Painter is ready to finish off my design, figured he'd be able to get the final design a rocking as he is used to this style of bike - cant wait. www.ryzart.com Note: Ray bet me $100 I wont have it ready for April - he'll see, $100 here I come :P
Image below doesnt look like the same bike but it is (cept from front tire is correct below and rear is bigger as its now a 5x16) this is kinda the look i'm going for - was looking at some twisted spokes but could be over the top..

Bike coming along, details, details, bloody horn too big n bulky for project - time to continue the hunt, custom ally bits looking good, footpegs - hmm not sure about - they have now been lowered and inch and follow the lines of the frame - stupid knobbly tire has to go, cant wait to get the speedmaster on it - they look so much better. Felt weird to sit on it, pretty wobbly feeling but that work itself out as bolts get tightened! bring on the paint!!!!!!


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Givin the horn!

Picked up a decent looking Nikko horn, turned out better than i thought as it has the cool fog horn type opening, just need a battery to test it out now..


Ignition switch is going to have a ally housing that matches the risers and exhaust tips.

Found my License plate holder too!

I've been umming and arring about what to do for this, really wanted something light weight and most of the stuff on the market is heavy duty steel and is way over engineered - found this from the same guy as the engine mounts (maunds) - cheap as chips ($30 incl p&p) and with the old school lucas style light it'll all look good and clean.

New additions

Finally went for it and picked some engine mounts, decent polished aluminium stuff - works out cheaper than building your own or having ones made for you - it'd cost me $50 just to get them polished - course could have done it myself but heck now is not the time to be learnin'

Movin' along..

Working to new deadlines, hoping to get bike ready for tear down by Xmas and ready for paint by January - decided on new red paint scheme with light gold graphics topped off with blue and gold pin striping - going the full hog and having frame molded 70's style which should look really cool.

Lots of Ebaying and part buying in an effort to get all things ready for Rex, rear tail light taken lots of searching for; ultimately plumped for a Lucas tail rectangular light with aluminium license plate which will polish up great.

Exhaust tips and matching ignition housing being made this month and fingers crossed will add to the overall polish of the bike :D

Progress again.. MIG rules

So, stopped all progress and bought some old school magazines from the 70's - cost me about $100 but it was worth it - it was good to see where styles had come from and how little it actually changed, people are either trying to get hold of original parts or replicas, theres little advancement - but thats why its a old school chop right?

Anyway, spent the last of the chopper fund on a MIG welder from Norther Tool company, LCD mask, cart, hammer, DVD, books etc - figured that I'd be able to progress faster with my own welder and low and behold did. Bought some stainless 304 1 3/4" pipes and some donor headers and tack welded myself a new exhaust system (did plenty of test welds first :P) course one pipe went well, the other no so, took me 3 attempts and I think my tack welding was too heavy duty - took some effort to get that shit off!

Also noticed the bars looked too wide, so took 3" off either end and they look much better.

back it up

Ugg, this last month not made great progress, jumped the gun having the gas tank fitted (lesson learnt) and once i got the engine in with forks on and set etc, the tank looked way too big - turns out my photoshop comp had the tank at too small a scale - ho hum, of to ebay we go.
In the meantime also think the new front wheel is too heavy and i crushed my middle finger pretty good while trying to fit the forks. Still the part i didnt do looks good and the enigne looks spanking new almost.

Leverage

New levers from Hank Young arrived - pretty nice job. Yep - its still the buying phase of the project :)

Additional support

Rex added the extra support needed on the frame (purely cosmetic) and welded the tank tabs to the frame, the things rock solid - next up - replace nasty tab for fork stop, fit oil tank, fit seat spring tabs and new seat. (must learn to weld - make mental note - phone local college)

Got Wood?

Barrel painted, head bead blasted, some chrome on - its going to be one fine looking motor!

There is a god, and he's called Gary

Parts came back from Garys Pro Plating and Polishing in GA, the work is great, the polished parts look as good as the chrome - the cobb manifold came out great too, i was going to sell it on, but now i'm going to keep it and see if it'll fit without getting in the way of me leg. All this for $475 - a bargain i say for the amount of smiles i'll get out of it!

Treatsville

The missus bought me a tool chest for my birthday (8th April) - was very happy with it, it made me realise how many tools i didnt actually have, so, sigh, now i have to go and buy some more :P

Made to order aluminium oil tank arrived too, this one actually fits vertical and once its polished should be pretty sweet looking, i'll get some more pics later once its fitted. Tank is from 7metalwest.com and is a quality product on first inspection, extremely light too - no surprise really but compared to my old steel one its a ton of difference.

Low Tech...

Its where i got my frame sandblasted, nothing of any interest really, just keeping a log :)

Tanktastic

Tank, cap and petcock arrived from Dennis Kirk today - needless to say i was pretty excited and of course pretty worried when i sat it on the frame - it looked kinda big, but with wheels and seat in place it loked like it could work - if it wont then i know a man who can make it work :)

Wood Workin Weekend

No chop work done, but i did help my 10yr old daughter make a cot out of wood and use a dremel to do carving -overall a pretty sterling job -its rock 'ard and she's totally stoked with it :)

Frame Magic

Got the frame back from Dans Signs in north Raleigh, they did a decentish job, enough to see the shite welds left to grind and most of the Bondo has been taken off and now i can replace it with JBWeld so that if decide to powdercoat then we're quids in.

I say decentish job as the bearing cups werent sufficiently masked and now the chrome is fucked in places - ho hum - looks like they will be replaced now even though they were in decent shape - still i could powder coat them or something.

I'm expecting good things tomorrow as the tank arrives along with a bloody expensive gas tap (petcock - bizarre name)

Engine out - Restoration in

Engines out, covers taken off, to my eyes looks in decent shape but what do i know, but i'm taking the thing to a man who does, been rebuilding them for 20 years he says, sonds like he'll do a top job and totally strip it down and reassemble for $700 - seems a steal to me considering people in cali where estimating about $2400 inclding parts, and then i'd have shipping on top too. Cant wait! Worst case it'll be $1400 and the thing will be mint and the carb will be tuned. I'm hoping to get some snaps of the workshop this weekend too.

Also got some info on running small drum brakes off the internet, this way i can ditch the broken one i have and get something more reliable :)

going, going, soon to be gone

Barrels should come off tomorrow, just need to borrow some muscles to get the darn thing out, it weighs a flippin ton! Also ground off most of the offending bad welds and various bits of metal placed by the previous owner, once the engines out I can turn the frame upside down and work on it more easily.

aaaahhhhhh - Jan 2008

Yikes, 2008, bike is just a frame and engine - still made some contacts and am off to see powder coating geezer tomorrow to see whats what, this is one sloooow project.