Chris Walks Us Through The Steps

Article And Photos By: Chris Callen

nyone that’s been watching knows, the War Pony Project has been going full tilt in the Grease & Gears Garage during the Progressive International Motorcycle A

Shows. With so little time to get this whole thing finished we are leaving very little chance; opting out of sending things out to other people. With that, we have a little metal shaping tech to share from this month in Cleveland. Now, right off I will tell you that there are a million ways to do this type of work. Mine comes from a background in auto body rust repair, so much of how I go about this project came from making panels to repair rusted off fender skirts. In any event, I learned to use some new tools and had some fun. In the following text I’m going to share with you the steps of taking some flat sheet steel and a small investment in tools, create your own side panels. proper buck, we do begin with simple cardboard taped to the frame section. Then I run a razor knife along the frame rail to shape it to fit inside the rails.

With a Sharpie, I transfer the template to a sheet of 18 gauge steel.

I know there is probably a fancy tool for this step but I simply tape a screw driver to my Sharpie and get a 3/4 inch space between the two points and make a second outline. This extra 3/4 inch will give me the metal to make sides for the covers so it fits inside the frame.

The air nibbler is my new favorite tool. I use it to cut out my panel.

At this point, I also transfer the places where the frame bends. The section of extra metal at the bottom where the foot peg mount will be doesn’t have space for any sides. I cut that away before we get started.

Using a cutoff wheel, I make relief cuts along the outside border of the panel, stopping just at the inside line. These will let the panel flex as we start to give it shape later on.

At first, I started this project by using a section of pipe locked in a vise, I soon ordered a set of T-Dollies for $80 that made the finished product way better.

With the T-Dollies locked in the vise I start from the middle of one side and work my way out, radiusing the extra 3/4 inch of metal past my inside line. At this point I just let the tabs bend where they will.

Once all the sides are radiused over, I hold the piece on the edge of a flat surface, lining up my frame line indicators, and I smack it with a flat hammer. Just enough the get some shape to it. At this point it starts to fit in the frame.

You can see here how the relief cut has slightly opened. Some of them will open, some will close, some may even overlap. The overlaps get cut off so they don’t interfere with the next step as we start to shape it further. With the part on a beaters bag I start in the middle and work out in a circle with a body mallet. These come in a variety of sizes and you just have to get the feel for what each one does. I really don’t hit it very hard at first just to start getting the metal moving. Remember this will get way worse before it gets better so just look for the depth you want right now and not the finish.

After I am happy with the depth I take it to the planishing hammer. Now this is a high end tool that I recommend. For about $200 this thing saves so much time that it’s well worth the investment. Using a slightly domed bit I work the metal smooth. Again, you just have to get a feel for the different tooling.

While these are still not done, they’re pretty good for two hours time per side. From here going back and forth with the T-Dollies and some body hammers on an anvil will produce some killer results. In the end the thing that I dig is having the ability to look at this bike and know that I learned something new and created something with my own two hands, and you can too. Get out in the garage and give it a shot!

Once we have checked our fitment, and adjusted where need be, we move on to securing our reliefs. The tool you see above is a neat little cheat that Daniel Donnley’s dad Leo turned us on to; plug weld pliers. We want to weld these cuts back up and give the panel some strength again. These pliers make it easier to do as they provide a backer that the weld doesn’t stick to.

Later on we will clean away the excess and it will smooth out nicely.

At this point you might be happy with the results and want to stop, that’s fine but we want to take it a little bit further and add a little body shape to the middle.

