Thursday, September 29, 2011

Wing Tank

This wing tank is an AEE clone built by Acu-Weld. Dimensionally it is a bit different and holds more fuel than ours did. It's layout isn't exactly the same but close. Wing tanks you either love or hate and you have to be real careful what you put them on. On some choppers it looks perfect others it looks like an abortive after thought.
Acu-Weld was actually SMC/Acu-Weld which eventually became V-Twin parts.
The very first wing tank was built by Dave Brackett of AEE Choppers and put on our bike named "Really" which was a Honda 350 chopper in 1969. Good luck finding a Honda 350 chopper that pre-dates that!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The birth of the name AEE


Here is a cover from a car show that Tom's 32 was on the cover of. Inside was an advertisement for Auto Electric Engineering. Tom used the business license for Auto Electric Engineering when he formed AEE Choppers. Now you know the one and only story of how the name came about.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Tom's 32 with blown Ford 427

this shot is of tom's 32 with it's last motor in it. He went nuts and it had 850hp on pump gas. Proved too much for the frame, just over kill but damn what an engine and ride!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Blown Sporty

This is decent picture of the Magnuson blower on our Sportster kit bike (though in black and white you can tell it has the shitty ass brown seats on it. AEE sold those and then even some in denim, poor kit bike ended up with both on it at various times). It also has one of the first 2 in to 1 exhausts on it. Actually a muffler adapted to fit our exhaust system. Again this bike was a mule for a tremendous amount of parts. When this bike was built it was normally aspirated then quickly morphed in to having a Weber carb and Joe Hunt magneto on it, then the blower.
The manifold for the Weber and the blower were the work of Jerry Magnuson and I believe this was the very first commercial application of his design. It worked well and was reliable. If any one out there has one of the AEE/MPD Weber manifolds I'd love to have it!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Corvair Trike

AEE Choppers "Corvair Trike"

By Dave Brackett and Jim Clark

     In early 1968, Tom McMullen and Jim Clark were looking for a new project. There were a few three wheelers around that used automotive motors, VW and Corvair were examples, but they decided to build a style never done before. They utilized  a Corvair engine with an automatic trans, but with a twist. The motor was pointed forward, not to the rear.
     Tom started on a framework using mostly round tubing, and utilized a Harley neck. The tubing fit around the much larger motor, terminating in the rear similar to a Harley trike.  After making some modest engine modifications and adding a small master cylinder to operate the corvair rear brakes, three seat frames were made, one in the center and two over the rear wheels.
     Now the hard part started. There was considerable custom machine work needed to reverse the rear end rotation, when the rear end was flipped over.  The rear suspension was converted to rigid. Tom farmed this work out to some machine shop who knew Corvairs, and he proceeded with other tasks.  Jim worked on routing oil lines and external modifications to allow the reverse of the transaxle.
     Body panels were formed and the bike was sent to Molly for paint. Upon return, seats were fabricated by Whitey Morgan and installed. Upsweep style exhaust pipes were used and modified to fit the Corvair. An AEE 20 inch over stock springer front end was installed with small spool front wheel and hub, to finish the package.
     By late 1968, all the pieces were complete and the three wheeler was finished. This trike was an immediate success, bringing AEE much attention. The AEE Corvair Trike was entered in the 1969 Oakland Roadster Show and won the Best In Show Sweepstakes Award. The trike continued to be featured in AEE advertising and featuring new products for many years.

seat and pad



here are some shots of one of our seats and pads, very popular combo back in the day but WAY less than comfortable!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Shotgun!

Here is a nice shot of our Supersport withe Tom's shotgun carrier mounted to the springer. The shotgun was a sawed off 12 gauge (legal length) that we kept on the wall behind the cash box. Tom actually rode around a few times that I am aware of with this on the bike. Got pulled over and asked about it but since it wasn't loaded (on the bike, it was on the wall) not much they could do. I'm pretty sure for a very short time we sold the shotgun holder, I keep searching as my memory says we did but I can't find a catalog with it in it or else I am just missing it.

The Supersport was a very interesting bike. Very long and narrow, fit Tom well as he was small. proportions were just right. It like all of our bikes ended up being a parts mule for new products, many pictures exist of this bike with a variety of parts put on it.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

AEE springer and mini drum on a Denvers bike




I took these pictures at the 40th Anniversary Street Chopper party. This bike had just been found supposedly and was in unaltered condition. The owner did not know that was an AEE springer until I proved it to him by finding our logo etched on the bottom of the triple tree. then I noticed it was our AEE brake too! I made his day. I posted a few pictures once before but these are a bit better I believe.

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