Mainframe.....

I snapped this photo at the end of the day, and I wish I'd taken a couple, but I was tired, and you'll get the idea. Wade's '05 Softie frame, for the most part, is hardtailed. All that's left is the rear crossmember for the transmission.

Part-timer Steve's been under the weather the last couple days, but he'll be here tomorrow to help me get the engine and transmission back into the frame again. From there we can size up the final transmission mount location, get it made and welded in, then it's out with the engine and trans again for the final welding underneath, then in with the engine and transmission one final time, to set up the rear wheel, drive sprockets, chain, and to locate the OEM rear caliper's brace location.

We'll also have to locate and weld in new rear oil tank mounts, mount the rear fender, and fab up Wade's sissy bar, but that's a little ways off.........

Look at this guy......

Part-timer Steve TIG 'ing together the halves of his new tank for his chopper re-do. Steve was adamant about doing every bit of work he felt he could accomplish on it this go-round, and he did a knock-down job on his tank today. The weld beads were good, and the penetration was ideal.

Steve started with a Paughco standard-sized Sporty tank blank, then he took a wedge cut out of the shell, from 1 1/4" in the front, to zero in the back. I tacked the shells together, did a little preliminary hammer & dolly work, and Steve took it from there. I had him use a .040 thoriated tungsten, and a # 5 cup.

Steve's plans call for a Frisco mounting, a rib down the center, rear mounted L/H petcock, and one of Dan Collins' new fillers. It'll be pretty nice when it's all finished. Man, if Steve keeps this up, I can drink coffee and watch Judge Joe Brown all day!

From the pen of Rudy Navarro........

When people talk about illustrators for the various custom bike magazines, usually names like Mann, Robinson, Duggan, and even Bode are sure to be mentioned. But, very seldom do you hear the name Navarro.

Rudy Navarro's main body of work was used in Supercycle magazine, and more than likely his illustrations were used to open up, or set the mood for the magazine's fiction stories. Maybe Navarro isn't mentioned because his art was of the darker, grittier, surreal biker world than the others previously named. Always done in pen and ink, and more often than not dark and complex in their execution. Whenever I looked at one of his works, I often got the feeling that Navarro was sitting in the middle of an opium den as he sketched away. Here's a couple quick examples of Rudy Navarro's work for you.....

Would you buy hard-to-find Harley-Davidson parts from this man ?

Well, you should !

http://www.fatbobsusedharleyparts.com/

Coming along just fine.....

In the mockup photo below (and closeup above), you probably noticed that the lower frame rails are a little short of matching up with the hardtail section. Matter of fact, they're short by approximately 1 " to duplicate the wheelbase of the original Softail. This is because I had to cut the original lower rails right in front of where they welded to the frame's rear swingarm uprights.

Also notice that the Softail's frame rails are 1 1/4" OD, and the hardtail's rails are all 1" OD. So, we can either make the Softail's rails longer to match up, or make the hardtail's rails longer. I split the difference, and made mods to both of them, and they should be as strong as was the original structure.

To mate the hardtail to the lower frame rails, I turned a combination 1" long x 1" OD spacer and sleeve to fill my gap, and extended it inside the original frame rail 2 1/4". Next, I turned a 3/4" OD slug down to fit the ID of the hardtail's legs, and made it long enough to extended through the 1" spacer sleeve, and into the original frame rail. Everything slid right into place, and the alignment was almost automatic - the frame length measurements were within 1/16" side-to-side, and the axle plate height was the same on both sides. Doesn't usually go this quick, I'm stoked!

Next, I cut an exterior sleeve to cover the splice points underneath it, and gave it a slash cut to give the transition from 1 1/4" frame tube to 1" hardtail tube more eye appeal. We'll do the same slash cut to the socket/sleeve that we'll need for the top rail junction of the hardtail, so it'll visually match the lowers.

Tomorrow, or maybe Friday, I'll get the top of the hardtail all set up and aligned/mated to the backbone section with it's related sockets and sleeves. Then, I'll disassemble the mocked up sections, clean them, drill the necessary plug welds, then tack and weld everything up solid. With that done, it'll be back in with the engine and transmission, and on to fabrication of the rear trans crossmember and mount.