Tony has built a solid reputation for amazing paint works and building well styled bikes. If you have followed Tony online you will see he is constantly painting up new tin sets/bikes and always bringing a new flavour to everything he paints. On top of that every now and then he spoils us with a sneak peak of a new build he is working on, each one being unique and styled perfectly. We had a chat to him recently to find out how he got into bikes and what inspires him.
Name: Tony Sundell
Age: 34
Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Day job: Full-time Painting and Building Bikes
Current Bikes: 1956 Harley Davidson Panhead & a 1968 Harley Davidson XLCH
When did you get into bikes and why?
About 8 years ago. I've been building traditional hotrods/lowriders for about 17 years and the interest in choppers kind of fell into place.
First Road Bike?
1973 Harley Davidson XLH
How do you approach building bikes? What is your process?
I feel like I have a recipe I stick to on most of my bikes. I like them low, rideable; with a lot of detail and style. Tall sissy bars, unusual pipe design, molding and some quality paint to top it off. The way I’ve always liked to start the build off is with what front end I’m going to run and or build... Everything kind of falls into place from there.
Where did you learn to work on bikes?
Self taught, but I personally feel everything I’ve learnt from building custom cars over the years made the bike transition fairly easy.
How would you define your style?
1960’s show bike, not really sure how to describe it
What's your workshop setup like?
I keep things very organized. Fab station, assembly, mechanical and paint… all separated.
You are have built a good name for yourself with paint works. How did you get into painting?
I started pinstriping/sign painting about 10 years ago which sparked my interest in painting as a whole. When the time came building my first bike, I wanted to do every part of it myself, including paint. The rest is history.
Where do you find inspiration from for your different paint styles?
I typically don’t pull inspiration from anything. Usually when I start on any job, I start with a color way in my head and let it come organically right off the top.
What is the motorbike scene like in your area? How do you source parts for builds?
There’s not much of a scene in my area, so I travel pretty frequently to friends and also for parts.
Any projects in the works?
I’ve got a dual-carb 47 knuckle I’m building that’s heavily molded.
What's your dream bike?
Man I’m a flatty guy, maybe it’s from my early hot rod interest but I’d like a solid big twin flatty with my twist.
Special mechanical/fabrication trick or tip?
Shape your flap wheels to make any contour you want. Really helps with blending out welds or metal finishing unusual bends.
If you are interested in getting Tony to do some paintwork for your bike or even want go all out and get him to build you a bike head over to his instagram page (link below).
Instagram: tonysundell
Feature photo is taken by and property of Kharisma Pratama. All other photos are the property of Tony Sundell.