American-V 27 preview

9 771746 851003

02

Issue: 27 £4.95

37#.+6;

<1&+#%

@( @ ;! <@;!!@ -!' - */ -- 1C/@;*!<6 D *- -! #1; 31;@<@!; ) 1 *' E*/ / E*/ . .1 !-<6 ;* */' <@ ;@< @ &")

D *- -! */ 831*/@! 9 / 8 1.! 9 D!;<*1/6 1.! 1.3-!@! E*@( 3 */@ < D!; ;*/'< @1 3;1@! @ G1C; ' < @ /, !)

#! @C;! C*-@)*/ -*'(@< @( @ / ! C<! < ;C//*/' -*'(@< 1; @C;/ <*'/ -<6 ;!)E*;! / <1*/ <!@< 1# -!#@ / ;*'(@6 " )

;! <-!!, -11,*/' / $@ .1<@ ;-!G .1 !-< 20=A @1 3;!<!/@6 ! @C;! 1/!)3*! ! ;C !; */<!;@ @( @ 3;1@;C !< @(;1C'( @(! (;1.! 3- @! (1C<*/' @1 <1; D* ; @*1/<6 C''!<@! ;!@ *- 3;* ! <@ ;@< @ &(

# $ E*@( @C/! ,*/' 3- @! 1 <@< <C3!;*1; $-@; @*1/ / 3!;#1;. / ! C@ ;!@ */< # @1;G 33! ; / !

G C@*-*H*/' @(! <@1 , *; -! /!; 1D!;6 *@< - E*/ . .1 !-< 2000 @1 3;!<!/@6 " "

.C-@* 3C;31<! C*-@ #1; C<@1. 33-* @*1/<6 %> !';!! )B 22= 42602= 5 C!- /+! @! A) . 31E!;3- /@< /1E D *- -! */ / @C; - -C.*/C. - , 1; 31-*<(! $/*<( @ G1C; 1 * ! -!;6 ;* ! <@ ;@< @ - "!

(!<! ;! @(!; @C !< ;! .C<@ E(!/ */<@ --*/' / #@!;. ;,!@ *; -! /!; 1/ *,!< E*@( 8 (;C)@(!)(! 9 ;! @(!; <G<@!.6 D *- -! #1; *' E*/ E*/ . / 31;@<@!; .1 !-<6 (*

% (

*< +C<@ < 31E!;#C- < @(! 1;*'*/ C3!; 1*-6 *@< -- ;-!G:< E*@( !-! @;1/* */'-! *;! *'/*@*1/ <G<@!. !F !3@ E*/ .<6 D *- -! */ G!--1E - , / (;1.! <@ ;@< @ ")"

% *< ';! @ 3!;#1;. / !

C3'; ! #1; /G ; C; @!

E*/ . .1 !- 2000 @(;C BII> / 31;@<@!;< #;1.

BII& @(;C BII>6 G/ @!, - *.< @(*< I6% (. 1*3;1 C !< 1/! 1# @(!

(1@@!<@ <3 ;,< "(!

% # $

D *- -! #;1. <@1 , / <@;1/'!;)@( /)<@1 , #1; /G *' E*/ .1 !- #;1. 20"0 @1 3;!<!/@ */ -C */' BII= .1 !-<6 ;* !< <@ ;@ @ " )

/ #*/ @(! - @!<@ (1@@!<@ / @(! 11-!<@ 3 ;@<6 (! /!E *,!;< 11, *< D *- -! */ /'-*<( !;. / ;!/ ( @ -* / / 3 /*<( E*@( 1D!; B%6III 3 ;@< !<<1;*!< #1; ;-!G) D* <1/6 *! - %(% !$ "( '&+. (

!;#! @ *@.!/@ s * ! ;1 C @ /'! s <@ !-*D!;G C -*@G F !--!/ ! s 1 1/<!/<! ;; /@G

6 6 B2 % & 6 I2&%A =%" &%2 I2&%A =%B 0A06 ( ( && A>&2

6 7A2 B0= B"" >B2 7A2 B0= B"" BB>6

(

&* "" *" 0)+ $ # *! $ /!$+ / * &## $

Contents

Issue Twenty Seven 29: AMERICAN-V WORLD TOUR 2: VIVA ESPANA Get no more than a mile inland from Spain’s over-exploited costas, and a while new world opens up before you: ideal Harley country.

