Early GarageWrench Builds

This was my first Harley, 1963 Panhead I purchased when I was sixteen years old as a basket case for $900. These pic's are the third of four versions of this Pan, the first had a rat look to it and it was my ride to my senior year of high school. Yep, Chopper Pan to 12th grade!

This was my very first full blown custom that I was commissioned to build, can't remember the year, sometime in the mid to late 80's. It started out as a 1974 FXE and the customer, who is my brother in-law, give me liberty with the vision on this build. When completed, it was a daily rider. Thanks to Mike "ChiChi" Leach for the chance to get my name out there.

This was also one of my early builds, 1976 FXE that went thru several phases before and after these pic's. This version was from the early 90's. Thanks to my brother Angelo for trusting in me to wrench his "Iron Mistress".

Just wanted to share. There was so many that came out of that Garage thru the years, but very few pictures. Things are diffrent with a camera in yer pocket, there are to many pic's, back then it was a bit of a hassle to take the pic with that big ass camera, then off to get it developed, and all time consuming and costly. Maybe I can talk my ol'e lady into going thru the 20 or so shoe boxes' of pictures in the closet and pull out some of those golden nugget's and post them.

Merry CHRISTmas to all and we hope 2014 brings in some blessings for ya here at GarageWrench!

Nailed!

So ya want to be a mechanic?

Copper Head Gaskets

If S&S ever had a bad idea, it is these copper head gaskets! Tell me what ya think.

Swap Meet

A few pics of my crew and me at the swap meet

GarageWrench Crew

We here at GarageWrench absolutely love our friends Jamerz and Kristen. Im think'in every chopper shop should have a couple like this, the chopper world would be a better place (and a lot funner also). Grace and Peace to you both, and can't wait to build you that chopper bro!

LOVE WINS

Project Flathead Lowerend

Picked up a used mandrel, 1 1/2, to hone these Flathead rods on the Sunnen MBB 1600. The flywheels spun a output shaft and gathering some used wheels to complete the project. More pics to come!

Who wants patches? We want patches!!!

FINALLY....THE PATCHES HAVE COME TO.....GARAGEWRENCH!!!  Yes we have gotten our first shipment of GarageWrench patches. They are super awesome. 75% embroidered with white twill background.  These beauties will be for sale very soon. Also keep you're eyes out for GarageWrench hats. We're on our way.  Stay tune for prices...and thank for the support...

Home made forge

We got a start on our home made mobile blacksmith forge

Metal, fire, hammers, good times ahead!

Looking for a anvil, then we will be in the school of blacksmith hard knocks!!

Boring Shovelhead Cylinders

Shovelhead 3 7/16, +.030 over cylinders to be bored. The front cylinder had a piston lock up in the cylinder!!

Was not sure if I could clean this one up on the old Kwik Way FN, but that old machine come thru once again.

We was able to take out only .015 to completely clean up the bore and salvage the cylinders with a set of +.050 over pistons.

Note the use of the boring plates on top and bottom of these iron cylinders. When they come of the Kwik Way, after two types of cuts, rough and fine, they go to the Goodson/Sunnen tank in the same torque plates for another three step honing process thats takes them to within +/- .0001-.0004 of being completely round from top to bottom. The torque plates allow this measurement to remain exactly the same when set between the cases and heads and torqued. 

Blacksmith

Just picked up our future blacksmith forge

Can't wait, one-off chopper parts here at GarageWrench!

Project Shovelhead Hardtail

Got the frame, it's a Paughco stock rake and no stretch.

Cone style lower end, 180 rear tire, 5 gal fat bobs, wide glide with no fender fat tire, tank shift with suicide clutch......

More to come! Super pumped about this project, should be fun.

69 FLH Police Special

Failed the cylinder leak down test. Thought I had a bent valve, but you can see that the valves are seated, the cylinder is scored. Hopefully can ball hone and re-ring it. Bore gauge will tell the story.

Patches

Oh you know it! GarageWrench patches are being made as you read this fine message. They will be available for sale as soon as they arrive. Super pumped....  

GarageWrench Sunday

We was wrenchin on the 73, heads off again and also got this Trail 70 that's been in the shed for 20 years, ripped the carb apart, and building the carbs for the XS 400 project, then just burned out with 3 hrs sleep last night so were in watching 6 Over again. That's our Sunday. O ya, got the biz card art work completed and orderd. Later

Patches?

Good news fellow wrench heads, we got patch designs together and out to get made. So in the next month hopefully we will have some kicking GWrench patches in the works. Check back for more info. Keep wrenching!!!

Good weekend

So we had a good weekend. Rearranged the shop for more maneuverability and room. Cleaned it up and came up with a lot of great ideas for shop set up. With everything that is good comes time. Our future builds and projects look great and our outlook is inspiring. Check back for more updates.

Late night

Right now it's 2:09am and the Buckster and I are smoking two amazing cigars working on our site. I'm super excited to see this project of ours bloom into something beautiful. GarageWrench is going to make waves. To all that have started to follow us and are starting to support us , thank you. Great things are coming....

Shovelhead Hardtail Project

New Shovel project at GarageWrench. The engine has been on my self for a very long time, look at the surface rust on those flywheels. I had decked these cases and bored them for 3 5/8 cylinders, picked up a set of S&S heads, barrels and pistons, an Andrews cam, and some misc parts then stuck it on the shelf. It all belongs to my brother (blood) Cochise and he's ready for the build. So know we have a third winter project here at GarageWrench. Will keep posting as the build progresses.

1969 FLH Police Special Project

Had the privilege to restore Billy Canfields 1969 Police Special, ground up, wheel to wheel. What a beautiful motorcycle. It took a couple years to build, working on and off. But the end of the build yielded some trouble. I used a Andrews A2 grind with low compression pistons and the heads had all new parts including seats. I always grind new seats to leave as much stem height as I can with the cam Im using, in this case, basically stock, Andrews says the A2 can be used with stock spring spacing and Hydraulic lifters, a "bolt in" cam. Well after almost 30 years of building engines, i'm still learning. I had broken inner valve springs, on two separate accessions, so I had the upper end off of this Shovel three times! With the help of Steve Broyles at Stevenson Cycle, we put our heads together and found some old Shifton spec's and discovered there is a in pocket measurement between the valves heads and a little math that includes the lift and walah! I had to change the spring spacing and sink the valves deeper  in the heads! Hey Andrews, its not a "bolt in" camshaft! You can do the exact same thing to two separate engines and the end result is, they are two separate engines. No two are the same, they have there own personality and character. After all said and done, a great bike, a great experience and i'm sure its ready to ride!

Cylinder Boring in the shop

Boring a set of Twin Cam 88 inch cylinders into a 95 inch via the K model early 60's Kwick-Way boring bar at GarageWrench

GarageWrench Head Rebuilding

GarageWrench provides complete Cylinder Head rebuilding from Knuckle to Twin Cam, all in house triple angle seat cut's, contour seats into ports, basic head porting intake and exhaust, all guides pressed in and reamed to fit new valve stems, we also counter sink the head bolt inserts to prevent premature head gasket leaks.

Project 1982 Yamaha XS 400

This weekend Verdie and myself started on bobbing this XS. We sat and stared at it for a couple hours over coffee and cigars, planing and using Tumblr to create ideas to bring this to a state of hyper coolness. First thing was to get it running, stripping down the chassis and wiring harness, only to find two very gummed up Mikuni's. More to come, stay tuned..............