This 1947 EL was purchased by that the owners of Highway Choppers in 1988. As you can tell from the run-stand video of the motor start-up, they have been working on this personal project for many years. While working on it in between daily customers’ work and other restorations, they were finally able to completely restore it. They are currently working on restoring a second one, a 1947 FL.
We did one final run-stand test before our customer picked up his Drake motor. What made this run so special was the custom run-stand that was built by Highway Choppers specifically for this motor. The customer plans to display it in his Harley Davidson dealership showroom in Pennsylvania. This was a fun project for us and we are pleased that the customer was happy with it.
To read more about this Drake motor click here and here.
The previous post showed the beginnings of our restoration work on this JD. Here is an update on the progress.
Tanks are primed and ready for paint and finders are on frame.
We did some repairs on some JD gas tanks. Here is the before and after some metal work was done on them. They were in bad shape when we got them. We had to cut them apart to straighten them.
Some photos of a valve job being done on a JD cylinder.
We have been working on Gov’s Drake Engine for about a year now. It is finally complete. You can see the initial run-stand video below. As an added bonus we were fortunate enough to be able to interview Buzz Rose. He is a former Drake engine-powered race car driver from the 50’s. Enjoy!
To see the rest of Gov’s Drake engine rebuild story, click here.