The surprise chopper.
The surprise chopper build. I received a phone call from a gentleman named Doug who had a postie bike that he had big dreams for and planned on surprising his cousin with it when it was finished as a Christmas present. Doug came to the shop and we sat down and went over photos of ideas he had for the build, after seeing the images I went straight to Doug’s house to pick up the postie and get started right away. This was going to be a massive job and I had 6 weeks to make it happen in time for Christmas.
The plan of attack was to strip the bike down to bare bones and cut the rear guard off completely, also removing the front guard and hand making new low slung chopper style guards from scratch. Reupholstering the seat, giving the bike a whole new custom bright red paint job, new high bars, grips, mirrors, painted engine, new exhaust, white wall tyres and all new cables to suit the high bars. After disassembling the bike completely I cut the fenders straight off and made a start on hand making a new front and rear guard. As the original rear guard had a peak down the centre of it I had to make the new guard blend in like it was a factory version, to do so I had to make the guard in 4 pieces, two sides, the top, and then another section on top of the top section to blend both guards together. To make the front guard I used the brackets off the original guard, cutting them down and making the rest of the guard in 3 pieces.
After making the guards, TIG welding them to the frame and blending everything, the frame was off to paint while the wheels were stripped, engine painted and white walls fitted. Then the next step was to design custom decals of the new owners nick name. I made them as close to the grips and seat upholstery as possible and at a size where they were not too in your face yet still visible. The seat had 1 inch of foam removed and reupholstered in a silver glitter vinyl and matching grips to suit. Assembly stage was here. The bike was fully assembled, a surf board rack was fitted as the owner was a keen surfer, the bike was then test road, all nuts and bolts checked after the test ride for a final safety check and the big reveal awaits. To see the full reveal video jump on our face book page for the footage.
