Front half is done...

Spent the last month or two out in the shed with my bike, and here's what I came up with so far... New handlebars, powdercoated front wheel, new front tire, new bearings in the hub and the steering neck, rebuilt the dash with sheet brass and a newfangled speedometer, l.e.d. idiot lights, turned a bunch of brass parts on the lathe and made a new ignition cover on the milling machine at work, redid a bunch of wiring, I already had the clearcoated tanks & rear fender so I decided to put them back on (I'll do the back one when I tear the rest of the bike down) made a backing plate for my S&S air cleaner to fit the CV. The brass shifter pegs have 1936 Indian head nickels pressed into the ends. I'll be starting on the back half as soon as the weather gets crappy again.

Oh man, it's great to see another hand built bike on our forum. Very, very nice work Wideglide. Slow - fast - oh sh*t - oh yeah!

I'm gonna make a set of brass gas caps, and an oil cooler/filter mount too. I did a practice gas cap out of aluminum scrap and it turned out ok. The bars are RSD Vintage 12", they feel a little better than the 16" apehangers that were on it. That's the only shiny designer crap I'm ever gonna buy for my bike. Thanks for the compliments you guys!

Nice work, I like the brass look.

It doesn't hurt that you're a machinist and can make just about anything you want. Yeah, the brass stuff is really cool.

The dash cover needs more work, I think it looks too plain & flat. I'll come up with something. I'm not really a machinist yet, more like a maintenance guy with cool toys to play with once in a while. The real machinists all retired so there's nobody there to teach me, but I learn pretty quick on my own sometimes.

I like the industrial look of the dash. The lettering looks stamped - maybe some black paint in the letters so they are more legible. Just an idea. In my woodshop classes, I show the kids how to fill in letters with stain or paint that they have routed in their box lids. Then run the lid over the belt sander and the letters come out having very crisp edges.

That looks pretty cool, your very lucky to have access to the equipment, wish I could fab up some stuff to make mine more "mine". Maybe a little beveling of the edges on the dash plate to take away the plainness you mention once you become more familiar with the machinist tools, but the air cleaner plate looks awesome. Keep posting pics as it comes along and throw some completed ones in the Showcase.

I also have to make a ring about 3/4" thick to raise the speedometer up, there's not quite enough room behind it for wiring and connectors. I found some heavy-wall aluminum pipe that should work fine. I still have a couple months to refine everything before it gets warm out, I just got impatient and had to show it off.
Cowboy, that's just the stock chrome clamp on the crossover tube. I plan on putting the 2 into 1 fishtail pipe back on before I'm done. It sounds better and looks way cooler.

Does FTW mean Fuk The Weather?

This time of year it does. Rode to work yesterday and I'm riding today, but that's probably about it for a while. Mother Nature is teasing me.

Yeah, it still looks mighty cold up there. We are having some relief from the cold here. Today it should hit 70 - way higher than normal. I really like how your scoot is coming along.