There’s a party weekend in Charlotte each year that culminates ina Sunday gathering and a grand bike show. The humid weekend escapewas created five years ago by Mike Pullin a member of the CharlotteH-D team, after his son, Justin, died of asthma complications whileMike was on a run.Mike discovered, that the American Lung Association createdcamps for educating asthma inflicted kids, parents and friends on howto deal with lung associated complications. With the correctinformation, used promptly at the proper time, kids can surviveasthma attacks readily and live long healthy lives. This crucialknowledge is critical for kids, so Mike kicked off this party weekendto support the learning camps and make a hearty donation to theAmerican Lung Association program. For two years Bandit was the proudgrand marshal of this event, “Bikernet will support and sponsor thisweekend for as long as Mike’s involved,” Bandit said recently after athree-day drunk.This year Bandit couldn’t attend, but got a call from Mike’sbetter half, Meanest, who also works at the dealership. “Bandit,” Shesaid in distinctive southern slippery words that slid through thereceiver and lingered on his ear lobe, like butter running off astack of pancakes, “honey, since you can’t make it to the event, Iwould sure appreciate it if you would make us a special trophy forthe Best of Show Class.”
Could Bandit turn her down? There’s no way he could musterthe heartless nature to deny this woman and or the event that meansso much to this bikin’ community. Besides, he had recently purchaseda new Millermatic 175 MIG welder and needed the practice.
“Of course, baby,” he said into the phone to her glee. He pondereda variety of Rube Goldberg art objects, turned trophies at lastyear’s HORSE Smoke-Out. Hackasaw welded various motorcycle partstogether, then chromed the H-D part number trophies and presentedthem to Edge, the show promoter. The winners were dazzled by thecreative nature and the deft construction and welding abilities.
Bandit was challenged. Could he weld a myriad of ring gears,clutch hubs and connecting rods together to create a 50 pound tributeto the Best Of Show Bike? He was perplexed. He brought up his pappy,a big surly bastard who ran a machine shop for a nationwide oil welltesting company. The man welded oil derricks together, if needed,during his 40-years in the oil fields. His law of welding was, “Neverlose the bead,” he grumbled and reveled in vast deep burn wounds,”even if you catch fire. Just keep welding, someone will put youout.” Bandit watched him, as a kid, arc weld with bare hands, theslag sizzling on the back of his scarred paws. He wouldn’t flinchuntil the job was done. “Boot tough and rattlesnake mean,” DavidMann, the artist, said about Bandit’s dad.
The old man made some of the finest metal art sculpturesI’ve ever had the privilege of viewing. He handled iron like asculptor molds clay. With his artistic tradition in mind Bandit wentto work. He’s been welding for 30 years, off and on. Back in the 70she made towel racks with worn out chains. Door knobs were brazedtranny gears and cam shafts. There were motorcycle kitchen utensilsthat never wore out.
He scratched his thinning hair and faced the project athand. Bad Brad, who stops by the headquarters from time to time,delivered chunks of iron and steel. Bandit planned a new steel-basedfence for the headquarters made out of angle iron, solid steelspikes, corrugated steel sheets and old bike wheels . We’ll report onthat later. The ILWU Union man recently brought dropped off a 6-footlength of 6-inch diameter, scrap steel tubing. It was Bandit’sinspiration. He decided to form the leather jacketed arm of a manholding a wheel for the world to see.
We started the project by cutting the steel tubing with areciprocating saw then split it down the middle with a cutting torch.Bandit dug out his HA leather shirt and studied the cuff and cut ofthe forearm. He needed heat like a blacksmith. He cut a wedge out ofthe tubing with the torch then created a stand for his rose bud tip,which you can see in the back of some of these shots. With thatblasting away and a set of vice grips firmly clamped to the tubing hebegan pounding the red hot mild steel until he blacksmithed thedesired shape. Another portion of the rusty tubing was used for thebuttoned placket.
Here’s the beginning of the segment-built base and a mild-steelring Bandit decided to use for the wheel rim. He has a dozen of theserings, that he’s carried and moved from place to place for 20 years.It’s about time he found a use for them.
While hunting through a metal supply joint, Banditdiscovered pressed segments of steel scattered around the concretedeck under the hole-punch machine and hit up one of the workers. Thebiker/employee looked both ways and let Bandit bag a bunch of punchedout hole segments. You can order a sheet of steel with holespressed into it without drilling. Massive hole-punchers snap roundshapes out of the material with immense strength. Some were an inchthick. They’re like thick, mild steel, quarters, dimes and fifty-centpieces. He used them to form the trophy base, then welded themtogether with the Miller MIG welder. He also used various sizedsegments to form the initial shape of the hand. After the base forthe palm was welded together, he began to fill and shape the musclesof the hand with beads of weld. He made the wrist long enough toprotrude deep into the sleeve or be adjusted to fit.
The process continued from weekend to weekend. The Bikernetschedule is hectic and a stack of articles, to be written edited andprepared for posting, grew. If Bandit was missing from his desk, weimmediately checked to see if sparks were flying in the garage. Inthe old days he found time behind a doobie to lose himself in theflame of a cutting torch. “It was actually a good feeling todisappear in the quiet cubicle of steel and wail away,” Banditmumbled. One afternoon he snuck out of the headquarters and dugthrough drawers to find just the right hub-nut for the trophy wheel.He bought some 1/8-inch diameter brazing rod for spokes and went towork building the wheel. The rods are labeled bronze, yet to Banditthey’re brass. With the wheel set aside and the sleeve MIG welded tothe base, the hand was the difficult sculpture’s task ahead.
