[VonWegener]

axed was the term used in the early sixties to describe two harley tank halves narrowed and welded together. The custom painter Dean Lanza was the go to guy for axed tanks in Los Angeles.
To me to be axed it has to have been a factory harley part first.
Otherwise we are going down the road of the tight bobber, attack chopper, "peanut" sportster tank etc rewrite of history further and further.

 

[VonWegener]

Here is a picture of Dick Hirschberg's Panhead as featured in Hot Rod magazine in 1960. The tanks were done by Dean Lanza.
This is about 15 years before the image of the "Grey" alien and it's tank looking face entered popular culture.

.

 

[VonWegener]

Great post Irish Rich. Aside from the tank history it shows how expensive these tanks -or aftermarket anything- were compared to a man's income back then.

 

[VonWegener]

If Ronnie Paugh wouldn't have been into bikes this whole thing would have been very different. Long before Paughco bike parts he helped a lot of guys build their chopper parts to sell. D&D comes to mind.
He is like the Carroll Shelby of custom bike parts

 

[VonWegener]

There is also a 2 page article in an earlier Peterson's Motorcycle Sports Quarterly that shows Hirsch's Knuckle with the raised trans and Hummer tank.
I have to dig it out and scan it.