My New Panhead....Handshakes!... Karma.... and a big sooo long!!!!

About a few weeks back a good friend of mine Ray informed me that he was selling one of his Panhead motors. He's an ol timer with plenty of pans, knucks, flattys and shovels and loads of other goodies. Along with the motor he had a super nice 50 wishbone frame and a 4 speed tranny. The timing was just about right and i had to have it. You see Ray's the kind of guy who does what he says he's going to do and understands the meaning of a handshake. I told him i needed a couple weeks to gather up all the loot.. he passed up numerous other offers in those weeks and stayed true to his word.. money exchanged hands and it was on!! after i brought home the goodies it was time to build a motorcycle.. i told everyone i would be riding by the end of the month.. not sure how many people took me seriously.

week 1..After cleaning up all the extra "chopper" bullshit that was welded on the frame a nice clean almost perfect structure awaited. i fitted up the motor and tranny and checked to make sure everything was still square then passed it on to my good friend Andy.. Andy sandblasted all the old layers of paint and squirted it a nice single stage black..

week 2.. i spent the next week digging through the basement at my favorite little parts shop...Action Cycles. Buddy the owner of Action informed me he would be buying out a "load" of parts from some old timer.. in this load appeared quite a few little Panhead pieces.. including that neat little fender, seat and sissy bar.. also numerous "little" parts like brake linkages, rods pedals, primary covers ect. whatever wasnt in those piles were in Buddys "archives".. You see i spend a lot of money down at Action on alot of peoples bikes and Buddy appreciates these things so very little green actually left my hands... These parts (not including that seat, sissy bar, fender combo) are genuine Harley Davidson equiptment.. some of which was beat up and needed a little tweaking and some of it was chromed by the chopper freaks.. either way it wasnt bought from a catalog and made by some 12 yr old boy in Taiwan..

Does that front end look famialiar?? thats a side mount front end off of my friend Joshs chop. you see Josh had some debts with me and also planned on changing up the look of his chop anyway, so he tossed it my way, i threw a narrow glide on his bike for him until he can find the springer of his dreams, he is debt free and now we can both ride... my buddy Ray had an old star hub wheel laying around so he donated it to the cause.

Week 3 i spent assembling, cleaning tweaking and making these piles of parts into a neat little bike. I purchased new tires, chain and a 1-1/2" primary belt from Buddy because some things that will leave me stranded i sure dont like to skimp on. I took an old set of buckhorn bars i had layin around and chopped and dropped and made them fit just right. That sporty tank was laying around my buddy Andys house so i confiscated it as my own.. i notched out the bottom of it so it would slide right over that stock fatbob mount, a gas cap from a brit bike i had was mounted to the side i tossed it to Andy and he squirted it with some old Lacquer he had buried in his shop.. Now all that was left was to figure out an exhaust. My good friend Jay (who i can count on time and time again) enlisted his help in lining up some bends. I told him what i was looking for so he put his nose to the grindstone, after they were all lined up i zapped them up with the buzz box and i was ready to rock... I hammered down around 250 miles this weekend with nothing short of a loose bolt..

Now maybe the karma gods were looking over my shoulder or i just got lucky.. either way this bike came together quickly. i ignored everything around me the last couple weeks and busted my ass never keeping my eye off the prize.. You see the last couple of years ive learned a whole lot, the people that got me back into the motorcycle scene are the same people who will turn me away from it.. I couldnt even imagine how many FREE hours ive spent trouble shooting, welding, fabricating, busting my knuckles.. and all for what?? So my "friends" who dont have the cash or the knowledge can be in the wind? or is it the satisfaction i get when i hear a motor run for the first time.. I love Welding, Fabricating, wiring, fine tuning, adjusting points, carbs, mechanical brakes, clean assembly..and so on... maybe thats why i do it... and Funny how when its my turn to shine you can almost hear a pin drop in the shop.. about the only thing i got was "are you done with your bike YET'? or " i would help but i would just get in the way"... Or how about the "friends" who know your freshly built scoot is sitting out in the parking lot of the local bar but have no interest in walking 20 feet to look at it... maybe the older i get the easier it is to call out the people in my life that get me down... who knows.. either way im going to keep building the shit out of everything i see and im going to ride the wheels off of this motorcycle!! and no one is gunna fucking stop me!!

From now on if you want to get ahold of me contact me on

www.kingkustoms.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/kingkustomsandhotrods

Big thanks to Jay, Andy and Johnny w for lending a helping hand in the process...