Painting the Frame

Spent the last three days painting the frame and the swing arm.  Ran out of primer and had to make a quick run to Canadian Tire to pick up some more.  The frame and swing arm each received two coats of primer, 3 coats of General Motors Light metallic Blue and 3 coats of clear.  My improvised paint booth worked really well and I am happy with the results

 

Painting the Frame

 

 

 

The Finished Product

Finishing the Frame

Today Curt and I finished modifying the frame.  Curt welded on all new mounting tabs for the oil tank/battery box, the seat, and floor boards then cleaned the frame with a wire wheel.  Also he pulled the bearings from the swing arm and installed the races for the new bearings.  Now my real work starts...painting the frame and the swing arm!  Just about have the paint booth set up.  This should be exciting.

 

 

Oil Tank and Seat mounted on frame

Framed

Yesterday Curt and I spent the afternoon customizing the frame.  Curtis summarily chopped off all the "extraneous" tabs, etc. and then broke out the welding gear to fill in some areas as well as add the mounting hardware for the seat.  Tabs for mounting the oil tank/ battery box still have to be added but that will be next weekend's project.  Also got to see the new period correct tires I ordered for the bike.  Love them!

 Fitting Oil Tank/Battery Box to Frame

 

 New Oil Tank/ Battery Box

 

New tires

 

 

Today I tackled the wheels in an attempt to finish restoring the chrome....an easier task now that the old spokes have been removed.  I think they came out pretty good!

 

 





Bondo Bondo

Today we tackled sand blasting the rear fender and the gas tanks.  Surprise....the fender has up to  quarter of an inch of Bondo under several coats of paint.  Didn't really see the need for so much Bondo as the fender is in pretty good shape underneath.  Some people just like the stuff I guess.  Rather than waste time paying for sand blasting time, Curtis decided to just blast the areas he needed in order to cut and modify the fender.  He plans on attacking the paint and Bondo with a wire wheel and angle grinder.  Same story with the tanks although not quite as much Bondo.  Those were blasted just enough for cutting and modifying.  We also managed to make up a parts list order necessary to complete the engine assembly.  We keep making progress.

 Fender before cutting

 

Fender after cutting...ready for modification

 

 

 Curtis "blasting"

Who Knew?

Who knew all that chrome was hiding under layers of dirt and rust?  Tackled the sprocket and triple tree today with the old standby: WD40 and tinfoil.  Added a new cleaning product to the mix this time called Evap-o-rust.  Seems to work pretty good.

 

 

Forgot to post that the seat and headlight had arrived from Lowbrow Customs.  Thanks Canada Customs for adding another $46.00 in taxes to the bill!!!  Anyway, they're here and looking great.

 

 

 



Still Cleaning

OKay...we took a week off...rode to Vancouver for the day last Saturday but decided to get back at it today.  This bike won't build itself!  Back to the bead blasting shop today to clean up the brake calipers, wheel hubs and lower fork legs.  As the pictures show, time and money ( $20. ) well spent.  We also cut the spokes out of the rims preparatory to re-lacing with new chrome spokes.  Next up will be new bearings in the hubs then paint the hubs and the brake calipers.  Before that happens there's going to be still more cleaning ie; triple tree and sprocket.

Calipers look good

 



One blasted, one as was 

 Both hubs blasted

Fork legs...one blasted, one not.

And the cleaning continues

Back at it again today with the WD 40, Brake Cleaner and Gunk Engine Degreaser.  The swingarm, originally chrome, was hiding under layers of old oil and dirt.  Part of the chrome has pitted and is beyond help so we will de chrome the whole thing and paint it.  The rear rake caliper (billet aluminum) came up pretty good as did the brake pedal and brake cylinder.  Today Curtis also determined the cylinders and pistons are in pretty good shape so we'll just install new rings and put the motor back together.