Ramrod: The Rose
Week 1
The '69 Harley for the Padre was well on it's way to being a sweet ride. Steel, the ghoul, was doing some body work on it, refinishing the gas tank, applying the muted lack paint to the newly made metal shell.
Ramrod, having made the new gas tank, replaced the engine and the brakes, and tuned the sucker up, moved onto a new project.
He took stock of the rest of the used and junked bikes he had acquired. The BMW he let Dex borrow, the old Triumph missing an engine, and the '53 Harley Panhead. He looked at the stock, and figured out what he would do with them.
The old junker of a 1953 Harley Davidson Panhead FLE could fetch a pretty chunk of green for him, if properly restored. As is, it was practically worthless to anyone but a skilled wrench head, like him and his boys. But he felt he had a debt to repay, and he was gonna do it the best way he could.
Starting with this bike.
Ramrod began work on the bike. Completely stripping it piece by piece, part by part, and laying them out on the shop floor.
Week 2
One week later, the engine has been rebuilt, the frame is straightened and reassembled. New brakes, tires, lights, and gages have been ordered.
Ramrod takes the wheel covers and the gas tank, stripped of the dirt, grease, paint and rust that covered them all, and set them in the paint shop (that corner of the main shop, anyway). He opened the custom paint he'd ordered, and filled the sprayer
In a few hours, he checked the finished, dried product.
The paint dried and hardened, as he wanted, a deep, rich Rose red, a mixture of hues of red and black. He began to cover the gas tank in a thick masking tape. He took an exacto-knife, and began to cut out little strips of the tape, in odd, arcing shapes, and long jagged lines. Carefully, he covered the long, jagged ones back up. Once this was done, he grabbed some new paint, hi-gloss black, and painted the arcs, and set them to dry. He removed the tape covering the jagged lines, and painted them with a rich pearlescent green paint.
Hours later, when the paint job was done, he removed the tape, exposing the metal parts as the works of art he'd hoped for.
All three body parts, freshly painted and polished, shone under the luminescence of the shop work lights. The Reds, the Arcs, and the Lines, all mixed and formed a kaleidescope of Roses, edged in black, and stemmed in a rich, lustrous green, thorns and all.
Week 3
He never fancied himself an artist, not in the traditional way. He didn't draw, or paint, except bikes, and he usually just did one or two tone jobs there, leaving fancy stuff for special projects. And, he didn't sculpt, not usually.
The last of the blocks of steel went up against the grinder. The basic amorphous shape arose in an hours work. The three roundish, bumpy lumps of metal remained, Ramrod grabbed a hand wheel grinder, and went back to work.
In another few hours of hand crafting and work, three five inch metal roses sat on his work bench. He polished them, chromed them, and tapped them for screw mounts.
One went on the back wheel cover, mounted above the taillight.
The other two were mounted on the sides of the gas tank.
The bike was finished.
The note he left on the seat was simple, and short.
"Roselind,
Thank you for watching out for me.
Roderick"