36: TECH: MESSING WITH LED

Not so much what’s available, more a case of what can you do with simple components and the seed of an idea.

40: EVERYDAY SHOVEL 46: PARTY!!!

We are five this year (it only feels like ten), and to celebrate we’re going to have a shinding at The Thundersprint in Northwich. More details here.

48: F-HEAD

The bike that was the foundation of the Motor Company from the pioneering days right through to the Wall Street Crash.

54: BORN WITH A TAIL

Scot’s stunning Sportster demonstrates the skills that ‘rodders can bring to custom bike building: deceptively simple, and beautifully realised.

61: PHOTO COMPETITION: ROUND 1

First winner and a pair of runners-up gets our photo comp off to a good start, the American-V quick guide to digital cameras, and an interview with Ian Mutch, foremost chronicler of the British motorcycle lifestyle.

66: STROKER ACE

A proper chopper with a proper motor, properly put together to cover proper mileages ... properly.

76: 2008 HARLEY-DAVIDSON FLHTCU ULTRA CLASSIC ELECTRA GLIDE How many new tricks can you teach an old dog? Quite a few, as it happens, if you swapped dogs while no one was looking.

84: THE GREAT BRITISH BUDGET BOBBER BUILD-OFF 4: NEWS & NEW PRODUCTS 15: REVIEWS

Biker Glasses Photochromatic Wraprounds, Motorbooks’ “Everything you need to know about Harley-Davidson Motorcycles”, Symtec Heat Demons.

18: 2008 HARLEY-DAVIDSON FXDF FAT BOB A streetbike with a fat front end, of a Dyna with Fat Boy presence?

Actually there’s a lot more to the latest FXD than either.

Editor: andy.hornsby@american-v.co.uk Features Editor: rich.king@american-v.co.uk Contributors this issue: Ian Mutch, Nitro, Scot Davis, Paul Bryant Proofing: Amanda Wright (At last! Someone to blame!)

Design: design@american-v.co.uk All editorial enquiries to: editorial@american-v.co.uk Advertising Manager: Emma Howl EmmaHowl@warnersgroup.co.uk 01778 392443 Advertising Sales: Andy Fraser 01778 392054 Advertising Production: Joanne Osborn: 01778 391164 joanneo@warnersgroup.co.uk

Trade Sales: Natalie Cole: 01778 392404 nataliec@warnersgroup.co.uk Subscriptions: 01778 392484 Annual Subscriptions UK: £24.75 EU: £36.75 RoW Zone 1: £38.55 RoW Zone 2: £42.75 (all include postage) American-V, PO Box 336, Crewe, Cheshire, CW2 7WY. Tel: 0207 993 8002 Printed in the UK by Warners (Midlands) PLC, Bourne.

Distribution by: Warners Group Publications Plc West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE10 9PH Tel: 01778 391135 Now in its second year in the newsagents, its fourth year on paper, and its sixth year of continuous publication since launching on the Internet, American-V sets out to be the magazine that its founders actually want to work on ... and mostly succeeds. The full archive will remain on-line at www. american-v.co.uk and might even be brought up to date one day. Don’t hold your breath though.

E&OE

Copyright 2008 American-V.

Boneshaker’s Bobber gets built, stripped, painted and reassembled ... doesn’t that sound easy? Actually, it looked easy too.

93: AMERICAN-V EVENTS CALENDAR 2008 It’s the time of year to plan what you’ll be doing for the rest of it: here’s our best attempt at rounding up the most relevant events.

98: RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS

The Bros try a little private enterprise within the catering trade ...

www.american-v.co.uk

It’s not got 5-gears, a fat back tyre, a big inch motor or tricky paint, but it has got everything that it needs to be a daily ride.

American-V American-V # ONE

News & Products THE BIKEBUILDING SEASON STARTS HERE!

S&S LENO BIKE A bloke could get tired of endlessly repeating the “it’s never been a better time to be reporting on American motorcycles” mantra if it weren’t for the fact that stuff like this keeps appearing out of nowhere.

Okay, so not quite nowhere, and if you followed the development of Project Fred, the X-Wedge motor, last year you will be aware that S&S built five mules to use as development bikes for the new motor, and one of those was a muscle bike codenamed Wilma.

And we know that S&S have plans to build frames, and with a lot of interest shown in Wilma when it was given to the US press to play with it was always a reasonably safe bet that the taut streetfighter chassis would be one of them when they’re announced in the spring.

