Evo Softail to Swedish Chopper Build

[AlbertaFarmer]

Hey fellas. My name is Eric and I am up in Alberta, Canada. I picked up a 96 softail at the end of riding season. Now that winter has landed in my part of the world, I have begun tearing the bike down. This will be my first "build". I use the term loosely because I will be hiring out the fabrication.

This is how the bike sat when I picked it up:



Wideglide is aftermarket, roughly 12" over with high rake billet trees. I hope to reuse everything from the front end but the tubes and headlight / bars.

[AlbertaFarmer]

I will be sending the stock frame out for modifying. Trying for a classic swedish style except using a stock width rear. These are the bikes I am using for a direction I would like to go.









I would really like to make 30" over tubes work. But I am not sure that it will be possible while building around the factory neck. Once the frame is in the hands of the fabricator, he will see what he can do with it.

Other than the frame work and forks by frank, I am going to keep this as low budget as possible. I buy and sell Harley / chopper parts and have a decent stash to pull parts from. Waiting on a big shipment of a king queen, sissy bar, fender and tail light and then I will post photos of the parts I hope to use.

[AlbertaFarmer]

I don't expect progress to be terribly fast by any means. But I will update this thread as I go along.

If anyone has any advice on stripping an Evo Softail to the frame, I would love to hear it!

Thanks
Eric

[farmall]

If the VIN is protected from spatter the rest of a neck is fair game for even radical welding and machining, but the main reason to use a non-tubular neck on a chopper of that style is to save the VIN. (I don't know the rules for registration outside the US.)

If you want a welded tubular neck to resemble a cast neck that would be easy by moulding using the body filler of your preference and even texturing if desired to mimic a casting. Cast components were a legacy of brazed HD frames but they look great so they became an often-important styling element.

[AlbertaFarmer]

If the VIN is protected from spatter the rest of a neck is fair game for even radical welding and machining, but the main reason to use a non-tubular neck on a chopper of that style is to save the VIN. (I don't know the rules for registration outside the US.)

If you want a welded tubular neck to resemble a cast neck that would be easy by moulding using the body filler of your preference and even texturing if desired to mimic a casting. Cast components were a legacy of brazed HD frames but they look great so they became an often-important styling element.

Hey Farmall, thank you for the reply.

I am not particularly partial to the neck itself, it's the pseudo legality of keeping the stock Vin.

Where I am at, it's quite a hassle to run a custom frame in a legal way. Requires an MSO for everything and government inspections.

There aren't many talented frame men in Canada. I will be shipping this one 3000 miles across the country for the modifications.