the Lowbrow Pan build thread.... wait.. what?!?

I started looking for a Harley just before I found out my wife was pregnant, just for something different than what I was used to and something I can fit on better. I am six-and-a-half-feet tall and I am just too big for British bikes without stretching them way out. But I digress.. fast forward about a year and a half, and I was on the lookout again for a cheap project. I saw this bastard on craigslist for several weeks and kept skipping over it because it was a mish-mash, which is what led me back to it. I picked up this titled '59 pan in a later frame with a bunch of taiwanese crap all over it. So, with both happiness and reluctance I can now say I own a Harley.



I just pulled the motor and trans this afternoon, the rolling chassis, tins and a bunch of extra parts are going to a friend of mine. I got it running the weekend after I brought it home, some gas and quick wiring and screwing with the timing and I got it going as a 1 kicker. It has a bunch of typical problems, busted front motor mount because it wasn't shimmed, some big weld repairs on the tranny, red loctite everywhere, and a bunch of crappy hardware. I have my work cut out for me. Oh yeah, and a whole lot of black paint to strip.



So on to the fun stuff, figuring out the build. Hey, who's that peeping out from behind boxes of shirts and the garbage can? A nice wishbone repop frame from Taiwan Ted.



I have some good parts stashed around the shop, there are some good bits in the attic that may make their way onto this bike



Or not, only time will tell...



My Triumph race bike takes precedence with only 2 months (actually 1 day under 2 months!) until I head west for Bonneville, so this is 2nd in line, but I hope to be riding it yet this year..

Tyler

I am anxious to see how this goes, and I am sure it is going to turn out killer.

hell ya!

What is this a trip to the he-man side of big heavy antiquated American iron?? Tyler Welcome to the dark side where you don't have to weigh 150 lbs to get the bikes to move. Ha Ha Ha. Tim

oh yeah... as I said (over there) I am looking forward to this one

Well I am fresh from racing my Triumph at the Salt Flats and am going back there in like 3 weeks to race again at the World Finals.. working on an aluminum front fender and tail section for my Triumph oh yeah and the top end is off too but this Pan has been working into my consciousness so this morning I decided to drop the motor in the frame and throw the tanks on it that I got from Guy at Greasy Kulture







Ah yes. I can't wait to go full bore on this project, soon. I have a lot of it together in my head, working now on sorting out hubs and rims and have to get wheels laced up so I can make it a roller. And perhaps make a stem for the front end I want to run.

Tyler

wow dude, Lovein it!!

Is that Springer going on the bike?

Looking good Tyler, finally be able to fit on a bike a bit better (without laying down).

Originally Posted by 67ray

Is that Springer going on the bike?

Maybe, but I don't think so. I have another front end I am working on that I want to use just to do something different. The springer is a backup, you can't go wrong with one but I want to do something else.

Just got in an 18" rear wheel from V Twin, a star hub repop. It sucks I am pissed. The rim is a piece of junk, run your finger along it and it feels pitted, it will probably last about 1 year before it looks like garbage.

Got a rear fender too that I was going to section and chop up, a rigid pan repop, that is going back too it is so thin I could bend it in two over my knee.

So, who has a nice 18" star hub rear wheel for sale, or perhaps a rough or partial original rigid rear fender?

Tyler

Originally Posted by Tyler

.

Got a rear fender too that I was going to section and chop up, a rigid pan repop, that is going back too it is so thin I could bend it in two over my knee.

Tyler

That's just because you are so big and strong.

Or maybe because of my anger in having $530 of parts (2 parts) show up, and both suck. My hulk rage came out. Nah I kept it inside and just opted to ship them back and look for old and / or better quality parts like I should have in the first place.

That sounds like a good plan. Or, you can tell Kyle to get cracking on that english wheel instead of dicking around packing boxes all day!

Thats looking real good, wish it were mine for sure.
I'd love to have that stock frame. I'm ready to go swing arm again

Alright, finally pulled myself away from working on my '55 Triumph race bike and the new pre unit Triumph drag bike I am building because I realized that El Diablo Run is coming up quick and I have about 3 months to get this bike built and broken in! Crap. I have been getting some work done on it here and there, I have my front end rough assembled, I have to powdercoat some parts for it before I do final assembly, or better yet find some fork lowers in better shape and have them chromed. I also got my hubs powdercoated and sent the hubs and rims off to Buchanan's to be laced up last week.



Late last night while working in the shop while a blizzard battered the shop I decided to window pane the neck on the frame. Got the meat of it cut out, tonight I will clean it all up pretty, weld up the holes from the fork lock and also cut off some of the other stock bracketry that I won't be using. Also have to cut off the tool box mount and clean that up. I saw a slab Shovel that Jeff Leighton built while I was out in California a couple weeks ago that had the neck windowed and thought it looked great. So kudos to Jeff.



More to come shortly, I have to get it done!

The HD repop shit has no quality at all unlike LowBrows stuff. My repop rear fender required about 20 hours of remaking it to get it lookin good. I'm lookin forward to watchin this build. I'm sure it will be a head turner.

Got some more time in tonight and finished windowing the neck, and also cut some of the other unused cast lugs from the top of the neck. Still needs some minor finish filing and sanding, but that will be done before I tear down and paint after the rest of the fab work is done.







More to come soon..

that looks good with that window!

Damn that looks dangerous............ i like it!