What we didn’t account for was Mobil1 approaching S&S to build a bike for Jay Leno, the big time US TV presenter who is increasingly more famous for his reputation as a petrol-head, but it comes as no surprise that Brett Smith and Michael Scaletta – with an eye for an opportunity when it presents itself – were on the next plane to Hollywood.

Leno wanted a bike that was fun to ride, handled well and had plenty of mid-range power, and if it looked cool, turned heads and made you want to ride it all the time, so much the better. That sounded like Wilma to the people who’d been involved in its development, and based on the experience of Wilma 1 and subsequent work done on Wilma 2, Wilma 3 was born.

With more than a hint of John Reed’s V, a nod to the Ecosse and even a hint of Hellcat, the company whose strapline is ‘Proven Performance’ set about making good that promise.

A 28-degree headstock with a 132mm of trail is a good start for a muscle bike, and a 43mm upside-down front end gripping massive Brembos on superlight wheels wrapped in Metzeler radials

4

American-V.co.uk

set the agenda. A substantially-built, duplex swingarm chassis isn’t at the cutting edge of frame technology, but with its beefed up swing-arm and performance shocks it’s going to hold its line, and is the very essence of the difference between a muscle bike and sportbike. Both the forks and the twin shocks with their remote reservoirs feature three way adjustability: this was never going to be purely a design exercise, this was always going to be a bike that could be used properly, and so the ability to set it up properly was key..

It was also going to be a bike that would demonstrate the potential within the X-Wedge motor: 117-inches of new generation American muscle, delivering 95hp and 115ftlbs of torque at the rear wheel.

The bodywork was created in association with friends within the sheet metal industry, and dressed in Mobil1 and S&S iconography it creates a sense of expectation – one that a bullish S&S were confident it could deliver on. And it does. It racked up development miles faster than anything before it at La Crosse, with everyone who had a legitimate reason to take it out, doing so with relish. When the new frame is announced, it will be because of this bike and the enthusiasm for it within S&S. Whether they’ll be brave enough to call it Wilma remains to be seen.

All good things must come to an end, and it was a bittersweet moment when Wilma3 left S&S for Hollywood: thrilled to have been part of a Mobil1commissioned project but sorry to give it up – even if it was going to a good home. You can see Leno’s reaction to the bike at www.x-wedge.com, and S&S’ sources in Hollywood tell them that he rides it all the time. There’s no confirmation as yet that “Yabadabadoo” can be heard echoing round the Hollywood hills. www.sscycle.com www.x-wedge.com www.jaylenosgarage.com

All systems are go for the 2008 Custom Chrome Europe Bad Kreuznach bash at the end of March. A round in the AMD International Pro Show, with the winner being entered into the 2008 Final at the Sturgis Rally in August, it is most people’s first opportunity to see what styles are emerging from professional builders’ garages and workshops across Europe. With the custom show central, it’s easy to forget that it is ostensibly a trade show, and an opportunity for Custom Chrome to talk to their dealers, and for those dealers to rub shoulders with the industry suppliers themselves, so now is the right time to talk to your local agent if you have any queries or special requests, because they will never been in a better position to talk to the people who can give them the answers.

Better still, if you fancy a quick hop across the channel on a no-frills airline, you could go yourself for the second day and ask them yourselves. Fly into Frankfurt am Mainz and pick up a cheap hire car: you’ll be there in an hour and a bit. www.custom-chromeeurope.com

arm frame; and would that have been any more embarrassing than the plastic cover that protects the electronics sunk into the rear mudguard, which looks clumsy on a black bike (vivid or denim), and will only be more conspicuous on the olive pearl, pewter denim and two dark blue (pearl and denim) schemes?

Maybe there’s going to be a phantom pillion pad in the P&A catalogue, which the Rockertail’s non weight-bearing mudguard couldn’t support, but then doesn’t anyone in Milwaukee remember Buddy Seats? They used to be as recognizable a Harley icon as balloon tyres, deep-valanced mudguards and FatBob tanks.

Sorry, I had to get that out of my system. I’m almost too exhausted now to get too angry about the place of a single pot front caliper on the front of a bike when even Sportsters get at least one 2-pot caliper, and when every other big twin gets at least one 4-pot. Yes, Springers have an inherent anti-dive system built-in, which could cause inexperienced riders to over-brake because they won’t get a normal sense of slowing down, with the old single-pot they won’t be! With the old single-pot they won’t be able to over-brake either.

