After two weeks of negotiation, they finally settled on a price. The bike was delivered to the shop in pretty bad shape. David didn't know exactly what to do to the bike, but after riding it only one time, he knew this bike was a train wreck and it had to be completely torn down. He talked it over with the guys at the shop, and told them that he wanted to break away from what they normally do on the street rods and go into more of a low rider style. He had seen a few done, but wanted to take it to the next level with a full custom low rider. David wanted a motorcycle with all the tricked out stuff of a street rod but maintain the low rider looks. He also wanted the entire bike to be done by people in Fresno (no outta towners); he wanted the bike to represent Fresno and the talent the city has.
The bike was handed over to Robert Martinez (co-owner of FCC) where he began the fabrication by shaving and lowering the front fender, stretching the tanks, making a handmade center console, and relocating the battery from the side of the bike to underneath the seat. He then mounted a set of '06 side covers, saddlebags, custom-built a rear brake pedal, and shaved the taillight and signal lights off of the rear fender. One of the last things he did was shave the right side caliper mount off so it would expose more of the rim.
After all of the modifications and mock-ups were done, David called Art Gonzalez to handle the tear down and rebuild the motor. A complete '06 Road King frontend was installed.
While Art was busy working on the motor, Robert and David began doing the bodywork and preparing the sheetmetal for paint. Once ready, David used House of Kolor Silver as a basecoat. Just like that old '66 Caprice, the bike was then covered in HOK Oriental Candy Blue. The artwork was done as a group effort with David Lopez, Josh Lopez, and Dale (Soggy) Oftedal of Dales Fine Art. Once all the art was laid out, Soggy pinstriped the entire bike and added the names Big Worm and Uncle Jeff on the rear of the saddlebags to say thanks to the guys who inspired this bike even if they where not around to do any work. When it was all finished, David applied 14 coats of clear for a deep shine.
About the same time as the paint was drying, some of the chrome pieces were showing back up at the shop. Anything that was not getting painted was sent to Gino Perez of Gino's Engraving. Once Gino was done with all of the engraving, David took all of the parts to Mike at New Age Chrome where he treated everything to a show-quality chrome job. Guy Vuglia handled the custom wiring system for this bike. There were way too many things to add to the 30-year-old wiring harness.
David and the crew at FCC prepped the bike for the show circuit, even changing out every bolt to 12-point chrome fasteners. It's been worth it, as the bike has taken a First Place win at every show the FCC crew enters it. David gave us a long list of guys that helped him with this bike starting with everyone at the shop and his wife and kids. But, it was Uncle Jeff and Big Worm who get to go for a ride every time. David's quote: "Like they say in Fresno, 'Hate it or love it.'"