Junior found Tom a 2004 FLSTF for a bargain price. “It was obvious to me that someone had started a project that they couldn’t finish for whatever reason. It was about 70-percent built,” Tom said. The black, stock-framed bike already had a good set of handlebars, a chromed nacelle front end, and 60-spoke 18” wheels with a rear 180mm tire partially covered by a Heartland USA 200mm fender and strut kit. There were a few things missing though, like a front fender, front brakes, a bunch of covers, and a cohesive paint job — not one bit of the sheet metal had color that matched the other pieces.

Immediately after buying the bike, Junior found Tom a replacement fender, then had the tins sent to Buck Wild Designs for a custom paintjob. Tom used the down time wisely. While the tanks and fenders were being painted, he had LifeStyle Cycles build-up his motor. He was more interested in owning a quick bike that he could depend on instead of a drag-strip annihilator with spotty starting. He had LifeStyles bump up the stock motor to a Screamin’ Eagle 95” kit with 10:1 compression and Dave Mackie Stage II kit including stage II heads and gear-driven cams. A Wimmer velocity stack smoothes out airflow into a 42mm Mikuni carburetor bolted to the intake manifold and a set of Vance & Hines 2-into-2, slash-cut pipes were attached to the exhaust ports of the motor to evacuate spent gases from the combustion chamber. “There was one heck of a difference before the motor was modified compared to afterward. It easily pulls away from TC 88s and I’ve never had a problem starting it,” Tom said. The stock transmission and primary were kept because they could handle the extra power produced by the conservatively enhanced motor.

The motor was back together a few days before the sheet metal returned from Buck Wild. “Buck made my sheet metal look better than it did when I sent it to him. He ground down rivets, filled in holes and gaps, and molded it all before he sprayed the deep black paint and blue ghost flames,” Tom said. The LifeStyles staff made quick work of the reassembly process. “Junior made a lot of great suggestions as the bike was re-assembled with ideas like chrome bolts and chrome pieces that really added to the overall look of the bike,” Tom said. They added a chromed H-D oil tank that complemented the billet-aluminum rear fender struts, ignition-coil cover, and horn. A set of chromed H-D hand controls were coupled with diamond plate-style grips and passenger pegs to give the bike eye-catching details. A pair of tiny, chromed Lazer Star turn signals were cleanly mounted to either side of the front end and just under the fender struts on the lower edge of the rear fender that barely meet the signal requirements that are enforced by the Golden State. Matching DNA 5-spoke, drilled rotors and a pulley were bolted to the wheels; the front wheel is brought to a halt with a four-piston Performance Machine caliper while the rear brake is a stock H-D unit. They also attached a chromed final-drive belt guard, chrome mirrors, billet shift linkage, and Barnett stainless-steel braided throttle and clutch cables that match the spark- plug wires.

Tom was excited to get the now 100-percent completed bike back from LifeStyle and rode the bike home the day it was ready. “The bike turns heads everywhere I go and it’s no slouch when I twist the throttle,“ Tom said. The customization bug hasn’t yet infected the other Twin Cam in his garage, but it did give him a good reference point for the performance of the enhanced motor. “I can’t ride my stock Deuce anymore, it feels so slow compared to the Fat Boy,” Tom said.