Turning

I really like the larger diameter turns you often see on old race cars. Something about the pattern seems a little different than the black & silver bike below. Maybe the turns don't overlap quite as much?

Color

I've done a ton of color research. Here are some samples of base colors I really like.

Toyota Blue Ribbon (8T5)



Toyota Indigo Ink Pearl (8P4)



Toyota Nautical Blue Metallic (8H3)



House of Color Cobalt Kandy (probably over a black base). Cobalt over silver is definitely too light.



House of Kolor Midnite Blue Pearl. In this picture it looks great. In other pictures I seen it looks almost black. This pic makes me wonder if a similar colored light blue pinstripe might look pretty good against the gold.

Tank Layout 2.0

I've finally decided to go with a tank layout similar to this one and run the stock badges.

Tank Layout

I was screwing around with some two-tone options last night. My wife, who's a professional graphic designer, came in the garage to get a beer, grabbed a pencil and had the right side done in her style about 20 minutes later. I did the left. I was still really curious how the badges would look against gold leaf and got some fake leaf with a real slight adhesive . Looks like crap but it did make it a little easier to visualize.

Old Tank, New Tank

No question, the new tank is much better.

Lucky 7 Samples

That's for the quick response. Some quick thoughts on the photos you sent.

This paint is gorgeous! Blue is my favorite color so what's not to like. Style wise not quite what I'm looking for of course. The dark shade near the neck is about what I had in mind for a base color though which is why I suspect you sent this.



Nice example of the silver leaf Flathead45 commented on. I must say I like the gold leaf better. What are your thoughts about gold leaf against the dark blue working?



I like this. I like it more the more I look at it. The pin-striping and leaf is just sweet. The paint scheme works great with the tank badges. From what I can see of it this bike just rules too.

The Bike

I became motorcycle obsessed when I was about 6. I bought my first "project" bike, with the help of my older brother, when I was about 8 for $130. The same brother bought and started restoration on his first car, a 1933 Plymouth, at 13. He has been a huge lifelong influence on me.

I continued to ride and race both BMX and motocross until I got married and had the first kid (who is now 18). Parenthood quickly made me realize I could no longer responsibility ride at the level I was previously accustomed to. I switched to mountain bikes thinking under my own power I was a little as likely to let the quest for speed get me into any real trouble. Eventually a herniated disc and it's requisite surgery slowed me down even a little more.

Then the previously mentioned influential brother bought and restored a 1941 Harley Davidson WLA a few years back. Riding it for the first time, particularly given it's wacky control layout, made me feel 8 all over again! Nothing about the WLA made me want to ride the piss out of it though. It's effectively a two wheeled tractor. I also realized I missed having something to wrench on that I didn't have to rely on for daily transportation. I was hooked!. I had to find an old bike.

From day one I wanted to build a relatively conservative bike with almost a factory built look. I also hoped to make it look a little older than it actually was. My Dad owned a Velocette in the early '50's that was definitely an indirect influence. For example he mentioned he used a Ford spare tire ring as an improvised fender for functional reasons way before they became a somewhat cliche trend. I incorporated a few other semi era appropriate parts with the same period in mind. The Filcoolator flathead Ford oil filter canister as an oil tank is something I first saw on Jeff Decker's Crocker bobber. My brother came up with the idea of using an Astatic JT-30 microphone body I played with a lot as a kid as a taillight. I liked it more for sentimental reasons than because I thought anyone would ever recognize it was a microphone. It looks kind of Deco and I'm also a musician it seemed like a pretty cool fit.

This project has been a bit of a challenge financially, I have a family and 3 kids. Two are driving age, one in college, one in private school and one in pre-school. My wife was initially not too stoked about the motorcycle project but she eventually became really supportive. I'm not complaining as all are life decisions I happily made. I'd just like to make it clear how excited and appreciative I was to win this raffle. I've been trying to save paint money for over a year as it's one of the few parts of the build I can't really do myself. Progress has been slow, damn kids always want to eat or something. My wife convinced me to drop $100 of my saved paint money on raffle tickets knowing Lucky's 7 was way at the top of my dream painter's list. I just can't express how cool this all really is.