The Shovel King For Big Worm & Uncle Jeff | 1980 Harley Davidson FLT

When you are the owner of a small business, every penny counts from how it's saved to how it's spent. Finding ways to keep the doors open can be a full-time job on its own. You take the time to place ads in local papers, maybe offer some coupons, and the work is still not flowing in like you want and need it to. What do you do? You have to change your approach and try to see things the way your customer does. We once heard a motorcycle wheel company say that, "You could have the coolest set of wheels in the industry, but if they are not on a bike to be seen then your customer had no idea how they look on his bike."

This is just what David Lopez, aka "Koe," was thinking when he wanted to show off the skills of his shop called Fresno Customs & Collision (FCC) in Fresno, California. Some of David's earliest memories are of his uncle Steve Martinez's auto body and paint shop. One memory is of a '66 Caprice Classic that his uncle had just finished painting. It was a rich oriental candy blue with lots of graphics and tons of flake. This was the paintjob that David would want to reproduce one day if the right project came along. At the age of 16 David started working at his uncle's shop on the weekends and after school. While working with his uncle for a number of years, he learned most of his custom painting skills and also was taught how to pay very close attention to the finer details. From there David took his creative skills to the next level, even getting more work at a hot rod restoration shop. Then about five years ago the owner of the hot rod shop was getting ready to retire so David and his co-worker, Robert Martinez, decided to join together and buy the business.

Ever since the start of FCC they have been improving and expanding their business by putting customer satisfaction ahead of everything. When a guy walks into the shop with a custom job or a crazy request, FCC wants the customer to feel that no job is too big, too small, or impossible to get done. As jobs for show cars started pouring through the door, and the awards and trophies followed, David and Robert knew they were on a roll. However, with every custom paintjob that left the shop, still in the back of David's mind was that blue '66 Caprice.

On the other side of the family it was David's other uncle, Jeff Martinez, who introduced him to motorcycles and the lifestyle that comes with it. Uncle Jeff was not just a rider, he was a mechanic who worked on his own bikes. Over the years David would spend endless hours with him at his home, just watching Uncle Jeff work on bike after bike helping and learning. There wasn't anything he couldn't fix. All that time spent around Harleys pushed David to start working and customizing motorcycles. The day eventually came when David wanted his own bike, and he called on Uncle Jeff to help him find it and fix it up the Fresno way. Unfortunately that never got to happen-Uncle Jeff passed away before the two could build a bike together. David's love for bikes grew even more.

Uncle Jeff was an old school kind of guy, and he taught David to love old school things. David started looking for the kind of bike he thought was old school like the Shovelhead. However, one day his good friend, Steven "Big Worm" Cordova, pulled up with a new '07 Road King, complete with stereo bumping and a 21-inch twisted spoke front wheel wrapped with a whitewall tire. David was in love with the Worm's bike. Sadly Big Worm passed away shortly after that weekend. David still didn't know what kind of bike he wanted: an old school Shovelhead or a new Bagger? Still looking at Shovelheads, another friend told David about an '80 FLT for sale. David was told it's just like a Road King but has a Shovelhead motor in it.

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.'"

Spec Sheet