Day of the Dead

It all started when David came to us after having a bad experience at another shop. Turns out he was told he was being too fussy and was better off shopping elsewhere. Well, lucky he went to the right place the second time around with his 2011 Heritage Softail, because attention to detail and being pedantic is what we do best. With a few ideas in mind, David sat down with us to discuss a few options. But as many builds go, it wasn’t long before they were heading in a completely different direction. The first request was
for lots of chrome along with some ape hangers, which is about when the cholo bug bit, and bit hard too.

“Twisted spokes and a stretched rear fender, let’s start with that”, David suggested. Next was to replace the apes with the Carlini 16” Gangster bars and El Presidente risers, and as they were already sending the rear guard off to paint, they decided now was as good time as any to give the tank and front guard a makeover as well. It wasn’t a quick and hasty build either, instead we just chipped away at it, which was also dictated by David’s budget, with him paying it off along the way. He’d often ring up every couple of weeks and say, “I’ve got some more money, and I was thinking…” And that’s the way the build progressed, quickly becoming bigger than Ben Hur. To give it a bit more punch we slotted in a CCC Stage 7 HP kit along with Panhead rocker covers for that old school look. This also included Warflow heads and valves, a SE260 cam, Fueling lifters, a 58mm HPI carb, a Stealth air cleaner from S&S along with Shotgun air shocks, while those Dirty Bird Concepts El Jefe pipes definitely add to the Vicla theme. So not only does it look wild, it goes just as hard when David lights the wick. And pulling him up hard when he needs it are the Performance Machine brakes front and rear. We also fitted up a few
extra goodies like the Custom Kraft Turbine and Supersonic indicators, Precision Billet pegs front and rear from Darkside along with a custom made Dragger rear guard from DGD Customs.

When it came time to sort out the paint work, David really wanted to go wild, and in the end it was a collaboration of three talented WA locals, Ryan from Custom Modifications laid down some heavy silver flake, Travis from Pinhead Kustoms went to work on the pin-striping while Gypsy from Alchemy Air Brushing had the massive job of applying all the ‘Day of the Dead’ airbrushing. You could spend hours taking in all the finer details, it truly is a rolling work of art. Speaking of which, Andrew from Beyond Trim tooled away for hours creating the amazing seat too, all by hand.

Also a special thanks to the beautiful model Lats for complementing the bike even further on the day of the shoot. It’s hard to tell where the tattoos finish and
the airbrushing begins. I think it’s fair to say David couldn’t be happier with his final ride.