Big Twin pipes, tank and seat pan.....

Dave Brackett, of AEE Choppers fame, continues to make incredible progress on Big Twin. Pipes going in....going to be 4 of them up and out near the license plate on the rear as they were originally. Hopefully soon I'll have pictures of the wheelie bars too. Bones Legacy of Las Vegas is going to have an amazing article of chopper history some day soon at their place to show off to the world!

Big Twin seat pan

And here is the seat pan Dave Brackett just built for Big Twin. Upholstery for three goes across the back and up beside the tank are arms of more material for the rider. Bones Legacy should be very happy and proud to have this superb chopper and incredible original builder on hand for the restoration.

Big Twin oil tank and foot peg.

Here you can see the oil tank, there is a tube that goes up and through the fuel tank. Fuel tank has two caps, one for oil one for fuel. More of Dave's great work shows in the foot peg setup fro the driver. I am going up to see Dave next month and hope that Big Twin is still there so I can take some more pictures. I'll be picking up the AEE Kit Bike that Dave has helped me with. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it next year! 

my favorite view of Big Twin

This was always my favorite view of Big Twin....nothing else like it and she is coming back to life!

Big Twin tank and shifter

Dave Brackett keeps adding to the magic of the Big Twin restoration. He got the fuel/oil tank (note the two caps) mounted up and the shifter put back in place. He told me that he simplified the linkage of the shifter compared to what he had originally installed (is not visible). Big Twin is really coming together, next up is Dave will fabricate the exhaust system that goes down and under then exits high on the body by the license plate. He is a master at this and indeed built exhaust systems for many of the famous racing cars back in the day including a land speed record holder.

Kit Bike seats

Found a picture of my AEE Kit Bike seats on the Haifley Brothers blog. They recovered the original AEE seats to perfection.

Big Twin Trans is in....

Dave Brackett has the Big Twin trans back in place along with the various shafts and bearing blocks that it takes to turn the power a couple of different times.....

Picture fun

Just a couple pictures...one just a logo mashup AEE had late in its life. Another of Leo Payne at our dyno running the Shovelhead with Robert Smith aboard. Last my buddy Lenny Cenotti at the parts counter supposedly explaining something to a customer. Reality? Customer was also an employee.

Upper frame done on Big Twin!

Dave continues to make incredible progress....

Custom Rodder March 1961

Just found this new article about tom McMullen's famous 32....Tom was always the promoter!

Dave continues to make progress on Big Twin......

I've been very sick so sorry about slow updates but here is the latest on Big Twin courtesy the wonder man Dave Brackett!

Dave Brackett has some of his creations for sale.....

This is Amani 4, a trike with seating for three with a custom hot rod style body, old school chopper, 2 - Suzuki 550's driving through a Ford C-4, custom designed and built by Dave.....Contact him at brackett@olypen.com  $15,000

Amani 3 has a 1776cc VW motor, glide clutch, dual Webers, has sidecar chopper style, can be removed, with front end changed can run as drag bike, has run about 100 mph at 7's in 1/8th mile. $14,000

Amani 5 - 1,100cc Suzuki motor, no frame, very unique, springer front end, dark purple with gold $10,000

http://www.brackettracing.com/

Mocking up the engines...Big Twin

Here Dave has dropped in an Ironhead engine to locate the motor mounts as he goes about repairing the Big Twin chassis.

Dave Brackett and Big Twin

The man himself and Big Twin.....

Todays Big Twin update

Dave Brackett, AEE Choppers designer and engineer, shared these pictures with me today of the ongoing Big Twin restoration in conjunction with Bones Legacy of Las Vegas. He tore down the 45 rear end (said the grease was a solid as a rock), got in to the torsion bar tube which was full of water and got it all cleaned up, got rear suspension cleaned up and corrected, got tires to seat and inflate (they are the original 1969 Goodyear bluestreaks), he also had to straighten the handlebars, cleaned up the C4 trans....lots of small but important things being fixed, restored and corrected. He said materials are arriving to begin the fabrication/repair of the neck and frame that got hacked up by a PO. His exact words were "it's a mess" but not once did he say he could not make it right. Dave is the man!

Big Twin tear down

Some pictures of the tear down of Bog Twin by it's builder Dave Brackett.....I'm sure this bring back some memories....

Tom/Rose and the 32

Here is a picture of Tom in his famous 32 roadster in front of Beckman Instruments where he worked at one time. The other is a picture of when Rose won at the Winternationals in Tom's 32....I believe the class at that time was A/SR.

Big Twin before shipping

A shot of Big Twin at Bones Legacy's shop in vegas before it shipped to it's creator Dave Brackett.

Big news on the Big Twin!

Bones Legacy Choppers of Las Vegas has had Big Twin for a couple years and has very slowly begun a restoration. They pulled the motors and had them re-chromed and rebuilt. However one of the previous owners had seriously damaged the chassis when attempting to put a blower on the Twin. In a very smart move Bones Legacy shipped the Big Twin to it's original builder Dave Brackett to do the repairs. Dave received the Big Twin this week and below are some pictures he took of it on arrival. I saw the Big Twin every day at AEE but I don't think I ever saw it missing the two outside Goodyear Blue Streaks (which they removed for shipping). Kind of looks like a funny car from the rear!  enjoy the pictures and also a summary story by Dave I will post in a bit. Dave is a magician and a genius and he will take very good care of his baby I'm sure!

Brown seat and pad

There currently is on Ebay an AEE seat and pad in brown. While I never liked them they do look right on some chops. If nothing else they are in superb condition considering their age....and the pad still has the AEE part number tag on it. It would be real easy to have them recovered by someone like the Haifley Brothers in black and have a real nice looking AEE seat and pad.....