mint green hollywood 55 stuff and crooked studs

Mr. Mike delivered the sheet metal for Ed's 55 today. It is hollywood green and very nice. 55 was the only year hd offered this shade of hollywood green. They had a green in 1938 that was also called hollywood green, but it is grass green. We are doing a 38 that is painted that color. Anyways, it doesn't get any more fifties than a mint green panhead. I think the only way it would be cooler is if it made milk shakes

I had to see how chrome and different platings looked against the green, so i put the derby cover and inspection cover on the outer primary

the camera is a little messed up. Sorry about that. The inspection cover is polished stainless steel. The inspection cover on Bev's 55 is stainless too, so they must not have been just for 49s.

Miss Brittney is taking studs out of Bill's 51 cases to prep them for some welding and machining.

She told me that the studs looked crooked...

so i brought out the trusty square which confirmed Miss Brittney's precision eyeball.

It really bums me out when people play machinest and put taps or inserts in crooked. There is nothing wrong with knowing your limits. If you can't start a tap straight, ask somebody else that can to do it for you. I don't buy stocks, do dental work, paint or cut hair because I don't know how to. lol

Here is the insert coming out with the stud. This is going to be a bit of a challenge, but it is fixable.

space ship stuff

Woo hoo, we got some fenders ready for fitting today. the front one is for John's 48 and the rear one is for Ed's 55. Next week I can get these two bikes off for paint!!!!!!!


I have been working away on fitting all of this goo gaw stuff on Jason's 65. There are so many rails, bumpers and ornate details on this thing. What a bunch of extra weight It is a real challenge. But i Like it. I should have it tore down for paint and chrome tonight sometime.




Good god all yall

Ed's 1955 Panhead Progress

I did an interview tonight and worked on Ed's 55 frame. It takes quite a while to prep these things, but it makes a big difference in how smoothly things go together.


HEre are all the taps that you need to use in order to clean out the pain in all of the tapped holes.



Here is a cool picture of the date code on the top motor mount. HD started date coding frames when the went to the heavy duty top motor mount. This one is a 5A. Anyways, we got the fork legs back from being re bushed this week, and will hopefully have this thing set up as a roller before we go to PA next week.

Ed's 55 motor.

My dad finished up Ed's 55 motor yesterday. I really like how subdued the mid fifties and sixties motors are. These things look ssooooo good.


55 was the first year for aluminum pan covers. They were brushed aluminum, this is a very tough finish to achieve. I clear coated them with a clear engine enamal to prevent corrosion. I am not sure what hd used to protect this finish back in the day. these d rings are one year only as well, they only have six bolts.



Check out all the neat different finishes. lots of neat detail going on.




This cam cover has never been polished and is mint! i had to build up a nasty gouge in one of the ribs and re grind it into looking like something. The fork legs for this bike are off getting re bushed and should be back shortly, then we can start putting this thing together.