Trading Paint | 2008 H-D Road Glide FLTR

MAIL baggersmag@sorc.com

Gunslinger Custom Paint (GCP) of Golden, Colorado, has turned out some of the most eye-catching, cutting-edge touring bikes over the past 5 years. Road Kings and Street Glides were the normal base models of their creations. With an abundance of ’08 H-D 105th Anniversary bikes on showroom floors, the squad at GCP decided to cash in on manufacturer rebates to get the new Road Glide at a very reasonable cost.

Being that the new mount was purchased at a good price, the theme was set to build this new bike. “Let’s make a statement with maximum impact, at a minimal expense,” claimed GCP owner Jeff Theisen. With the economy in flux, it was time to sharpen the pencils and extend deals with all of the vendors involved.

Giving the new ride a few extra horsepower was first. Walt Sipp of Pro-Charger had what was needed. The Colorado crew was able to acquire one of his superchargers in trade for custom paint on his display bike. David Hare, of Freedom Harley-Davidson, had a set of RC Components Royale wheels that were the perfect fit for the new creation. Once again, a deal was struck.

Other deals put together with various vendors included trading paint for various items through Gary Chipp at FBI. Ness long bags, FBI long rear fender, chrome frontend and more parts were bartered with the Iowa based company. The exotic skin seat was a trade for paint with local seat guru Dan Ballard of Bitchn’ Stitchn’.

Gunslinger then took advantage of their talents in the body shop and created custom parts for the late model bagger. The experienced crew built its own stretched tank and dash with flushmount filler cap. Keeping the lines of the bike flowing, custom sidecovers were stretched to complement the elongated fuel tank. As the shop dug through various take-offs from previous jobs, two standard touring fenders, which had seen better days, were cut, chopped, welded and shaped into a one-of a kind hugger front fender.

Once parts were completed in the body shop, the process of applying the standout paint began. The bike’s paint utilizes mirage orange pearl with gold highlight webbing as its base. Not to be content with standard vivid black, the artists in the paintshop added a red-frost pearl into the popular dark color. Complementing the paint scheme was adding the hammered silver metallic graphics that run throughout the vehicle. Finishing details included one-off hand pinstriped licks from one of the shops steady hands.

Once completed the bike was on the road in the hills of Denver and out to the Black Hills where maximum impact was received by the crowds of the popular rally. Mission accomplished. B

Spec Sheet