Restoration Harley-Davidson Fat Boy & Three Girls
Luckily Stevo was a mechanic when he brought his Fat Boy — it quickly became a complete restoration project.
I WAS born and bred on the sunny shores of Manly NSW. As far back as I can remember, I was riding bikes. Even as a teenager, I often rode my trail bike to school while the other kids were still catching buses. My passion has always been to build fast engines, so when I left school, I completed an apprenticeship to become a mechanic. After work, I built an array of fast bikes, racing them in circuit and dirt track events on the weekends.
My greatest passion, though, has always been Harley-Davidson motorcycles. I’ve owned a string of them over the years but always yearned to own a Harley-Davidson Fat Boy. Finally, one came up at the right price.
I brought my ’96 Fat Boy as a restoration project. I decided the bike needed a complete strip down as it was looking a little worse for wear. After the pull down, I found quite a lot of worn parts due to neglect and road use, so it was going to need some serious reconditioning. I knew this was going to cost a fair bit of coin, so I decided not to do a radical rebuild, but to try and keep as much of the original Fat Boy shape as possible. Being a mechanic, and amateur spray painter, I was able to do most of the major work myself.
Many late nights were spent in my garage working on it, as well as at a mate’s bike shop in Mona Vale. When it came to the mechanical stuff, I found a huge supply of custom and stock parts easily available from Custom Chrome and Kuryakyn.
With rebuilding the engine, I started by getting the 1350 cc barrels bored out 40 thou, to bring it up to 1400 cc. I fitted a set of Wiseco pistons and rods; bolted on a pair of Screamin’ Eagle heads; slotted in a Crane cam and lifters; fitted a RevTech oil pump complete with oil pressure and oil temperature gauges. The whole engine was balanced and blueprinted.
I tried a few different carbs but decided on an S&S unit. The exhausts I fitted are Screamin’ Eagles. I used a K&N filter and fitted a high flow fuel tap. For the electrics, I went for a Accel super coil, and Compufire ignition system. The engine is also backed up by a six-speed box and Barnett Scorpion clutch.
Now the engine was built, it was time to rebuild the rest of the bike. First off, I brought a pair of tanks from Custom Chrome with flush mount petrol caps. The front and rear guards are Fat Bobs, with a custom taillight. I used Progressive suspension on the rear, while the front-end is still standard Fat Boy.
I found Kuryakyn was a great supplier of bling, such as the flame selector rod, chrome engine and frame covers. Flame footboards and pedals were also fitted, along with Tribal mirrors. I sourced chrome bullets to cover the whole engine and driveline bolts. Doss covers were used on a lot of the cable fittings as well.
The last thing I decided on was the paint job. I knew this was going to be a challenge as I hadn’t painted anything in 20 years. I also hadn’t painted a bike before. First up I went out and brought all the painting gear and brushes. It took me a month of playing with the gear to get used to it, and to sort out the combination of colours I wanted. The base colour is a brown metallic with a touch of pearl. I masked up the bits and sprayed in the flames with a candy apple red, followed by a few coats of clear. Then I applied a small amount of red flake over the whole lot, then heaps of clear to get the depth. The look of the paint changes from dark to light with different angles, and the glow under lights surprised me.
Every time I look at the bike, I think of future things I’m going to do to it, like conceal all the wiring into the bars and frame; put on different wheels and brakes; and many other ideas I think of in my sleep.
After the many hours of hard work that I’ve put into the Fat Boy (and a shit load of beer), I finally ride the bike to work and go for pub runs on the weekends.
The best thing about a Harley-Davidson is you can design the bike exactly how you want it, with unlimited custom parts and ideas. It’s a lot harder to do that with any other bike.”
The Chicky Babes
All three girls are from the Central Coast of NSW. They like to party with their friends and doing promo modelling for car and bike shows. Barbie tells us she works full time as a shoe store manager. She is also a qualified makeup technician who owns a mobile tanning business, and she loves getting tattoos.
- Story: Christopher Halling & Stevo
- Photos: Christopher Halling
- Models: Karrina, Rhiannon & Perri
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