then drilled and cut out every channel.  Not a wise use of time IMHO.

Oh yeah, and in doing some final welding I burned through the bottom edge, and had to graft on an entire new piece to wrap under, but you'd never know had we not told you!

In progress.....

Leather seat for the Sporty.  Sad thing is I am not even sure if we will run this at all, as the raw aluminum pan goes with the look of the bike so well.  But,  too much time invested to quit now! 

Exactly the effect we had in mind, with the raw blasted pieces on top of the Detroit Diesel alpine green, with airbrushed Mossy Oak highlights on each tube.  Turned out better than we could have imagined!  Lots more to do but with was HUGE!

Two steps forward, one step back....

It seems that way sometimes when building a bike, but the Sporty is getting frame paint this weekend (hopefully)....

Started to mock up a new air cleaner for the Ironhead- out of aluminum. This one will be tough since I just started forming and welding up the face, with no regard for how I would complete the back side of the assembly. But, damn, it's gonna look unique for sure!

Bodywork teaser

Ran all the bodywork for the Ironhead through the ringer and came out with this-  no full pix 'til the frame is painted!

And quite possibly the coolest sticker that will go on the bike-  Nail Tokyo.  Tak from Nail is who inspired us to build our first chopper, styled after his lanesplitter Harley when we saw him and the NFK in the "Pray For Me"--  Tokyo Thug Style Forever, Forever Tokyo Thug Style!

A Dog's Life

The best dogs in the world deserve the best collars in the world, right?  Contact us for any special requests, from dog collars to belts, wallets, or whatever you can think of.

Layed down a test sample of the paint for the ironhead frame-  Detroit Diesel green with a sage green pearl highlight and clear.  Wow, this camera just doesn't do it justice at ALL!!!!!  This paint in combo with all the bare blasted pieces is going to rule!

BLASTOFF!

Got lots of the parts blasted I need to, all that's left is the bodywork now once we pressure test the tanks.

Need to plumb the brakes of course...

Also got the steering stops welded up.  I had purchased a set of fancy cups with integrated stop, but the stops on the triple clamp were way too small and went right past them!  Found that out as the fork twisted all the way left when I was pushing it and almost dumped the bike.  So, I TIG'd some extensions on the lower triple.

New Shoes

Fresh Dunlop Gold Seal with a a  bunch of freshly blasted parts-  frame will be Detroit Diesel green with some mettalic highlights,  can't wait to see this combo!  All bodywork will be bare blasted.

Smooooooth.......

Never afraid to try anything new-  one of our greatest strengths.  Had an old Indian headlight, and the bezel was dented; when I tried to massage it back in shape the chrome came off.  Crap.  But,  it had copper plate underneath,  I sanded it off, beneath that was brass.  About a half hour of sanding and blasting with aluminum oxide, we got us a fancy and unique headlight setup.  Probably just temporary 'til we can form a new aluminum nacelle for square lights, but it looks great now.