Fat Boy Face Lift | Project Fat F*cker, Part 1
The Lucky F*cker Sheetmetal Collection consists of A) a 3.5 gallon gas tank (MSRP $299.99) available for both carbureted and fuel injected models, B) tank adapter (MSRP $99.99), C) solo seat kit (MSRP $179.99), D) rigid style rear fender (MSRP $169.99), and E) fender struts (MSRP $34.99).
1 The right side of the Fat Boy’s tank has a nice big dent in it.
And as you can see the left side has a matching blemish.
Even the leather saddlebags Norm installed have taken their fair share of punishment.
2 With the bike secured to a lift, Norm and his buddy, Dan, made quick work of stripping the bike down. The seat was removed followed by the ECM tray.
3 After removing the chrome fender strut covers, the rear fender and saddlebag support brackets were removed as a unit.
4 In order to install the rigid-style rear fender, the solid fender struts had to be cut off from the frame.
5 Norm used some blue tape to mark out a cut line then used a reciprocating saw to knock off the fender struts. This is the only major frame modification necessary.
6 Next, the upper and lower belt guards were removed along with the rear fender splashguard.
7 The new rear fender was then slipped over the tire and rotated forward until the mounting holes at the front of the fender lined up with the splashguard’s lower mount holes on the swingarm. The supplied bolts were then used to secure the front of the fender.
8 The fender struts were then bolted to either side of the rear of the fender. The struts are a little bit different from each other with the left side slightly arched out to provide proper clearance for the rear beltdrive. The only welding necessary is for securing the lower fender mount bungs to the swingarm. However, Norm is planning on getting some new wheels (possibly 18s), so he wanted to mock up the fender to the new rear wheel before welding the lower fender mounts.
9 Norm and Dan then moved to the gas tank. The stock dash was unplugged and removed, the tank was drained, and then removed from the backbone. Sweet dent! Norm made sure to write down the mileage, as the stock speedo/odometer wont be used with the new tank.
10 The stock ignition switch will be reused with the new tank adapter, so Dan removed the switch from the dash.
11 The ignition switch was then secured in the tank adapter and the adapter was placed over the backbone.
12 Here you can see where the ignition switch will now reside. The inside of the tank adapter has mounting holes to secure the switch in place. The stock through bolt for the old tank will be used to secure the lower portion of the adapter (red arrow). The front tank mounts will secure to the bungs on either side of the adapter (yellow arrow).
13 The tank was then placed over the adapter. Norm’s bike is carbureted, so he’ll have to pick up a 3/8-inch NPT petcock. Also the tank had a note from Custom Chrome stating that it needed to be pressure tested and lined on the inside before being painted, so that will be taken care of later.
14 The front of the tank was then secured to the sides of the tank adapter and the rear of the tank and adapter were secured to the frame utilizing the stock rear tank mount.
15 Moving onto the seat kit, Norm placed the rear seat bracket over the back of the frame.
16 The sides of the bracket were lined up with the holes on the side of the frame and the provided hardware was used to secure the bracket in place.
17 The tongue bracket for the seat was then loosely secured to the bottom of the seat pan. As you can see, there is plenty of room for adjusting the seat pan forward or backward as needed.
18 The seat pan was then bolted to the rear bracket.
19 After adjusting the seat pan to sit how he wanted, Norm slipped the lower front mount onto the frame and between the tongue bracket.
20 After marking where he wanted to install the front lower mount, Norm then drilled and tapped the frame to secure the mount in place.
21 Lastly, Norm removed the front fender to get a better idea of how the sheetmetal kit transformed his bike.
22 In just a couple of hours with some basic tools, Norm was able to give his once beaten and battered Fat Boy a face lift and turn it into completely different looking bike just by bolting on some new sheetmetal. Stay tuned as we continue to follow the evolution of Norm’s Fat F*cker Fat Boy.
On the cover of our Vol. 43 No. 1 issue, we ran a made-over Softail that was built by Rich Fulk, product line manager/designer for Custom Chrome. Once a somewhat stock Softail, the bike was brought back to life after Rich and the bike took a bad spill on the freeway. Working with his friend, Kirk Taylor, over at Custom Design Studios, Rich and Kirk came up with the Lucky F*cker Collection, a set of sheetmetal that helped resuscitate the banged up Softail.
Custom Chrome now offers the sheetmetal collection for Twin Cam Softails and for the most part, it’s all a bolt-on affair with little frame modification or welding. The parts were all designed to work together or the parts can be used individually depending on what look you are going for or what your budget is.
One of our friends, Norm, had a 2002 Softail Fat Boy that had definitely seen better days. With more than 85,000 miles on the odometer, Norm’s Fat Boy had been ridden hard and had the scars to prove it. The bike had the unfortunate luck of lying parallel to the ground not once, but twice. The first was a stationary tip over that left a nasty softball size dent in the left side of the tank. Then several years later, a squirrely incident with a motorist on a two-lane highway left Norm and the bike sliding along the road. Luckily Norm wasn’t injured too badly, but coincidentally the bike ended up with a matching dent on the right side of the tank. After seeing the sheetmetal kit on the Lucky F*cker bike, Norm was inspired to breathe some new life into his faithful Fat Boy and restore it back to glory. Follow along as we show how Norm mocked up the sheetmetal kit.
**Source: Custom Chrome Inc. **
Contact your local dealer | customchrome.net
Source:
Custom Chrome Inc.
Contact your local dealer | customchrome.net
