It seems as if there is never enough time in the day to get all your work done. Just about the time you begin to see some light at the end of the tunnel, you become buried with another project that needs to be done yesterday. The up side of this is it's good for your bottom line. The down side, you never get a chance to work on those projects you want to do for yourself.
Such is the case of Mike Terwilliger, owner of Visual Impact, a Farmingdale, New York, custom paint and fabrication shop. Mike spends his days in his Long Island facility dreaming up custom shapes for sheetmetal and new ways to use color, giving his customers that one-of-a-kind look to set their bikes apart from the crowd.
Business at Visual Impact had been great and showed no signs of slowing. As much as this put a big smile on Mike's face, he knew it would take forever to build his next personal project. About two years ago, Mike bought a basket that consisted of a '66 Shovel motor, an unknown year trans, a Paughco frame, and a couple of boxes of assorted parts. All of these pieces were slated to be the basis of his next bike.
One particular stressful day, Mike decided it was time to start on it. Although he was very busy, he thought he would begin one step at a time, as his schedule allowed.
Mike came into the shop one Sunday morning to sort through all the parts he had lying around. By the end of the day, his discard pile was much bigger than his keep pile. All that he would hang on to was the motor and the frame. Feeling good about making some progress, Mike continued Monday night by disassembling the motor so the parts could be sent out for polishing. To his dismay, he found a large crack that ran down the left side of the case. Not wanting to weld up the crack on a set of 35-year-old cases, he ordered a new set from STD.
Mike broke out some new S&S wheels and rods, and set them in the polished STD cases. Next, he bored the S&S cylinders and reworked the H-D heads so he could send them to Color Life for a protective layer of silver powdercoat. While they were under way, the guys at Color Life took the time to polish the fins before sending them back to Mike. The shiny, new cylinders and heads were slid over the S&S pistons and capped off with a set of chromed Shovelhead rocker boxes. Bringing the motor to life is an S&S carb, Crane cam, Dyna ignition, and a set of Mike's own hand-built exhaust pipes.
By the time the motor was finished, a large pile of parts had arrived. Among these parts was a set of five-speed S&S gears that would be tucked inside of a polished STD case. The case was set up with a kicker on the right side and an electric start on top. Completing the drivetrain was a 3-inch Karata open belt primary and a Rivera clutch.
With the project progressing smoothly, Mike decided it was time to pull out the old Paughco frame and begin working on the chassis.
As soon as he removed all the parts that were bolted to the frame, Mike took out his die grinder and began changing the shape of things. By the time he finished, the frame was stretched upward 2 inches with the neck raked to 35 degrees.
Mike had set the bar high when he built the shovel up, but this was about to be ratcheted up a few more levels as he progressed to the sheetmetal. He began by hand forming a long, stretched gas tank to sit low on the frame. The tank's back edge was narrowed and coped to wrap nicely around the frame tube. The hand-hammered oil tank fills the space above the tranny quite well, as it mates up with the frame tubes. Mike then built a rear fender and struts that become one with the frame. It looks so good, it's hard to see where one part ends and the next one begins.
A frontend was assembled with a set of Ness trees, H-D 2-inch-under tubes, and lower legs. An 80-spoke American wire wheel, fit with a 21x2.125 Avon, rides between the forks and is brought to a halt with a pair of polished RevTech rotors and a couple of P.M. single-piston calipers. The rear of the frame sports a 16x180 Avon, on a matching 80-spoker, with a sprocket on the left and a single RevTech/P.M. brake setup on the right.
As busy as things were at the shop, Mike made a big decision. He would continue plugging away at his customers' bikes, but would finish his chopper ASAP. He thought the sooner he could ride the new chopper, the sooner his batteries would be recharged - allowing him to get back in the shop and send some serious work out the door.
With that, Mike found himself in the spray booth with a beautiful shade of Candy Violet flowing from his gun. After applying multiple coats and doing a lot of sanding, the surface was finally ready to receive the silver fantasy graphics and Visual Impact logos. A few coats of clear, and Mike was in the home-stretch.
Final assembly began by mounting a set of Carlini bars that were fit with P.M. hand controls. Matching P.M. foot controls and pegs were placed below. Mike then tethered a H-D headlight to the lower tree. Giving signals to motorists behind is a Ness taillight/license mount. All that remained to do was to mount the custom High End seat.
Mike jumped on the bike and fired it up. The sweet sound of the Shovel was calling him to crank on the throttle and ride. When Mike returned later that day, he had a whole new outlook. He knew, right then and there, that building this bike was, indeed, the right thing to do.