I would be stupid to to go through all the trouble of customizing a bike without having a poke around at the engine... here we go again.











-SIGH-
At this point I stopped, had a beer, and thought long and hard about what was going on here and what it was going to cost to make this old girl a runner.
After a few phone calls and a look through a few catalogs I decided to go ahead with the build. Crazy? Maybe but some say it's a sickness so I guess I have been infected.

Took the pots to the machine shop today to be checked out and a recommendation made for bore size, then I'll order the pistons so the machine shop has them for fitting.

First things first...
I started by disassembling the bike so I could get the ugly purple paint media blasted off of the frame... That's where the trouble started.





So as I was tearing down the bike I was having trouble finding the frame serial number, this is when I started taking my first close at the frame... The term sketchy best describes what I saw, the welds were horrible to be kind, the seat post was cracked right in half, WTF?, a previous owner had welded the oil filter adapter right to the frame with abilities so lacking it would make the Chinese cringe.
It just so happens I have a buddy who is a TIG welder extraordinaire and has built many bike frames, so I had the frame blasted and it is now in his shop awaiting some serious love.

Well I got bitten by the Harley bug earlier this year when I purchased a 2011 Fatboy Lo. As much as I love that bike, without heavy customization it basically looks like every other FLSTFB on the road, what I needed was a bike to customize.
I picked up this bike or more accurately as it turns out, basket case as the platform for my first bobber project, I mean who doesn't love a stripped down to bare bones Sportster right?

What you see here is a bastardized 1976 FLH 1000cc Sportster. Initially I was excited about the prospects this bike presented but as you will see I was soon thrown into the deep deep pool of reality as I found one thing after another that would bring my progress to a near screeching halt prompting me to rethink the whole idea of doing anything with this bike.