woodworkers/harley owners?

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43
Location
Creston, Ohio
Hi friends, New member to this forum and am happy I found this forum.
Here is a project I completed a few years ago after laying a 72 shovelhead down in a thunderstorm and ending up with a broken hip. This is a 1/2 scale model of my pride and joy, a 1965 Harley panhead. 90% of it is scrap wood, I had to buy the redwood and holly. It has 23 species of wood including some small exotic peices from other countries. Even took some out of the back yard. It has 17 moveable parts including shocks, wheels, even the rear chain is moveable each link held together with toothpics. Even had to build a trueing stand to true up the tires. Any comments are welcome.
Virgil
 

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Nice work,and that is coming from a model maker. I am not sure mine are as good as that, but I still enjoy building custom wooden models and have sold quite a pile of them. It can be a great niche woodworking market if you are interested in getting into something like that.

I won't detract from your Harley thread here, but if you are ever interested in some of the models I made Virgil, you can see them on my website.

Again, nice work and its great to see another model-maker on here! :)
 
Hi Virgil :wave:,
That is a tremendous piece of work. With out having done it we cannot imagine the hours, the figuring, nor the techniques necessary to accomplish such an endeavor. Congratulations on a wonderful work of art.
Shaz :)
PS. Welcome, glad to have you here. :D
Please share with us some of your mental and or physical challenges during this project. I am sure you have a few.
 
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Holy cow Virgil! That's great! With a broken hip no less. Thanks for posting the pictures and welcome.

Wes
 
Welcome aboard, Virgil. That's an amazing piece of work. :clap: I'm still trying to figure out how you did the fenders. :huh: Simply amazing.

Whatcha gonna follow it up with? :thumb:
 
thank you all so much

Yes this was a labor of love, I restored the original from ground up and at that time I knew I would eventually get to building a model of it so while I was at it I measured and recorded each and every part. Little did I know that I would be doing it so soon. The broken hip was a God send I guess. It woke me up to reality and it was that accident that gave me the time to pursue this project. I would go out to the shop after the wife left for work (6 AM) and stay there sitting in an old office chair fiddling with the wood sometimes as late as 1 AM the next morning. It actually took my mind off the pain at least until I had to do some unusal processes with machinery. I have 1200 hours in it. One hour per Cubic inch. LOL I completed this in 3 months time. What's my next project? Only the good Lord knows. I have rebuilt a shovelhead motor and like the panhead, have recorded all the measurements. I would like to make an exploded view of a working motor. Only time will tell if I can do it or not. As for the fenders, I simply used 3/4" redwood and cut to a "u" shape and milled to a slight taper to get the curveture. Then slowly removed enough material to make it light and fit. Travis, very cool website and your models are excellant. I just aqquired 20 acres of land in WV and plan on doing some lumber gathering but not to the extent that you do. Again everyone thanks for the appreciation you have of my work. Ahhhhh the oil leak, LOL everyone knows old harleys have to mark their spot and the model was no different. LOL
 
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Welcome, brother! And that is truly amazing! :thumb: Awe inspiring even... at least for me. Oh, I ride an '87 Tour Glide, so you aren't alone here. I think we may have another rider or two as well.;)
 
Virgil...

Welcome to the forum. Haven't been here long myself, but it's a good place.

Rode a Honda-750 years ago when I lived in CA...put 65000 miles on it. The Harley guys mostly didn't acknowledge my presence...always figured they didn't even know I was there those mirrors were shaking so much. Never seriously laid it down but always knew that if it ever happened my body probably wasn't going to be happy about it. How did you make out with the hip?...fully recovered?...hope so.

Obviously you didn't get up blaming the bike or you wouldn't have spent so much time and effort restoring and then modeling it. That's a truly awesome work. Thanks for sharing the photos. (I like the oil leak, too).

Cheers.
 
Thanks again, The hip is doing fine now but can no longer kick start either the panhead or the shovelhead. Thank goodness for electric start. Anyone want to venture to guess what kinds of wood are in the model? I know the pics aren't the greatest but take your best shot. Guess the hardest part was making the saddlebag trim in 3 diminsion. I probably made a total of 6 - 7 pieces before I got it right.
Virgil
 
Welcome Virgil,
That is a fine piece of work, detail is great. Not been on a ride since my back injury. Sold 70 shovelhead to cover bills. Hope the hip heals properly. Sure miss the freedom of the road. I can say that is the worst thing about the injury is when the club goes on a run and I'm stuck on 4 wheels. Great to have you here, this is a great group here. Enjoy the RIDE!!!:thumb::thumb:
 
Virgil,

Very nice indeed! I had a friend that made a full-scale knucklehead motor out of wood a few years back and at times I've thought about doing something similar. Your creation has me thinking again about doing it!

Since you had your accident on a '72 Shovel, this picture of my '72 FLH may be interesting to you. I also have an '03 ElectraGlide for everyday riding. Thanks again for posting your pictures.

FLH_Show2.jpg
 
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