Tom Daniels grim reaper chopper

[Mike C.]

 Tom Danels Grim Reaper Chopper

[Mike C.]

There were many things I liked and many things I didn't like about this one. Loved the skinny rear tire. (Npt a fan of thr Beach ball rear tires) a Panhead would have been nice but the Shovelhead was the next best thing. The handlebars are perfect and the retro geometry is great. Air cleaner was a compete dud so I gave it a velocity stack. Big fan of those. 

This thing didn't have any foot pegs so I drilled out the frame and put the highway pegs where the forward controls should be. 

[Mike C.]

I felt the rear fender was a little strange looking so I shortened it a d added some styrene stock I had laying around. It's also strange that there are no breaks at all. Many people built them without front breaks back then, but there is a foot pedal but no disk or drum to that I could find. Also what's up with the missing throttle cable? I guess I'll have to make one from old phone wire.

[stinkybritches]

Looking good so far. I like the color.

[Mike C.]

Thanks Rob. I was going to go with some bigger metalflake but after I tested it first on an empty tree, I just couldn't get it to look right. It looked like silver flake and clear. The gold didn't seem to come through. I wound up using Testors Extreme Lacquer, Aztec gold in a rattle can, with the same clear . After having had good results with the brown on the GMC truck. It's as close as I could get to metalflake from the 60s. 

I would up doing a lot of filler work and sanding on the 2 frame halves. I used a Rust-Oleum chrome look rattle can for the forks and corresponding tree. The Revell freedom chopper has this in chrome. It's almost finished so more pics to come..........

[Mike C.]

I found some old phone wire and fashioned a throttle cable.  I saw on YouTube where someone used shrink tubing on their grips.  And installed some more goodies. 

[Mike C.]

I also shortened the handlebars by 3 or 4 mm or so. I painted the plug boots in red to give it a nice contrast with the gold. I figure I can easily  change it if I don't like it. Plumbing this thing is more difficult than I anticipated.  ?

[bisc63]

Very cool, and your choice of gold paint really looks right for the bike. Well done!

[Mike C.]

Thanks. I saw the glitter paint and thought,  that's the perfect paint for that 60s look. It was obvious that I would have to pile on so much paint and clear that it would end up looking like some bad Christmas ornament or something. I had to go with the solo seat. I cut it down leaving a little tab that I could heat then bend and l even made a p pad that I haven't decided to put on yet. I added some grey paint dots to emulate the rocker bolts on the valve covers. They should have molded those in.

[Chappy]

Sweet build!

[Mike C.]

Thanks! Check out the finished product in the finished motorcycle/other section. I misspelled it there too. ?