Working On The Oil Tank

We made a little progress on my oil tank this weekend. I started with a really nice tank from Spitfire Motorcycle Parts. The tank was beautiful, but didn't fit well in the Flyrite Frame with a Sportster motor. Or at least it didn't fit how I wanted it to. That means some chopping was in order. You've seen the past posts where I had to cut the notch in the tank to get it to fit where I wanted it, this time I'm working on finishing it up so it will hold oil again......

The tank with the notch cut and the piece of sheetmetal I'm using to make the tank whole again.

I bent the sheetmetal over some tubing to keep it from creasing.

Trimmed most of the excess away and test fitted it.

Another view.

I marked the new piece so I can trim more excess away....

Then I cut that excess off.

Fits fairly well and works perfectly on the bike.

Larry started on the welding. He tacked it in place then I made some pieces to fill in the square cuts I had made.

The new pieces being welded on. This is the bottom of the tank so I just made the pieces to fill in the gaps. For the top I'll put more effort into it and try to get the pieces to fill in a little nicer and blend better as well.

Larry went ahead and did all the welding that he could and then did some grinding so that the new piece would be more flush. We'll be moving GarCo to it's new location this weekend, but after Larry gets settled in I'll make the last two pieces and finish this puppy up.

Biker Movie Night Vol II

After the food was properly consumed it was time to have some fun and play around before we watched the show. If you've ever been to Garco you've probably met Chubbs the bulldog. Chubbs is a great dog, but he's not right in the head. He loves to try and eat the exhaust of a running bike or even better is the air coming from an air line. If you have a rag he'll take it from you and try to wrestle. You can literally lift him off the floor while he's biting a rag. For some reason Bill jumped up and slapped the inflatable High Life can hanging from the ceiling. I guess Chubbs has never noticed the can before because he went crazy once he realized it was there. He kept jumping up trying to get the can that was hanging TEN FREAKING FEET IN THE AIR!

You can see here that the little bastard can jump pretty damn high for such short legs.

He decided he'd have better luck climbing up on Chopper Ed to get the can. He really did get up here by himself. Ed helped him by leaning over, but Chubbs was all over the idea of using Ed as a ladder.

We ended up outside after Spenser got old faithful the silver mini chopper running. Bill made some "Billshine" for the party and was pretty deep into it by this point. You can see in this pic that it didn't affect his riding skills though.

He got it started and was off again!

Ian started early with the "Billshine" and it seems that it didn't want to play in the same vicinity as the chile. It worked out though because after this it was time to.........

make a ramp and see if they could jump the puke! It was hard to get any pics because of the flash reflection off the ground but I did get a few pics of the fun.

Here's Ian making the grand leap over his previous deposit. He did end up putting the back wheel squarely in it one time and it make a nice splatter.

White boys dancing....well at leas Spenser and Ian are trying.

Luke is scared of whatever move that is that Ian is putting on Ross while Stewie was happily working his cabbage patch.

Outside again where Bill showed his backwards riding skills. I was actually surprised at how well he did.

Working on the projector and PA set up.

Chubbs and Ian going over backwards in one of the roll around seats. That's my Triumph there on the right. I used it as a movie seat.

And the show begins. Like I said, we had issues, but we still had fun and next time it'll work for us a little more smoothly. You can see Bill stole my seat while I was trying to take pictures.

Biker Movie Night At Garage Company Customs.

Whitey has been talking about getting together one night and watching some crappy old Biker movies. Well, it finally happened. Larry and Whitey picked a date and we all showed up for the fun. We kept it kind of small to see how it went, but next time who knows. The movie was Angel Unchained and is a great flick if you're into these old movies. We had sound issues, but managed to have a good time anyway. It'll get worked out better for the next time I'm sure.

Ashley was saying that her and Larry never get a real picture of them together. The pics always get taken after the "beverages" have been flowing so I took a picture of two of the best friends a guy could have. Love Ya! Mean It!

All the guys, the girls sat at the counter and laughed as Ashley took this one.

Gettin' some of that chile the Bill made.

Ross brought in the gear to make some grilled cheese sammies to go with the chile!

MMmmmmmmm! Damn that was a good grilled cheese!

