“I’ve had guys say chrome is out of style, but to me nothing says Harley more than a lot of chrome.”
Back to the Dawg’s story, this is his first Harley-Davidson. He’s no neophyte when it comes to bike mechanics though. He has owned a variety of crotch rockets and metric cruisers through the years, he also worked with cars almost his whole life, regarding their paint job and body works. This project makes it his first owned Harley. Understanding his specialty, the paint and tins will have to be what differentiates this Sporty from others.
”I observed that it will take a lot of time and effort to come up with a Sportster to get noticed in the crowd when it comes to bike shows and functions,” said Dusty.“I didn’t want a design that someone could easily copy it.”
Building in his house garage passionately called Dawg’s Chop Shop by his friends, Dusty Dawg went deep into his bone-stock 883 Sportster. Dawg in the beginning, merely started with standard mods like a tailpipe, air cleaner, and a rejet of the carb. That’s it for engine mods. For the reason that Dawg’s motorcycle was meant to be a rider dependent motorcycle, which was a huge factor.
Being a pro painter at a Ford dealership, the best parts of the bike will have to be the tins, which took 80 hours to carry out. The main plan with the fuel tank, covers, and fenders was to come up with a factor that would leave people with a big question in their head, how did he do that?.
”The concept behind this (regarding the finish) is to make it appear that it’s part of the metal, not just stuck on top,” says Dusty.
He adds, “A lot of people will come up to it and expect it really is airbrushed ghost flames.”
Mission accomplished there, however it wasn’t an easy task. Directly on his living room floor, Dusty started out with a metal-reinforced easy-sanding filler, after that, layered on a thick build primer then went back and forth between sanding and priming.
“I didn’t have fingerprints for awhile. It would’ve been a good time to rob a bank!”
One other big work on the motorcycle was the wheel and tire out back. While keeping the stock swingarm, brake caliper mount, and everything, Dusty’s buddy Charlie fixed a 5.50 V-Rod wheel that has a 180 tire below the stock fender. And exactly how could you not have noticed the big ape-hangers dogging from your front-end. To do this, he had to dump the stock riser system to give way to a 2″ fix from a ’90s Sportster. In addition to that modification came stainless covered cables, chrome grips and controls, and Dusty learning the fine art of internal wiring.
It is far from an optical illusion. Those are most certainly passenger pegs that get used together with a two-up seat when Dusty and his girl hit the road. The only deception within the bike are the 9-1/2″ hardtail struts that are designed to appear like gas shocks.
Back to chrome, Dusty still gets criticism at bike rallies. The most recent was “youngster” in his early 20s who walked up to the bike and asked Dusty if anyone had ever told him that chrome is out of style. “What would you do!?” Dusty laughs.
“This young kid, he’s got his fancy, wind tunnel tested, three coats of clear on his hair, (and) a brand new Harley jacket that he paid $350 for. And (he) thinks he’s cool with a temporary tag on his Sportster, and he’s gonna tell me what’s cool and ’what’s not cool?!”
Before You Go!
Remember it is very important be sure to take trips with your motorcycle with safety. Always make sure that you always put on authentic motorcycle helmets.
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