Little John’s Desk (Continued)

The transmission looked brand new, but was a Rev Tech reject. Bandit made the tranny plate out of flat stock and put the tranny in place. NuttBoy’s curiosity got the best of him and he asked, “Where the fuck will you put your feet?”

“Hold on,” Bandit said. He took the tranny case and the left engine case next door to James Famighetti for a plasma cutting job to open up the back of each case. I shook my head again and complained about the structural integrity of the engine, but Bandit ignored me and muttered to NuttBoy, “This will allow John a place to kick back or stash spots behind the scenes.” For years Bandit kept a .38 stuck in the back of his transmission.

NuttBoy got crazy once the engine and trans were in place. Painter Phil wandered into the garage and started talking about sheet metal, wheels and other strange shit. Phil even suggested a smoke machine attached to the exhaust system. They started digging through parts boxes and bins looking for weird old carbs and jockey shift levers. I jumped into their mugs if they reached for a box stuffed with good parts. I forced them to use a smashed Bendix carb, but they went to a lot of work shaving, stripping and polishing it. “Damnit Renegade,” Bandit snapped, “It’s just a desk. We can cut busted wheels in half, make 2-foot-long intake manifolds our exhaust pipes, or put purple running lights on it if we want, now back off. It’ll never run.”

They stripped the frame of unnecessary brackets, even eliminating the top motor mount. Oil pump holes and top motormount bracket holes in the engine were filled. Bandit took a 5-ball, drilled and tapped it and made a jockey shift knob, then welded an arm to the ratchet top.

Bandit called his connection in the JIMS machine warehouse and asked for another lifter stool and a set of pushrod covers. The stuff arrived chromed. Although deadlines loomed all around the staff, the two bastards from the harbor kept working in the Bikernet garage. Since the finishing touch for this puppy is a 3/8-inch thick piece of glass the shape of a surfboard with a hole in it for the springer and handlebars to protrude through, there must be supports. Just behind the neck, NuttBoy cut a chunk of bar stock 1/4-inch thick and about 2 feet long. At its widest point, the glass is 36 inches wide. The t-bar was checked for level then two supports of 3/8-inch round stock ran to the down tubes for support. At the rear, the pipes hold the glass and that entailed a trip to Samson’s Exhaust in Anaheim.