It does have some resonance on an FX Springer with its skinny front tyre, but not an FL. The damn thing was overdue for replacement when replaced on everything else in 2000, and all those people who are being protected from themselves will be adding an aftermarket 2 or 4-pot caliper to the list price.

What really makes me angry though, is that all that ruins my appreciation of what is otherwise a stunning motorcycle. I love almost every other detail from the modern interpretation of the cats-eye dash with its new speedo (possibly … the US market’s one is marked in MPH only, and we’ve not yet seen the UK spec one yet) and the fifities tribal pin-striping details (tribal??) to the blacked-out rims, half-moon footboards, blacked-out Springers and mini-apes, it ticks so many boxes and it really is very close to being a landmark motorcycle – actually it’s very close to HarleyWorld’s Bad Boy 2 that they made from a Springer Classic a couple of years ago. It even manages to have consistent gloss black dash and oil tank, matching the bars, forks and risers, without an incongruous hint of texture black anywhere.

I’m not absolutely sure about the blacked out cylinder head beneath a polished rocker cover, and would have expected an alloy head beneath an alloy rocker box on blacked quasi-iron barrels to at least pretend to allude to a ’48 Panhead, rather than it looking like – and I can hardly bring myself to say it, because it could mark my card for life (in case I haven’t already done that) – a Kawasaki Drifter … sorry.

It was a bike asking to be built after the success of the Nightster, the Street Bob and, I fully expect, the Fat Bob, but it remains to be seen whether it’ll prove any more successful than any previous FL Springer Softail in the UK. In the skilled hands of someone who really wanted a classic-look Rockertail there’s nothing that a mudguard and stays, and a sport solo saddle can’t cure.

Having really enjoyed the last heavyweight Springer that I rode, the FLSTSC which was pretty but nowhere near as good-looking as this, I’m looking forward to falling in love with it when I see it in the metal, and hope that the plastic under-seat abomination is less obvious than I fear it will be … always assuming Harley will let me ride one now.

They will be in dealerships in March 2008 with prices starting at £12,875 - £300 less than the last FL Springer Softail.

HARLEY FLSTB SOFTAIL CROSS BONES

It looks like Harley have realized that Softails need love too, and are looking for a resurgence in interest having spent the last couple of years rejuvenating the Dynas, and having just created a new family from the Softails themselves.

The result is the new FLSTSB, a heavyweight Bad Boy that’s blacker than the Night Train – or at least the black one is – fatter than the Fat Bob, and while it doesn’t physically out-fat the Fat Boy on paper, it does visually.

There are a few fundamental questions that needs to be answered, though.

Why on earth didn’t they stick that seat onto a Rockertail? Or stick a Rockertail back end on this? Actually, no, not this particular one, even if its hand-tooling does look great when you’re looking down on it. Ideally a hand-tooled leather version on a formed pan, doing away with the thick foam and lending a leaner look in keeping with the bobbed mudguards: how much padding do you need, for heavens sake, when you’ve already got a Softail frame and a sprung seat? Incidentally there’s no mention of it being a damped, just a two position sprung seat, which defeats the object a little.

Sorry, flipped out there for a second.

No, to hell with it: it needs to be said and I’m no fawning sycophant.

For twenty-three years, Harley have produced a Softail frame that looks great until you park it next to a proper rigid, at which point it looks as though you could park the rigid bike on top of the Softail’s rear tyre, underneath the mudguard, without scratching it. In 2007 they announced a version with a close fitting rear mudguard and then struggled to find an attractive way of fitting its frame-mounted seat without leaving a big gap for the wheel and mudguard to swing into on full compression: a very practical consideration. But then they fit the one type of seat that would have solved that problem to a bike that didn’t have the problem and if it wasn’t bad enough that they then had to work out how to hide the electronics that were revealed, they then unnecessarily overstuff it and reckoned that adjustability was a more pressing concern than damping its springs. What the hell is going on?

Maybe they were embarrassed about how much of a gap would then exist between the sprung seat and the wheel-hugging mudguard on the Rockertail?? It didn’t seem to bother their designers between 1925 through into the 1960s, even surviving the evolution into a swing-

www.harley-davidson.com

American-V.co.uk

5

»

2008 FXDF

FAT BOB In 2006, HarleyDavidson seemed to start taking their Dyna range seriously with the launch of the Street Bob. For 2008 they’ve raised the bar again with another new model, the Fat Bob, and there is just an outside chance that they’ve hit another home run. Will the FXDF prove to be the twin shock Fat Boy?