"What do you expect from dirt bags like us?"


Recently Larry and Ashley hit the thrift stores and found this vintage liquor decanter. My folks used to have one like this and it still makes me giggle to see one in action.

Ashley's getting it "on tap"

Ian setting the stage for his show later on in the evening.

Ross has always been one for "water games"

Even Laura wanted to join the festivities.

OK, so this was the fun leading up to show time. Next time I'll show ya the rest of the fun we had that night. Stay tuned it's gets good from here.....

Another Great Saturday, Full Of Chopper Goodness!

Saturday was a REALLY good day. I started out by meeting up with some of the Southern Cruisers on Hwy 119 near the HD dealer and from there we rode about 50 miles to get to an R/C helicopter fly in that was about 5 miles from my house. Gotta love that! I'll post pics from there later on. I hung out there until around lunch time then headed on over to Heart of Dixie HD (where I used to work and basically where I had started the day from) to meet up with the Garage Company Customs crew for some lunch. We were surrounded by RUBs, but there were also a lot of different patch-holders hanging out. I chowed down on a "rib steak on a stick" and it ROCKED!!! We all ate, looked around a few minutes then headed back over to the shop where I got the work done on the Sporty that you saw in the earlier post. Also Friday I got my new camera, my old one is quite a few years old and getting tired. I had to smack it most of the time to make it work and I didn't realize how much the quality had slipped until I saw the new pics. A great thing about this new camera is the strap actually goes around my neck not my wrist so I was able to play around and get a few good riding shots. Check em out and don't forget the big Chopper Show and Dice Party at the end of April!!!

Larry eating and Ashley playing on her phone as usual ;-)

Nick, Boozer, Ross and the back of Spenser's head. I REALLY did enjoy the steak on a stick, should have gotten a picture of it to help me remember just how good it was.

The Haints rolling out of the yuppy masses!

Yep, the same damn stoplight that I ALWAYS take our picture at. I included this one because it's the only one that I was able to get Ross and his Rice Rocket in.

Larry and Ashley on Dixie Wrecked.

Nick on his Willie's Tropical Tattoo Chopper Show "Best of Show" winning slabside shovel, Spenser on his "Best Shovel" at the same show bike and Larry & Ashley on the magazine feature bike. I tell you these guys have MAJOR talent and I'm happy they let my old ass hang around. 

Nick & Spenser

One Way Stu and the Rebirth of a Shovel!

Spenser started having some weird handling issues with the old panhead frame he had on his shovelhead so he decided that it was time to go all out and make it a rigid. Since the other frame was a little suspect right now he opted to buy a new aftermarket frame and go to town. Pretty much the only pieces being reused are the engine and transmission.

Here the bike sits on the work table in the fab room. It's mostly there and mocked up. Still some fab work to do, but it's looking like a badass already. You can see the sissy bar that we had worked on that day. Spenser did the work and I helped hold stuff and lent my calibrated eyeball to the effort. So far the really custom pieces are the handlebars, sissybar, shaved lower legs and a brake tab on the rear. You can also see the tin primary set-up that he's been collecting parts for. There will be more custom fab work, but that's how it sits for now.


Another view of the bike, you can see the shaved lower legs in this shot. The gas tank is an old stock Sporty tank that was used for years on my Triumph. Remember, if you have parts and a buddy needs parts you need to cough em up, don't let em sit there and rot, get em on the road!



Close up of the shaved legs. He's not using a front brake so this will really clean up the front end.



You can see the way the shaved legs helps make the front end look lean and mean.




Close up of the welds on the bars. Spenser is a artist with a Tig welder!


Close up of the details of the sissy bar. It's all stainless and it took quite a while for us to be satisfied with the way the bends in the pieces were coming out. I think this may be one of the most well shaped bars I've seen that wasn't bent with a machine. Getting that brace under the fender to follow the bend of the sheetmetal took forever, but it was worth it. The sissy bar will get polished all shiny and pretty before it is done.


Close up of the weld on the brake tab.


One Way Stu looking satisfied with the work so far.


Making sure it all fits is important, Looks count, but Spenser rides! He needs to be able to jump on and head for the hills anytime he feels like it.