Black and Blue: DP Custom’s “Seventy Three”

Jarrod Del Prado
DP Customs

The DP Customs garage is in New River Arizona, but we haven’t had a local customer since the cows came home. Until we met a dude named Scott Brown at a Bike Night late last year. He told us a story about how he was born in 1973, how all people born that year are very cool (of course I agreed with him, since I was also born in ’73), and that he wanted to build a bike in honor of his esteemed birth into the world of motorcycles. He said he liked DPC’s style and we were the ones who could help him realize his dream of creating SEVENTY THREE. And it began…

He brought us an Ironhead Harley that was of the model year, well, you know… His requirements were few: It had to be really black. REALLY black. With some hints of blue. It had to look mean. Roger that.

The frame had already been hardtailed and raked. Once we scraped off all of the vintage grease and grime, however, we realized it was more crooked than Forrest Gump’s back, and the welds looked like peppered bacon. Justin hooked it up to the jig and had a chopping party that no one was allowed to attend. After fabbing and tig welding the hell out of it, she was laser straight and the welds looked like the boys from Akrapovic had stopped by to help.

The bike had a bent shifter shaft. With these old right hand shift bikes, you’ve got go deep inside to replace it. It was worth the hard work though, as we also noticed the clutch had to be replaced. So we put in a new one while we were in the deep.

We used a black springer and powdercoated the cam cover, sprocket cover, primary cover and rocker boxes in satin black. Justin did his signature bitchin’ crossover exhaust, and perfectly followed the tips with the lines of the frame.

Our favorite part of this build is that we were able to stick with the ‘all black’ theme while mixing in the traditional bright colors that DPC is known for. The hint of white and blue on the matte finished tank blends perfectly with the bright blue wheels and the whitewall rear tire. Oh, and we’re proud of the ultra sano wiring throughout the bike and lack of clutter. It’s one mean looking machine!

Scott was blown away when he saw it – in a cool way of course…