77 shovel build

[Pipes]

Bought this 6 months ago..well actually I traded my 98 roadking for it, and cant say I regret it for a moment. Its a 93 inch stroker, S&S everything except for the cases,tons of head work and cams, worked 4speed.,pretty much everything I wanted. The only thing was it was gold when I bought it.. didnt look bad from 15 feet away but up close it just wasnt that pretty

kinda liked the way it was with the apes but they had welded nuts on the bars to keep them from sliding down,and they snapped from the stress, so it ended up with drag bars and a quick primer job until I could save up for some paint work.. though funny thing happen the money for paint kinda got rerouted to other parts of the bike..
heres a pic with the drags and a different seat

[Pipes]

so last night we took it to the shop after hours and stuck it up on the welding table just to do a few minor mods..


so far so good until someone handed me this..

then we wanted more sparks

[Topher]

NICE!!! Where in Jersey u at?

Great lookin bike. Will be following along.

C

[Pipes]

somehow this fell off after a few mins



couple hours looking measuring looking measuring moving measuring.. hey wheres the pizza.. measuring.. ok zap zap

[Pipes]

and last night about 11:30 pm slide the tire on to make sure everything looked good so it can be welded up when we have a bit more sleep..

[Pipes]

Thanks! Im in burlington county..

Originally Posted by Topher

NICE!!! Where in Jersey u at?

Great lookin bike. Will be following along.

C

[binky666]

looks like your moving in a good direction!

[wild04goat]

Looks damn good. cant wait to see the pics once she done.

[Stinky Pete]

Looks good, I gotta say I've never seen anyone put on a hardtail with the motor & tranny in-place.

How was that to weld around?

[Pipes]

actually its not to bad. if I had to do this at home I wouldnt have been able to do it, but with the over head cranes in the shop.. the welding table and the fact that its actually sitting up on metal stands that are welded to the table high enough to get all around it made it pretty easy. We debated taking the motor out, but then I would have had to remove the head to get it out of the frame since its less then an 1/8 of an inch away from the back bone. Im not sure if all shovels fit this tight or if its cause its a stroker motor, its the first I ever had. Another reason we decided to leave it in was because we figured it would keep the frame more rigid when we started cutting and welding. Those hardtail are tweaked enough and little bit of an edge seemed like a good idea.We stuck the plugs in and tacked it in place, ran a line down the center and made sure everything lined up, though did notice it was not quite centered on the axle, though figured this was because of the offset for the chain?. We noticed there was a difference on the swing arm so went with it. Ran the chain from sprocket to sprocket ,and everything was even and the hardtail was leveled. Still have to make up spacers and finish weldign the tubes and cleaning them up. All and all it went pretty smooth.

[mt666tm]

Nice... +1 on good job doing that with the motor and all still in place. I've done that before too and it's a bitch to get the weld all around, but it's great because you know nothing will shift or warp and keep you from putting the motor/trans back in!

[skajaquada]

Minor mods...you sound like me LOL. All my friends think I'm a little touched in the head.

Looking good, I have something along those lines in mind for a future build. Just have to get rid of a couple more to make enough room. I will be watching, keep the updates coming.

[Pipes]

Thanks for all the kind words! right now Im watching my 4 year old daughter bounce off the walls until the wife gets home for work then I can sneak off to the shop to continue working.. but Im finding little things to keep me going.. I decided I need a new headlight.. so I went into my parts collection I have for my 50 ford chop top and pulled out these..

not sure if I want to run spots on the shoebox anyway, but I think I can do something with these for the shovel.. also have 5 model A pedals coming for footpegs..so lots of machining and fabbin to do..

[Pipes]

here is some pics from tonight..
headlight stuffed into spotlight housing


this is why a crane is so handy

few more welds

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On the ground!


some mock ups with the old tanks for looks..


all in all Im happy as hell.. Bill did some killer welds on the hardtail.. all thats left is some cleaning up..blending in.. both of us sat there grinning half the night arguing who would get to burn the tire off first..
I was thinking about going with the 3 degree frame cups to level it out, but after seeing how it sits with the springer,Im liking it more and more the way it is. now for the little detail shit, fender and seat and rear brake..then decide for sure about the tank and paint.
As far as the back rim I have an idea for that solid rim that Im keeping to myself for now until I see if it works out.. hopefully tomorrow,I'll have a better idea.

[wild04goat]

very nice.....Love the springer. Are you gonna keep the tank or go a diffrent route?

[skajaquada]

Looks great man, I'd be stoked as shit too! From the stuff lying around in the background of the pics it looks like your hard tail musta been light work for your buddy. No wonder he has a crane

[servi53]

like where this is going, will have to stay tuned

[panhead_pete]

Looks good mate, what brand is that hardtail? Presume the bike was an FXE?

[Throttle_Jockey]

Looking good...Keep up the good work.