The “Bonnie” Files - Part3
By Marco Capoccia (@marcocapoccia)
November 28th, 2022
Upon fitting the aftermarket gauge cluster bracket, I realized that we were going to need to make our own “flat” style bracket to work with our build. I set out to design a bracket that would retain the neutral, oil pressure, and high beam indicator lights. This was something that the aftermarket bracket was lacking, that I thought was a necessity for a street ridden motorcycle.
We cruised on over to Robbie’s shop (Barefoot Racing) to get a hand on planning out a template for the custom bracket. Robbie had some 6061 Aluminum in stock, perfect for our application (and for what I had planned later).
After hours of meticulous measurements and plotting, the bracket had started to take shape as a hexagonal figure, to make sure we were happy with the arrangement of the gauges and indicator lights. A combination of the original T100 gauge bracket, and the aftermarket flat bracket were used to formulate a bracket that contained everything we needed into the confined space.
Roberto (@robertocapoccia) then took the time to give this bracket some style by smoothing out the edges, and hand-filing the notches that will hold the speedometer and tachometer gaskets in place. Carefully, we fitted the cluster on to the Bonneville to confirm the clearances with the clip-ons and fairing in place. Roberto and Robbie finally gave the bracket a beautiful, brushed finish, but I had something up my sleeve that I felt would be extremely fitting for this bracket to go along with our B17 theme…
“Engine Turning” or “Jewelling” is something you would see on old aircrafts such as Charles Lindbergh’s, Spirit of St. Louis, or on the dashboard of various cars throughout the 1920’s- 1950’s. The perlée-style of jeweling is something I had always wanted to tackle myself, and this bracket was the perfect candidate for it.
I spent more hours than I care to admit into making a level surface and mount to start jewelling. With a limited amount of travel on the Y-axis, it was imperative that I had a stable mount to allow a seamless transition, when jewelling on the gauge. I practiced on various types of alloys laying around with the assortment of jewelling bits from Cratex. I found that the “medium” grit bit worked the best on the rather robust, 6061 aluminum.
After hours of practice, I started on the backside of the gauge bracket to put my newly acquired skills to use. A couple passes in, I was thoroughly pleased to see my vision start to become reality…
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