»

18

American-V.co.uk

Roadtest: 2008 FXDF Fat Bob

American-V.co.uk

19

$0.1&5*503 803-% $)".1*0/4)*14 0' #*,& #6*-%*/( -"4 7&("4

5) &6301&"/ )0( $6450. 4)08 .0/5& (03%0 10356("- 8*//&3 #&45 $6450.

8*//&3 #&45 */ 4)08 .&.1)*4 #&--&

8& -&5 3&46-54 41&", '03 5)&.4&-7&4

3&.&.#&3"/$& 5) &6301&"/ )0( $6450. 4)08 ,*--"3/&: *3&-"/% 8*//&3 #&45 $6450.

8*//&3 1&01-& 4 $)0*$& 8*//&3 #&45 */ 4)08

5) &6301&"/ )0( $6450. 4)08 '3"/$& 8*//&3 #&45 $6450.

8*//&3 #&45 */ 4)08 30440 $034"

"-5&3 &(0 5) &6301&"/ )0( $6450. 4)08 41"*/ 8*//&3 #&45 $6450.

8*//&3 #&45 */ 4)08

XPSLTIPQT BSF E BO PN SP PX TI LF TUPN CJ T 5IF 6, T QSFNJFS DV 8FNCMFZ 8F BMXBZ JO GF DB DF " F UI NJMF GSPN PN MPDBUFE KVTU B CJLFT JO PVS TIPXSP PN TU DV PG L PD TU SJFE DBSSZ B MBSHF BOE WB Z GPS WJFXJOH EB VS BU 4

Z EB PO .

BOE BSF PQFO QFS IS 7"5

UFT b 8PSLTIPQ MBCPVS SB

6, 0 $ 4 .

0 5 4 6 $ & " 888 /*$,(

3 0

5&- 6, 0 $ 4 .

0 5 4 6 $ & " ( *%%9 )" )9 &."*- /*$,!/*$, 30"% 8&.#-&: .

803,4 8"5&3 6/*5 .0/5"(6&

0. $)014 "/% ] 063 08/ 3"/(& 0' $645 *-5 #6 % ] 453&5$)*/( %&4*(/&% "/ "-- )"3-&:4 5"/, 0,& $6450. #*,&4 41 0/ #& /4 */ 4*0 *4& )*/( &3 *"/7 &$ $0 )&&8& 41 1-"5*/( "/% 10-*4 400/ ] '"5 "34& 8 0. 1"*/5 ] $)30.& 45 $6 0' 4 -083*%&34 $0.*/( ] 1& 5: 4 "%& ] $6450. 8)&&0/& 0'' 1"354 ."

American-V World Tour Pt. 2: Viva Espana

VIVAESPANA I reckon that there are two basic types of people when it comes to holidays: those who want to get away from the daily drudgery and do nothing, and those who want to go and experience something new.

Âť

American-V.co.uk

29

Xl1200C Vs Dyna Low Rider

40

American-V.co.uk

Custom: Martin’s Shovel

So, you want a practical Harley for day-to-day use: it’s got to be able to handle the miles, the weather and modern traffic. That’ll be most Evo Sportsters, or Streetframed Dyna Glides then; you could do it on a big tourer, and many do, and the Heritage Softail is surprisingly sensible … but how about a 1980 FXS Low Rider?

»

MARTIN’S

SHOVEL

American-V.co.uk

41

Xl1200C Vs Dyna Low Rider

28J

The grand-daddy of the modern Harley-Davidson is often cited as being the Knucklehead, and indeed there are many direct links that bridge the Twin Cam to that first E in 1936, but Harley’s reputation in the USA was founded on a previous generation of motorcycles.

48

American-V.co.uk

»

Classic: 28J

American-V.co.uk

49

Xl1200C Vs Dyna Low Rider

There is a developing relationship between Harleys and hot-rods in the UK at the moment. There’s always been an empathy, but it seems to be stepping up a gear now with long time Harley builders trying their hand at a hot rod, and rodders applying their skills to a new challenge.

»

SCOT’SXL

54

American-V.co.uk

Custom: Scotâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s XL

American-V.co.uk

55

Xl1200C Vs Dyna Low Rider

68

American-V.co.uk

Custom: Griff’s Stroker

The classic hardtail chopper is timeless.

Unlike a bobber, whose very appearance will start a heated debate as to what a bobber actually is, with its single, clean line from headstock to rear wheel spindle and a pair of raked-out forks pushing the front wheel out in front, it’s unmistakable.

»

GRIFF’S

STROKER

American-V.co.uk

69

76

American-V.co.uk

Roadtest: 2008 Harley-Davidson FLHTCU Electra Glide Ultra Classic

As the granddaddy of Harley-Davidson’s big twin range, we must surely have run out of things to write about the venerable old warhorse by now? Well, you could be forgiven for thinking so, but Electra owners will cheerfully tell you that time hasn’t stood still for the flagship model before, and with a host of improvements for 2008 it shows no signs of abating just yet.

»

2008 HARLEY-DAVIDSON FLHTCU

ELECTRA GLIDE ULTRA CLASSIC American-V.co.uk

77

Technical/Project: Great British Budget Bobber Build-Off Part 2: Boneshaker Choppers.

American-V #The ONE

Tech/Project

THE GREAT BRITISH BUDGET BOBBER BUILD-OFF PART 2:

BONESHAKER CHOPPERS We were going to do this as both dry builds this issue and both final builds next time but ultimately reckoned it would just get complicated with two bare metal bikes. Seeing as Benny and the crew have all-but finished theirs, and so we can put the final build onto YouTube, we’ll take the Flyrite from a pile of pieces through to the finished bike, leaving the workshop under its own power, and deal with Thundercity’s next time.

Before going any further, I messed up last time with the price of the Smokin’ Gun Rolling Chassis. I’ve no idea how it slipped through, but it did and while it makes no difference to the overall concept of building a complete bike for less than £5k, you’re actually looking at £2,300 for the rolling chassis, which includes the frame, springer front end and steering head bearings, 3-inch risers, a choice of bars, choice of grips, laced 21-inch front and 16-inch rear wheels with chromed rims, axles and classic tyres, undrilled and cut-ityourself rear mudguard with ‘NeveRust’bracket, a Sportster-style peanut tank and a Le Pera sprung solo seat. Full price details for parts are listed at the end.

Building any bike from scratch, and even undertaking any serious modifications, sounds a lot easier than it is. The supposition is that you get a component designed to fit a given frame, and bolt it on, but in reality parts sometimes don’t fit, frames aren’t always what they seem to be, and your own personal sense of aesthetics can mean that when parts do fit perfectly, you don’t actually like how they sit, or where.

84

The signature piece of the bike, sitting pretty in the middle of a sea of heavy gold over black metalflake.

American-V.co.uk

That is why you always build a motorcycle at least twice.

The fi rst time to ensure that the bike you’re building is indeed the bike you want, that everything fits and that it works before committing anything to paint or metal fi nishing, and then you tear it down again, and send it off to the painters, chromers and any other services you need to use.

This is the ‘Dry Build’, and yes I do know I’m telling a lot of people what they already know … but I’ll lay odds that there will be people reading this who’ll still try to save time and money by jumping the gun and try to produce the bike of their dreams in one hit. I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing them the very best of luck: they’ll need it.

With a black frame and painted bodywork, it looks like a completely different bike. I’m sure there was a reason why the oil tank and rear mudguard took precedence over the front end second-time round, but damned if I can remember now.

Not a good idea to wrestle the engine into the chassis when there’s powder-coating to be scratched. Instead, lie the motor down and gently lower the frame over it: you’ve got more places to hold it and can spread the load more easily between a bunch of you.

Holding it on the rear motor mount and one side at the front is more than enough to support the engine when raising it upright again, making sure to put a protective sheet beneath the painted frame..

While we’re stating the obvious, it’s worth mentioning that it’s not just the right time to make sure that the holes aren’t just correctly aligned, but that they will also be big enough once the thickness of a coat of paint is added to still take its fi xing bolt: if it’s exactly the right size now, it’ll be too small by the time it has been painted or even plated. True, you can re-drill it easily enough, but by doing so you will reveal naked steel again and provide a foothold for rust.

