There are few people that get to say they turned their passion into a living.
Sam R. Webber meticulously assembled his 1950 Harley Davidson Panhead seven years ago with parts he collected from various locations, within the confines of the first floor of his former Northampton residence.
While his interest in motorcycles began long before that, it revved a passion for Webber leading him to start his own business, Sam’s Custom, building dream bikes for clients around the country.
Webber restores vintage motorcycles for clients and builds some of his own from vintage parts. The process involves extensive restorative work and custom fabrication of certain parts — welding and forging metal into the desired piece — to turn his client’s vision into a reality.
For Webber, who now resides in Florence, the business and hobby have never really been separated since opening his own shop in one of the town’s mill buildings three years ago.
Whether it’s a larger antique motorcycle event such as the Antique Motorcycle Club of America’s annual swap meet in Oley, Pennsylvania or just meeting up with a friend, Webber seeks different parts, that when put together, create the puzzle that is an antique motorcycle.
“It takes a long time to hunt down all the parts,” Webber said at his shop. “These are all old parts, you can’t just order them and put it together. You have to travel around the country, go to antique swap meets and do all this to collect it all.”
Whether it’s something as small as a drive chain that allows the wheels to turn or as big as the forks that connect the wheels to the body, the process requires a keen eye to hunt down the pieces that would work for a particular build.
During his interview with the Gazette, Webber sat beside two bikes he was working on — a 1952 Harley and a 1960 Harley. One he had just restored for a client in Denver, and the other just came into the shop.
For the bike that just came in, it could take up to six months to help execute the client’s vision, a collaborative process that Webber said is more of a creative process, emphasizing that he is not a mechanic.
“I’m more of a creative person, but I don’t mind executing someone else’s vision,” he said.
His favorite part of the job is the ability to control his schedule and leverage his creativity; clients sometimes know exactly what they want, while at other times he has the freedom to explore his creative liberties.
“This was just a pile of parts,” he said motioning to one of the bikes. “(You) Just start with a frame. Start with a dream.”
For a motorcycle that’s built from the ground up, Webber said it can take up to a year to construct. In his shop, there is a shelf festooned with parts waiting to be used for a build. To Webber, it’s not about putting the pieces together, it’s about finding the right ones.
“A lot of what I do would be restorative fabrication and machine work. So I’m able to take some of the worse-off discarded parts and restore them into functional state,” he said. “In this scene, it’s always best to use the original parts because the quality is so much better than a modern reproduction of the part.”
Webber’s process does not always involve starting with a client. He may begin working on a bike and then fish for buyers either locally or at different swap meets.
A lot of what Webber does involves restoration through different methods including welding and refurbishing. He custom fabricates certain parts such as a fender strut using different metals and pieces to mold new parts together. Webber has had clients come to him with different parts that need to be restored from as far as Japan and Australia.
Webber harnessed his metal-working craft, having worked for more than eight years for Salmon Studios, one of the world’s leading architectural mill workshops, in Florence.
“It taught me damn near everything I know about metal working,” Webber said about his time at Salmon Studios. “I’ve known how to use hand tools and I’m comfortable around machines. I learned woodworking before metalworking, but basically my time as an employee over there, it was like an education in metal.”
Before learning to work with metal materials, Webber studied wooden furniture design. When he first started working with metal, he said he saw the medium to have more versatility compared to more rigid wood materials.
At it’s core, Webber’s business main focus is bike restoration, but he also fabricates custom designs for a variety of projects as small as coat hangers to larger fences and business signs. For example, he has been developing custom metal coat hangers for a client in New York City who is expanding their art studio.
He likes to work with brass, aluminum and other materials for custom designs, though he typically sticks with steel when fabricating parts for motorcycles as it is more durable than the others.
Webber’s journey to get wear he is today has been a road trip of its own, having jumped between the east and west coast multiple times trying different educations. However, his ultimate goal has always been to own his own shop.
“I realized having some sort of a shop, I didn’t really know what I would do, but having a shop was always the goal,” he said.
Webber bought his first bike in high school. He favored the two-wheel automobiles for one reason.
“In high school, it was money. It was like, I don’t have any money and motorcycles have two wheels, not four … I saw a couple local guys getting onto bikes and I just thought it would be a lot cheaper to have a cool bike than a cool car,” he said.
Ultimately, Webber holds a bachelor’s degree in sculpture from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, but it took time to find the right program. He initially studied architecture at UMass, before dropping out. He then moved to Los Angeles to study automotive design and also spent time in San Francisco studying furniture design.
In San Francisco, after a lunch with one of his professors, Webber was inspired to go back to Northampton, finish his degree at UMass in sculpture rather than architecture and then started working toward that dream of owning his own shop.
While in Los Angeles, a particular motorcycle brand caught Webber’s eye — Harley Davidson. He said it’s not just about Harley Davidson, it’s about the vintage, older engines that come from 1936 to 1969 Harley’s.
“What Harley is today is not really what I identify with or think is interesting,” Webber said. “I kind of admire the history of the brand more than anything and some of the machines that came from the golden age of American motorcycles.”
Older models of motorcycles are easier to repair while more modern models require specific parts to be fixed with multiple pairs of hands, Webber said.
“The old bikes just have a much more analog feel. They’re built to be serviced and maintained by the owner,” he said.
Although he’s owned multiple motorcycles over the years, including Honda and BMW brands, for Webber, nothing beats Harley for aesthetic and drivability.
He has driven his Harley cross-country multiple times, connecting with friends that he’s met through the trade. And while he puts together bikes for many people, one thing is certain: Webber’s is not for sale.
“I’ve got friends all around the country just from swap meets or road trips,” he said.
He noted that having only been in business for three years, he still has much to learn. He hopes to continue expanding into different fabrication methods, recognizing the limited supply of vintage motorcycle parts. Recently, Webber announced he will be moving locations to a larger shop in Florence to help expand his business.
“It’s an incredible feeling just being out in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles from anything, on a machine that you built yourself,” Webber said about riding.
For more information, visit Webber’s Instagram account: samrwebber
