First order of business was the worn but salvageable 80-inch Shovelhead powerplant. Duane stripped the engine down to the bare cases, cleaning and blasting his way back to presentable iron. Some new rings and seals, bearings, and a fresh valve job, and the old mill was ready to slide back in the frame. Duane added a DKC original intake to the S&S B carburetor, and a DKC one-off exhaust system rounded things out.
The engine's sufficient-if not overwhelming-power hits the ground courtesy of the original factory four-speed transmission and what seems to be unanimously identified as a period-correct Barnett clutch. "I wanted to re-use as many of the original parts as I could," Duane said. "It made it hard, though, because some of that older stuff you're pretty sure what it is, but you can't really know for sure."
Duane narrowed the original Paughco tank and fabricated a matching rear fender and signature DKC "hamkan" oil bag. Ornamentation was intentionally kept to minimum, as utility took priority throughout the built.
"I don't just stick do-dads on a bike just for the sake of doing it," Duane said, "If it's got a hood ornament on the tank, then it's going to flip up and act as the gas cap too. Everything's just got to be functional that way, nothing's just for show."
The bike rolls on a set of Woody's Wheels spokes and stops via a single factory drum assembly on the rear wheel.
Finished with fabrication, Duane handed the tins over to El Tolleson for the superstition-defying green paint job, while Jim Cope handled the graphic duties. With everything shined up and back in house, Duane set to work on final assembly and in no time the renovated custom was on the road and racking up the miles.
"I grew up with race cars and hot-rods and boats and bikes, and with any of them how they worked was as important as how they looked," Duane said. "It's funny because people look at my other bikes, my more radical stuff, and they just think you can't ride them at all, but I ride them all the time all over the place. It might look radical, it's still got to be functional, that'll always be important to me."