[Irish Rich]

Ok, here's the original "axed Harley" tank that Paughco had in their catalogs from '70-'72, which is where I pulled this image from. Note that the tank has the definite narrow shape of two 3 1/2 gal. tank halves welded together (similar to Hirsch's tanks above), and the center has a pretty pronounced ridge down the center.

Now, this is from the Jammer catalog, Vol. II, from 1973. The "axed Harley" tanks are A. and B. Notice that the shape has changed, it's more egg-shaped now, and the ridge down the center is still there, but not as pronounced as Paughco's '70-'72 tanks were. You can also see that the narrow Mustang tanks (E., and F.) that Paughco made definately aren't the same shape as the axed Harley tanks at all.

The axed Harley tanks that Paughco sells in their catalog today is just a higher and more rounded version of their Mustang tanks. They don't look like either one of the first two axed Harley tanks they made.

 

[Irish Rich]

......it shows how expensive these tanks -or aftermarket anything- were compared to a man's incomes back then.

Well, yeah, it's all relative. people always look at old ads and catalogs, and say "Man, I wish this was back then now, look how cheap those parts were". Well they weren't. Minimum wage in 1970 was $1.50 . That Paughco #802 tank was a week's menial job's takehome wages.

And, I don't think that it's a coincidence that Ronnie Paugh and Dean Lanza were good friends, do you? And, another friend of Ronnie's - Don Orr - gave him one of his NOS Mustang tanks to prototype the dies from, to repop the Paughco tanks.

 

[Irish Rich]

The photo plate above that VonWegener posted was part of a Hirschberg retrospective on his 10 years of custom bikes features in various Peterson magazines. That was in the Summer 1970 Motorcycle Sport Quarterly book.

The original feature on the bike was in the February 1960 issue of Hot Rod magazine.

 

[Irish Rich]

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.

That's in the Peterson Motorcycle Sport Book (not yet a quarterly), from 1967.