New Design Direction

Silly and typical me, always thinking about the next projects before finishing the current ones. Ever since I got the 53/55 Tbird basket case I've been telling myself I wanted to do a mild restore, that I want it to look like a stock '55 Thunderbird. There were so many nickel and dime pieces I needed. As I started putting my feelers out and seeing prices, it just no longer made sense. I'd be dumping tons of money into a bike that is in essence a mutt. A non-matching bike that is not worth the amount of money it would take to make look "right." So new plan. I want to do a nice early 60's custom. Factory rigid frame, girder front end, spool front, 19's front and back, cobra/Schwin-style seat... very simple, nothing revolutionary, but timeless. I have some good key pieces already: the motor, gearbox, wheels/hubs, oil tank. I need 2 big ticket items: the rigid frame and the girder. The frame should be fairly easy, especially since it doesn't matter if it's not a pristine uncut frame. I see them periodically. The hard item is the girder. No real girder works well on a Triumph except a Triumph... a Speedtwin girder. The only real option is to get a repop by Jake Robbins which is very expensive, but totally worth it and key to the whole thing. I want this bike to be even better than my '62. Deceptive in its simplicity.