Bandit attempted to carve out an afternoon for Trophy progress. ASaturday afternoon availed itself and he hauled ass to the garage,but as he snapped on the Miller MIG his weld sputtered unnaturally.He double-checked the setting on the dinky 50-pound tank filled withArgon and Carbon Dioxide (75%-25%). It was next to empty. Two morebeads and welding was shut down for the rest of the day.
The headquarters went into red alert for an Argon refill. It wasafter noon on a Saturday–welding supply joints were closed… Therewas hell to pay until Monday.
With a new gas supply torqued into place, he went after thehand like Frankenstein forming the monster. He welded long flowingbeads, then yanked off his welding glove to inspect the lines andcurves of his right hand. Back and forth he poured long beads of mildsteel in patterns to mirror a fortune teller’s image of his palm.With a satisfactory underside region “in hand”, he turned the10-pound claw over and began to work the wrist area. Then it dawnedon the big bastard, “I better bend this sonuvabitch,” Bandit growled,”before I started forming the back of the hand and knuckles.”
The tough part was bending the hand. Some of the elementswere almost 1-inch thick. Bandit used vice-grips and chunks of pipeshoved over the massive fingers to pull the palm into shape, whilepouring on the flames for heat. He yanked, snarled, lurched and beatit with a ballpeen hammer. He broke digits off and had to re-weldthem, but with the garage fuming with steaming sweat and the heat ofred hot chunks of steel and torches ablaze, it began to take shape.
Finally, Bandit started to fill in the back of the handand build the knuckles. MIG welding is like working in a pitchblack tunnel. You can’t see shit until you strike an arc. Then youcan only view about a 1/4-inch radius circle from where the wire isfeeding. You can slow your progress, or weave in the same area, butwhile you’re trying to find your bearing or direction, you’rebuilding a puddle of molten, red-hot metal. Your mind must fixate onthe position of the wire and give guidance immediately to your hand,as the wire feed won’t stop and allow you to check out thesituation. The more he worked with the excellent MIG machine, themore he adjusted his sight to see ahead and understand the form orshape he was searching for.
The monster’s hand took form and he studied every element forneeded filling and shaping. The wheel actually slipped between thethumb and forefinger effortlessly and seemed to fit snugly, as if themonster had come to life and knew its mission was to clutch theultimate symbol of motorcycling forever more. The wrist fit neatly inthe sleeve and Bandit welded it into an everlasting position and thenwelded the wheel.
Bandit was fortunate to have several true, trained artist, who arelife long friends, and are only to happy to tell him when his designis shit. Nuttboy, who teaches art at several colleges and ChrisKallas, a biker artist who’s work is for sale in the Bikernet gulch,risked their lives to stick their heads in our garage from time totime. Nuttboy told Bandit to go wild with the buttons he planned forthe lapel of the sleeve. He pondered polished brass nuts, but whileworking on the King, discovered a couple of chromed license plateskulls with 1/4-20 studs on the back. He drilled and taped the holes.The skulls fit neatly into place. It was beginning to take shape.
Bandit contacted “Meanest” and requested the exact wording, sheneeded engraved into the trophy for the Best of Show recipient. Shedictated each word to him, in no uncertain terms. May Ling, the newgirl, feverishly hauled ass to the San Pedro trophy barn where sheordered a brushed brass plate engraved in black. It took the trophybastard longer to computer-engrave a 2-inch piece of brass than ittook Bandit to hand make the goddamn trophy.
Bandit asked his artist friends for finish input. He had chromecredit and considered show chrome. Chrome has strange effects onvarious objects. It reflects the world, which works for custom parts,but often not on sculptures. Nuttboy again stepped up to the plate,since Chris sensed an evil spirit in Bandit’s seaweed green eyes,each time he lit the torch. Nuttboy suggested Bandit leave thecorrosion-covered sleeve alone and bead-blast or wire brush the handand base to give those areas a variety of treatments. Bandit sortatook his Ph.D. advice. He polished the wheel and spokes, thenwire-brushed the hand and the base.
When it came to the sleeve, he learned something about MIGwelding. There are anti-splatter sprays to prevent slag from stickingto the welded surface and to the MIG tip. He hadn’t experienced thistreatment, so the trophy was scattered with small beads of weld. Hecouldn’t leave the steel leather sleeve alone. He wire brushed it,but only to remove the slag. The rusty hue and the varied corrodedpits remained.
Finally he dug through the garage box of spray cans for a heavyclear coat. He discovered Rust-oleum gloss, metal clear and dousedthe trophy. After it dried he peeled the skin off the double sidedtape, on the back of the engraved brass plaque, and stuck it againstthe welded billboard. Done deal.
Two more tasks await. Sin Wu will find a thick felt lining to beglued to the bottom to prevent the 40-pound trophy for cutting thesurface of furniture. The lovely one also suggested a light droppedin the depths of the sleeve, so he will drill a hole in the back foran extension cord. We’ll post another shot of it glowing. Hang on.
For information regarding the July 27th Run For Breath, contactMeanest or Mike Pullin at Harley-Davidson of Charlotte, (704)847-4647. Don’t forget to compete for this trophy by entering yourbike. Make sure you have a back-up truck to haul the trophy.
–Wrench
