Wednesday, August 5, 2009

The Joe Kennedy "Liquid Glass" Treatment!







For those of you who had seen my springer in its original state you knew it was heavily pitted, unfit for chrome because of the pits and a likely candidate for hydrogen embrittlement. There was the option of powder coating, but I adamantly hate that sludge and the pits still would have shown through anyway. A couple weeks back I brought my frame, battery tray, and springer legs to Joe Kennedy of the Kennedy Brothers Bomb Factory. I had already had great dealings with his brother Jay, "Pokie", as he superbly radiused my triumph ribbed fender and stitched it back together with pinner tig welds, and I remember Gabe telling me Joe was a phenomenal painter so I thought I'd give him a try. I dropped off my parts a couple of weeks back and picked up the lot this evening. Man, was I impressed. The frame is gloss black and completely show as I needed it that way because the original cast rear racing section mated with the stock rigid front section give the bike a very unique look, one that can not easily be duplicated. So the frame and battery box are still in the car, wrapped up, but I thought I would show off the forks. I didn't want to go with black because the tiny peashooter legs would disappear and I wanted them to stand out, so we agreed upon a light grey and I'm stoked on it. It looks like a gloss version of a WWII battleship and coupled with the nickle plated springs and friction dampener, I think the front end will be a nice contrast with the rest of the bike. I've got chrome coming back still and Harpoon's working on the tank and fender as we speak so I'll snap shots of those before and during assembly. If anybody is serious about contacting Joe regarding paint email me and I'll give you his phone number as he doesn't even have an email address (that is rad; pure nostalgia there)!

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