If you’ve seen the time-lapse of the dry build, you will have missed a few salient points because in the true spirit of the TV media, we cheated a little: there are some things which really don’t make compelling viewing and painstaking measuring falls into that category. In much the same way as the oil tank had been cut and shut in preparation a week or so before, once satisfied that the lugs and brackets were in the right place, Benny tacked them into place and did the fi nal welding on in the video to make sure that no-one came away with the idea it was just a bolt-together job. But that was about it. Barring a break for chips, the rest of it is about six hours condensed down into three minutes.

»

THE DRY BUILD:

There’s a very good reason why you don’t try to take the tempting short cut, which is that you really don’t want to scrape off that new paint to modify a bracket that is actually for a different frame/ model/year, or where something as simple as the hole was drilled in the wrong place. It is a time for fabrication where necessary, and for double-checking everything – and I mean everything: it’s a brave builder who assumes that something that has always previously fitted without a problem will fit this time. You will come across Even on a ready-to-roll chassis, there are always minor details to … and this will the exhaust mount: with so wide a selection of pipes enough problems finalchoke build simple things to to work out your own requirements tack and TIG: this is the mount for in thethe pull-out ... without leaving available, you’ll be expected chance. based on your choice.

And then you can wrestle the engine in: brute force and ignorance is allowable at the dry build stage, a lot more care needs to be taken when there’s paint/powder coating to scuff

American-V.co.uk

85

5IVOEFSDJUZ .PUPSDZDMFT 5IF"VUIPSJTFE%FBMFSGPS#JH#FBS$IPQQFST /FXMZ"QQPJOUFE7JD50SZ%FBMFS #PPL /PX GPS %FNP 3JEFT i5SZ B 7JDUPSZ UIFZ BSF POF PG CJLF SJEJOHT CFTU LFQU TFDSFUT w

);':* FXVWRP SDLQWZRUN ZLWK QHZ 6 6 µ PRWRU

b

8QUHJLVWHUHG 9LFWRU\ 9HJDV LQ 6LOYHU ZLWK EODFN ZKHHOV FXVWRP GHFDOV

b 8QUHJLVWHUHG +DUGFRUH &KRSSHU 5HYWHFK µ PRWRU 7RR PXFK WR OLVW

b

8QUHJLVWHUHG 9LFWRU\ +DPPHU ,Q 6XQEXUQW 2UDQJH ZLWK WULEDO GHFDOV

b

PRGHO 1LJKW 7UDLQ VWDJH RQH WXQHG ORWV RI ELWV

b );67, PRGHO ZLWK OHVV WKDQ PLOHV

b 9LFWRU\ -DFNSRW ZLWK OHVV WKHQ PLOHV LQ FXVWRP SDLQW

b

U FF ZLWK EXE LQWR

4VOEBZ UI .BSDI

b

7JDUPSZ %FNP %BZ

.PUPSDZDMF .POUIMZ .BZ

b VKRYHOKHDG LQ SDXJFKR KDUGWDLO IUDPH

b %RXUJHW ´-RNHUV :LOGµ FX RQ 0RWRU 6SHHG 7UDQV 2QO\ PLOHV

b

8QUHJLVWHUHG 5HYHQJH &KRSSHU ZLWK 5HYWHFK µ PRWRU 7RR PXFK WR OLVW

b

&XVWRPLVHG 9LFWRU\ -DFNSRW

BN SBJO PS TIJOF ! UIF TIPQ VOEFSDPWFS ##2 PO TJUF 'VMM EFNP nFFU JOD 5IF 7JDUPSZ 7JTJPO

6, T/P 4 7 " 4QFDJBMJTU

5IVOEFSDJUZ .PUPSDZDMFT 6OJU )BJOFT 1BSL (SBOU "WFOVF -FFET -4 22 5FM t XXX UIVOEFSDJUZ DP VL t UIVOEFSDJUZ!UJTDBMJ DP VL

9,=;,*/ >/,,3:! ;/, ),:; @6< *(5 .,; -69 @6<9 )02,

(

#!" # " " " " % $ # ! "# % " % # "! ! % & #! $ ! % $ ) % ! % " " ' # ' % % " " "

&XVWRP &KURPH (XURSH 3ODQLJHU 6WUDVVH %DG .UHX]QDFK *HUPDQ\ 3KRQH

)D[

H PDLO LQIR#FXVWRPFKURPH GH ZZZ FXVWRP FKURPH HXURSH FRP

½ VKLSSLQJ

½ VKLSSLQJ