The details are essentially the only difference between what the assembly line pumps out every day, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day and what the greats such as Deusenberg, De Lahaye, Bugatti produced, one at a time, each a piece of rolling art, right down to the very nuts and bolts to hold them together.   Extreme attention to detail also shows up in the modern world in the form of the cars that the biggies (and some of my personal role models) like Boyd Coddington, Ron Covell, young Troy Trepanier and at least a dozen others at the tops of their game are producing now. Continued

two big wooden crates. Mr. Harrington, the owner, kindly gave the crates to me (he must have, as they were far too big for a small boy to steal). They became a fixture in our back yard. I played on and in those crates for hours at a time. Depending upon my mood, they were a car, a train, an airplane, or a space ship.  Being an introspective, nearsighted child, sometimes, I'd just sit in one of them and study the wood they were made of. There was one pine knot in particular that I enjoyed immensely. At a certain time in the afternoon, when the sun struck it just right, the knot would glow with an incredible reddish-amber light, illuminating the entire interior of the crate with a warm radiance. It was like being in church, but I could make up my own sermon: to do with the interesting natural details to be found in common pine lumber. Continued

O N   D E T A I L : Essays on the subject by Jim Wilson, J. Frank Webster, Real Coupal, and John Youens

Discovering Detail Jim Wilson When I was about six, living in a small town in KY, our house was located immediately behind the local movie theater. One day, the theater took delivery of a  new projector. It came in

two big wooden crates. Mr. Harrington, the owner, kindly gave the crates to me (he must have, as they were far too big for a small boy to steal). They became a fixture in our back yard. I played on and in those crates for hours at a time. Depending upon my mood, they were a car, a train, an airplane, or a space ship.  Being an introspective, nearsighted child, sometimes, I'd just sit in one of them and study the wood they were made of. There was one pine knot in particular that I enjoyed immensely. At a certain time in the afternoon, when the sun struck it just right, the knot would glow with an incredible reddish-amber light, illuminating the entire interior of the crate with a warm radiance. It was like being in church, but I could make up my own sermon: to do with the interesting natural details to be found in common pine lumber. Continued

Speedometer housing by Jim Wilson: Fabricated and polished aluminum, chrome shower trim ring.

Attention To Detail Is Everything J. Frank Webster At first, I was in a quandary about what I could possibly contribute to the discussion as it really isn't something I talk about as much as it is something I just do but after a while I realized that I do have a few things to say.

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J.Frank Webster: Datsun Engine Details: Polished radiator tank, painted violet metallic fan shroud,  ignition coil with chrome bracket, billet timing-chain block-off plate with paint-inlaid grooves.

The details are essentially the only difference between what the assembly line pumps out every day, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day and what the greats such as Deusenberg, De Lahaye, Bugatti produced, one at a time, each a piece of rolling art, right down to the very nuts and bolts to hold them together.   Extreme attention to detail also shows up in the modern world in the form of the cars that the biggies (and some of my personal role models) like Boyd Coddington, Ron Covell, young Troy Trepanier and at least a dozen others at the tops of their game are producing now. Continued

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On Detailing Fat Red Real Coupal I feel that Fat Red led itself well to become a hi-tech machine because of the free flowing clean curves that this particular frame has. I love the way this frame was built from the Shelby .

Real Coupal, of Cruisers By Lou: Billet machined detail components on Fat Red, his 1940 Hiawatha.

factory. I have a deep passion for the curved tubed framed bikes of the 30`s,40`s, and 50`s which lend themselves well to  the world of hot rodding culture. Fat Red is just the next page in my book of bikes I have built, which leads me to the next edition as the story goes. A person`s mind is always coming up with new details for his next set of wheels. On Fat Red I wanted everything on the bike to be part of it, or if you want, call it belonging to the bike, not out of place on it. This is one of the reasons I pay close attention to detail. You don`t get this kind of detail with off-the-shelf parts. On another note, though, the quality of parts on the shelf are getting much better in the last couple of years, but you still have to ask yourself will these parts fit in with the rest of the bike`s theme? This is one of the reasons why I love building highly polished and endmilled alloy gadgets to fit my bikes. I also like to do things first rate as in fastening everything together with polished stainless steel fasteners, which is much better than chrome fasteners as chrome breaks up from tightening. It costs more but is worth it in the long run. Another thing that I like when it comes to detail is solid color. I find when you have two or more colors combined it takes away from the frame or style of the body. From past experiences I find that keeping it simple and clean with fine detail and color is a good recipe for style and grace. R.C.

Details On Salsa Verde John Youens Salsa Verde presented a special challenge in detailing since it was designed to be somewhat of a minimalist sculpture of a stretched cruiser.  A lot of the "detail" of the bike was put into the planning stage.  I wanted to build a bike that reflected some of the trends in custom motorcycles, but would also be at home cruising the streets of Paso Robles beside a chopped '49 Mercury.  I used a single radius arc for each the tubes as opposed to an "S" shape in order to create a strong visual connection to the ground.  The concept is to pull the viewer's eye downward to the horizontal bottom tube from both the front and the rear of the bike.  The front fender stay was also designed to be horizontal to reinforce this look.  A lot of car people that I've shown Salsa Verde to have picked up on this design element. There were probably fifty or sixty sketches that were done before the final design was reached.  All of the sketches were drawn over an accurately scaled underlay which had the predetermined location for the wheels, seat, handlebars, and pedal crank.  After the design looked right on a sketch pad, it was recreated in CAD where the actual dimensions, arc radii, and tubing sizes could be plugged in.  This was also where the tubing joinery (if I can use that term for metal work) was planned out so that there was enough room to radius and smooth each joint. Of particular importance during this phase was setting up the proper trail (also known as caster in automotive terms) for the steering geometry. I also tried to conceal fasteners such as the seat mounts and slotted adjustment holes.  The mounting bracket for the rear fender is an integrated part of the seat so that a rear fender stay would not have to be used.

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There are several construction details that contribute to the overall design of the bike.  The ends of the straight bottom tube are both hard-edged designs, while the curved tubes use spherical end caps, with the end of the seat stays capped with a chrome plated bullet design.  The close fit of the seat to the frame and fenders provides a transition between all three elements.  The rear dropouts also play an important part in the overall look of a cruiser.  The dropouts on Salsa Verde were custom cut out of a sheet of 4130 ChroMoly to align with the angles of the frame stays.  Perhaps the most critical to the chopper look was getting the fenders to be as close as possible to the tires so that the fenders would be a continuation of the diameter of the tires.  The frame is also fitted with threaded braze-ons for mounting a chain guard, but this plan was scrapped when my wife pointed out that it would interrupt the lines and flow of the frame.

In conclusion, perhaps the most important design detail that is often overlooked is ergonomics, and how the bike looks being ridden.  This design was planned around the chopper style seating position, and "arms forward" hand grip location.

I wanted a design that the rider would become a part of instead of merely sitting on top of.  Contrast a '32 Ford highboy roadster to a '23 "fad" T bucket. JY

John Youens: Preliminary sketches for Salsa Verde

Chopped Custom Mercury