Okay.....time to move forward

some of the latest helmets/artwork from Imperial House

Help JAPAN

ATTENTION:  Anyone interested in making donations, please do so via check or money order.  I have removed the PayPal donate link due to complications on there behalf.  To those of you who have donated..........Thank You!  If you havent received them already, all prints are in the mail!  Damn the man!

I have had the situation in Japan on my mind,

as I am sure many others have. In talking about the devastation with others, it became painfully obvious that a lot of people really want to help but they have no surety of

how or to whom they should direct their contributions. So, with that being said, I set out to create this original painting, using water color and one shot. As clearly depicted in this print,

the red circle of Japan’s flag, (which is historically symbolic

of the sun; warmth, and brightness) is being overtaken by the cracks from the outer

edge of the print, (representative of the 9.0 earthquake that triggered the devastating tsunami.) With the final touch being the single tear falling from the heart of a country as a silent cry for help.

The goal in creating this painting was to put together a striking image that would

help keep the plight in Japan at the forefront of our minds, while also creating an avenue for people to donate to help Japan. With the help of C & C Quality Printing, Inc., Imperial House will be offering high quality, signed and numbered, 15” x 20”, limited edition prints.

These prints are available for a minimum donation of $20 and will ship within

2 weeks of donations being placed.

ALL proceeds will be going to a program

called “Socks for Japan”, and the Japanese Red Cross Society.

Together we can help the land of the Rising Sun, rise above this tragic time. Thanks.

You can donate today:

send check or USPS money order to:

HELP JAPAN

c/o Shawn Long

8845 Ridgeview Dr.

Sparta, IL  62286

Once again, ALL proceeds will be going to the relief efforts in Japan.

Working on the bikes vocal chords!

I've always loved the look of rippled pipe, and yeah it may be overused at times, but I had to have a little touch of it.  Pieced together these pipes from 3 old beat up sets of exhaust I had laying around.  Capped them off with sum BUB reverse cones.  Cant wait to see them chromed!

 Threw on a seat I've been holding onto and the original Paughco Alien dual cap tank just to see how everything is flowing.  Digging it!

Pan/Shovel update

As stated in previous posts; my goal is to build my idea of a killer bike while keeping the spending down!  Well, one way to do this is to turn other's trash into treasures.  In the same way that the early wishbone frame was crying out for help; well so was this early oem Horseshoe oil tank.  Not sure how this crack came about, but it needed help nonetheless.  The crack ran across the top seam as well, so I had to start by grinding out some of it, and then using a shaping hammer, I got everything to line back up as it should.  Buttoned it all up with teh TIG, and now it's ready to ride the ride again.

Some new paint -

El Diablo Run helmet to be given away to the winner of the Circulo De Muerte!  Check out more at http://www.eldiablorun.blogspot.com/

100% original design on this one - "Hard Luck" soon to be a series of designs.

And next, some simple variegated leaf with Black accent striping.

Finished up the frame -

for now anyway.  Filled in the obvious void left from hacking off the sidecar hoops. So I am sitting here at a standstill, and figured I would mock this thing up and see if it matched the image in my head.  So far so good!  Nothing's really bolted down, just set in place; but man I'm diggin it!  Whatdaya think?

Frame repair....

The first order of business was straightening the backbone, which I accomplished with a little heat and persuasion.  Next was to tackle the neck.  As you will see in the picture below, someone along the way hacked this thing up pretty good.  Oddly though, instead of following the norm and taking a pie slice out of the bottom support and kicking the neck outward to gain the desired rake; this genius took a pie slice out of the top of the neck casting/backbone and pulled the neck back.  I have never seen it done this way.

So the choice was made to dive in and get this thing sitting right!  I started with a cut right down the back side of the neck itself.  After shelling the teeth off of 3 sawzall blades, and burning through a few cutoff wheels, I was ready to add a little heat and start bending this thing back into it's natural resting place.  The original welds may not have been pretty, but they were definitely solid!

Next, I had to make a template of the gaping void that I was now left with.  Once I had the template then I came up with the 2 pieces you see in the next photo.  Combined as one, they filled this void perfectly and gave me some solid support to tie things back together.

Once fitted in place I fired up the Lincoln, and sewed it all back together.  After the root pass secured everything for the road, I layed down a few more passes to help with blending and molding later.

1964 Pan/Shovel Build

Okay, I have thrown together a few bikes in the past and each consisted of a plan to: build, sell, re-invest, repeat.  Or something like that.  I am finally at a point where I am setting out to build a bike for myself; something that I want to ride.  All the while trying to prove to the world that you can have one helluva bike even with a limited budget.  So with that being said, I am going to attempt to chronicle this build thoroughly here on this blog.  So let's get to it.

  In my eyes, there's not much that beats the look of a slabside shovel, so when i came across this 64 panhead with a shovelhead topend I had to pick it up.

The next thing on the list was the frame.  I had my hopes set on a straight leg frame but seems that someone else had another plan because along came a 48 wishbone that had the right numbers on the price tag.  It needed quite a bit of help, but was definitely worth resurrecting.

I will go over the repairs I chose to make to the frame on the next update.  Stay tuned!

Fresh PAINT

Merry Christmas from Imperial House!

SOLD: New BILTWELL HUSTLER motorcycle helmet

Killer new Biltwell DOT certified Hustler motorcycle helmet for sale.  Tight Pinstriping in turquoise and white to set this thing off!  Nice one-off freehand design.  $200

Max Grundy tag.....interesting.

Fresher paint

Fresh paint