Using the sharpie I make some rough lines to keep track of the shape of the panel and also to determine where I will be adding shape.

see it every day in this once pleasant and chill town of Boulder, Colorado that I live in. People are scurrying I around like short sighted rats, focused on nothing beyond the tip of their nose and the quantity of commas in their bank account. Teslas quietly dominate the streets piloted by uptight and privileged soccer moms pointlessly checking emails as if there is something of importance to read, acting like it’s the end of the world when their yoga class gets rescheduled. Some spoiled little brat is likely screaming in the backseat, clueless as to how the rest of the world lives, spoon fed his gluten free, vegan, humanely cultivated load of crap that life is easy and he will never have to lift a finger to get by. Sadly, that will most likely be the truth for this kid. This snot nosed little ten-year-old has more in the bank around here and with that comes an onslaught of arrogant, spoiled citizens who somehow think life is difficult for them. Get a grip people. Life may come easy to you, but for the rest of the world, especially in the blue-collar sector, life is difficult. We wake early, strap on our tool belts and get to work. We spend our days working to build oversized, indulgent homes that are so completely unnecessary it makes me sick to my stomach. Homes with theaters that cost enough to feed a nation, $10,000 ovens, and chandeliers made of Swarovski crystals, heated toilet seats and multi-level garages. Meanwhile, at the end of the day, our callused hands grip the steering wheels of our dilapidated trucks and drive us back to our humble homes on the

outskirts of town where the rest of the world lives. This is the part of society that understands what it means to work hard for everything we have. This is the part of the world that has survived without handouts, trust funds and a silver spoon.

Sadly, I have recently watched myself fall into the trap of wanting more. I leave the house before the sun comes up, and come home after the sun has set: I have become immersed in work. Chasing the almighty dollar has become my focus as of late and all it has brought is darkness to my life and a slap in the face reminder that life is about so much more. Life is not about padding the bank account, it is not about keeping up with the Jones’s. Life is about being a good person, being happy, helping your fellow man and seeing the world. Life is about exploring the unknown, seeking adventure and living a life worth writing about. What is the point of it all if the only thing you have to talk about while sitting in your rocking chair in old age is how much money you made or how many degrees you procured from some overpriced university. I don’t see that as living. Now don’t

get me wrong, there is a certain level of responsibility we have to maintain to not become a drain on society. Being a mooch is no way to live either and there are plenty of those out there as well, but I’ll go off on a rant about that some other time. So, that begs the question, how should we live? I don’t know. What I do know is this, for as much as I complain about how the other half lives, the greediness and excess that they appear to flaunt, I know deep down that I don’t want to be a part of that anyway. I feel the most at home with the blue collar, work a day, dirty jeans and tired boots type. The ones that are happiest sleeping under the stars and not under the roof of a 5-star resort. These are my people, you are my people. The dreamers, the explorers, the fearless. We are happier atop a struggling to stay alive motorcycle than in the climate controlled leather seat of a Mercedes Benz. We like machines that require a fuel pump, not a battery pack. We are the survivors, the ones that keep this world turning, the gears greased and the roads smooth.

I fully understand the level of bitterness I am exuding at the moment, I’m sure many of you feel the same way, but I do have a point to all of this. It is time to slow down. This fast-paced society of constantly chasing more has churned out an army of drones, an army of people that walk around in a daze, faces buried in their phones, information right now, forgetting how to think for themselves type of drones that appear to have lost all sight of actually living. People drive and walk around as if they are the

only ones on earth, with no regard to others around them, no subtle glance over their shoulder to see if they should hold the door for someone, no awareness of the line of people behind them as they fumble though their wallet while talking on the phone at a checkout counter. Just oblivious. We have all seen it, and, on occasion have partaken in such selfish activities. We need to get back to the little things, the things that actually matter, the everyday common courtesies. Let’s all take a step back and slow down. Let’s all stop and remember that we are not alone here on this crazy spinning sphere of land and sea. Let’s spend more time stopping to help a driver in distress, holding that door open for a stranger, letting that person sneak in front of you in a line of traffic, stop to let a pedestrian cross the street. These are small things that make a difference. Humans need to spend more time stopping to smell the roses and listening to the birds chirp. I, from this moment forward, will strive to get back to living for reasons that matter, reasons worth writing about. Live a life that is noteworthy and noble. I will spend my time and energy traveling on my motorcycle and seeing the world we live in first hand. I will slow down and take in everything life has to offer. The beautiful thing that the motorcycle community has to offer is that I think most of you will agree with what I have ranted about here, let’s foster this lifestyle of enjoy the small things together and let the rest of the world spin off into oblivion as they please. Let us not fall into the traps society has laid before us and become members of the perpetual rat race.