Sean "Xsspeed" Sweeney Of Rockville, Maryland, Scored His '63 Ironhead Sportster From A Neighbor For 500 Bucks. It had T-boned someone coming out of a McDonald's parking lot a few years earlier, leaving the front end of the bike was twisted and the frame cracked. Other than that everything seemed usable. Sean offered to help the owner get the bike back on the road, but the owner gave up and sold it to Sean instead. "It was a cool little black chop, but it had an ugly square-tubed frame. The guy loved it but he got pretty banged up in the crash. I guess after it sat in his garage for two years, he decided to sell it." Sean says.
The first order of business was to trash that old square frame and order a new Paughco from V-Twin. Sean got a 40-degree rake with a 1-inch stretch, straight-legged rigid frame. After welding his pig logo to the downtubes, he cut the fat bob's mounts off and drilled holes in the backbone for the bungs he hand-fabricated. After welding the bungs into place, he tapped them and then had his gas tank mounts. Speaking of tanks, Sean scored this Frisco-style Sportster tank at a swap meet for only $20. A good cleaning and sealer inside and the tank was ready for use. He made the gas cap from a belt buckle he bought on eBay.
Originally, Sean was going to put a big twin Wide Glide fork on the Sporty but decided it needed a springer instead. Sean's dad, Pat, found him a complete 6-inch-over Paughco Springer for $350. After fabricating a knurled aluminum neck spacer, Sean sent the springer legs and rocker bolts to the powdercoater.
Sean asked his good friend, Collin of Cooper Customs, to make the one-off version of his Drunken Monkey apes. These bars are crazy! Made out of 1-1/2-inch tubing, they really flow with the bike. From the front, they seem to extend up from the fork legs and arch out, and from the back they seem to grow out of the gas tank. Collin also handcrafted the billet grips with red metalflake set in the ends. His internal throttle keeps the bars from getting too cluttered. Of course, they were powdercoated black.
Sean acquired a vintage, period-perfect, Aris triangle headlight and after making a mount for it, it was bolted up and now illuminates the road perfectly. Sean used the original late-model Sporty hub with a 19-inch rim, and Fabricator Kevin (www.fabkevin.com) handmade the stainless steel springer brake system. Sean turned down the wheel spacers on his lathe and buttoned up the front end.
Paul from Charm City Cycles of Baltimore, Maryland, helped Sean rebuild the motor using 0.50-over pistons and new cams. Sean painted the cylinder walls between the fins red and then painted the fins with wrinkle black. This color combo gives the bike a killer, red-hot look. Sean then welded up the coil/ignition/motor-mount switch and sent it out for chrome. The case covers and rocker boxes were sent out to have the old beat-up chrome stripped off and everything polished for that quality deep shine. Sean made up the footpegs by welding worm gears onto original arms, and he also made the brake and shift rods by welding 7/8-inch screw rod onto the stock arms.
The rear fender started life as a front fender from a Yamaha 550 Maxim. "A friend of mine gave me the Maxim to chop. When I decided to run a skinny 18-inch wheel on the back, I thought it might look right back there," Sean says.