Apr 17, 2020

Inside the Shop - April 2020 Project Update

by Prism Team

Most of our long-time followers know the Prism Supply story, but there are a lot of folks who only know us for our merchandise. That’s not a complete surprise since it’s one of the few ventures we do that broadcasts our name and logo. We’ve been selling hats, t-shirts, durable work shirts and chore coats for years now. We’re really proud of the stuff we’ve put out and appreciate everyone who supports our company by outfitting themselves in our latest apparel.

But, we got our start as custom motorcycle builders and to this day, that’s what keeps driving us forward. Everything else that has stemmed from our bike building has just felt like a cherry on top, but it’s not what keeps us up at night.

Dreaming about the shape of a tank or coming up with creative ways to mount a tail light, balancing form and function is what feeds our energy. Granted, most of the time form outweighs function, but rest assured that everything out of our shop will run with the best of ‘em.

Needless to say, as long as we’re still able to keep coming up with new builds and fresh ideas that we are proud of, you can bet that Prism Supply will be alive and well in Charlotte.

And, right now, thanks to you all, alive and well we are.

There are several projects we’re working on for international, west coast, and local customers. We caught ourselves admiring all of the cool things we’ve got going on right now despite the chaos throughout the world around us and feel extremely thankful that we’re able to keep building cool motorcycles, designing new parts and selling our apparel in this industry that we love so much.

It’s because of that realization that we decided to give you all a peek into our shop this month. There are four big bike projects we’re working on in addition to the parts manufacturing, apparel shipping and general day-to-day business things that are ever-present in our lives.

Without further ado, take a look at the below builds and let us know what your favorite project is.

Customer: Ryan Smith

Project: 1955 Harley-Davidson Panhead

Custom work:

Paint by Nathan Sykes

Aged black paint on tank and fender
White accents

Top of the oil tank
Wheel hubs
The underside of the rear fender

Offset Hap Jones tank and added vintage OEM style petcock
Handlebars

Custom made here at Prism Supply by Mitch Johnson
Bent a pair of dogbone risers to match the lines of the front end. The bars are custom made here in the shop and braised to the riser/clamp set up as well to complete the one-piece assembly

Stock style oil tank modified to feed spark plug wires through the tank to the coil which is tucked inside with the battery.

Off the shelf:

Slingshot Controls

Clutch side
Brake side

Customer: Sid Tangerine

Project: 1948 Harley-Davidson Panhead

Custom Work:

Bates style seat from Adam at River Seat Company
Tank was a set of 5-gallon shovelhead split tanks that we chopped, channeled, and tunneled to make the tank you see on the bike.
Taillight configuration. Two Weld-On Flat Tail lights welded together underneath a “hood” which is made from exhaust tubing cut lengthwise, joined together, and shaped to match the soon-to-be lines of the exhaust. This was done in order to create an inverse line of the tank.

Off-the-shelf: