AEE Choppers: March 2016

Andy recently made contact with us and he's an old hand in the chopper world. Goes all the way back to the early years of AEE. Enjoy his letter and pictures:

I just wanted to say Hello. My name is Andy Anderson and I built my first Chopper starting in 1969 from mostly AEE parts ordered from the catalog (see attached).

I was just a kid but the Articles Tom McMullen wrote inspired me so much that I knew a Harley Chopper was the only way to go — I had long been hooked on Choppers in the early 60’s from seeing all the cool bikes at shows, in articles in Cycle World and Cycle guide. Long before the main group of Chopper mags started with exception to Roths Choppers mag.

I started painting in order to paint my own choppers and did many of my friends as well as my own.

My first paint was very crude using many candies in spray cans. The second version of my Chopper was modeled(paintwise) after a Molly paint job on the AEE sportster. I actually borrowed a small compressor to paint that bike with. I Loved that paint. That job on my bike got me more work and a full time job. Later to turn into my own business a few years later. Which I still own today and still do a limited amount of paint jobs. The new Guys have discovered that I painted Flake in the 70’s and have seen my work on Facebook. So I get calls from all around and have even done several article on painting metal flake. In the 70’s I actually used what we called Epoxy to paint with. Especially on the flake jobs. Molly got me started using epoxy. Not directly but because I wanted to do what he did so I found a source out of California and learned how to use it.

Anyway I am a huge Fan of AEE. When I was in California in 73 I stopped by the Anahein store and saw the 7 up Bikes and I think maybe Dave Brackett was behind the counter. I was 19 at the time and did not introduce myself but went on to visit Street Choppers offices and meet Steve Stillwell who had just photographed some of my work at the First Rats Hole show in Daytona

I’ve enclosed a few old photos but mainly just wanted to say hello.

The red leaf Panhead is my very first chopper— painted with spray can— the next version of it is yellow with blue ribbons— similar or inspired by the AEE sportster. The others are bikes I built or helped my friends build. All of them are my paint— the BlueSshovelhead is also mine. You can see all the AEE parts in the bikes including the square Glide on my Blue Shovelhead.