1958 Enfield/Indian Trailblazer - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

I restored my '58 RE Indian Trailblazer about 2 years ago. At that time, I was just interested in getting it running good and looking good. It was a very ugly baby-doo-doo-brown/orange color when I picked it up, and after finding out the magneto was bad I decided to start tearing down the body work for repaint. the initial paint job was just a quicky, I seriously didn't spend much time or money at all on it, and was intended to only be used for a couple of years.


This is what the bike looked like when I saved it from this barn.


Unloaded form the truck and at home


After the start of the restoration




First Version of Rebuild


Second Version


Third Version

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Cafe Racer Project

Earlier this summer, I was working on my bike at a friends house replacing a throttle cable. i was finished and went to go say "bye" and when I came back my bike had fallen over in the driveway, putting a large dent in the left side of the tank and bending some stuff. At that point I decided I was going to start building my bike into a true 60's era cafe racer. So over the summer I replaced my foot controls with some rear set controls and started planning out the new build.

Last week I started the body and paint on the gas tank. I pounded in dents for the handle bars and knees, and then stripped off all the old paint and body filler. I then started to fill and smooth out the dents with short strand fiberglass filler for my base layer, and then some Z-Grip, finished off with 3 coats of glaze filler.
















Once I had the tank in primer, I wet sanded it with 500 grit paper to get all the imperfections out and at the same time, make the surface smooth as glass. After that, it was time for sealer and base coat. 2 coats of sealer, 3 coats of black base and 3 coats of clear.

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Cafe Racer Project

After the black base, it was time for the kustom paint to begin. The first thing I had to do was wet sand the clear coat to get it ready for more paint. Next, I masked of the the handlebar dents and painted them base white. Then I unmasked the tank and gave the whole tank a nice healthy dose of gold and white pearl coat, followed by 3 more coats of clear.


Gold dry pearl








After the paint was cured, it was time to wet sand again to prepare for the next stage. Next, I masked off the tank for the vintage sport stripes. I then sprayed the stripes with champagne gold base, and then used a technique called "marbleizing". After the stripes were dry, I unmasked the tank and applied the "Royal Enfield" and "Indian" decals next to the stripes, and then sprayed 5 coats of clear.











I'm almost finished with the gas tank now. I just need to have a couple of decals made for my shop, get some decals from a "sponsor" that is helping me with some custom parts, hopefully acquire 1 more sponsor, and then clear the tank with 5 more coats of clear. Then the tank will be wet sanded to 3000 grit and buffed to a mirror finish. Hopefully I will have my custom seat pan sometime after Christmas, then painted to match the tank. After that, I can start focusing on my engine rebuild, which will take me about a year to build, but should be good for about 60hp.

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

And just so people know, this bike is going to be actually raced. I plan on going to Bonneville this upcoming summer to race in the "Run Whatcha Brung" class, to get a feel for The Salt. Then in 2016 after my new motor is built, I am going to try and set a new record for MPS-750-PF class. I also plan on taking the bike to the local drag strip now and then, and also plan on doing a few local road course races as well.

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

Signed up... this looks awesome!

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

Following ..... Looking forward to seeing this evolve.

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

Started fabbing up my battery/electrical box today. It's 5.5"x5.5"x8.5".

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

Tank is amazing

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

I was seriously into Connies here in the UK - and there's several i wish I still had !

Nice job first time around - looks even better with the revamp.

I had 2 ex. Thruxton Connies - one ridden by the great Bob Mac. - finished 2nd in the Thruxton Endurance race to Mike Hailwood after they dropped it while comfortably in the lead. It was seriously quick - I bought it exactly as it finished it's last race [ see pic ].

Soon Cafe Racered in the 60's style. Gold Star tank [ drops straight on ], clip ons, rearsets, etc.

BTW - for serious racing we put a brace up from the s/arm pivot forward to just under the nose of the seat rails [ both sides.

It wasn't allowed for production racing, but several were race modded like that - and of course our road bikes had to follow suit !

Keep those pix coming - I'm extremely envious. 8)

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

Thanks! I was considering already about making bolt on frame strut braces, just haven't got that far yet. I did start on my electrical/battery box yesterday. I will install a keyed ignition switch into the front right corner of the box. Will be painted gloss black when I'm done.

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

pretty cool!

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

Insane!

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

Over the last couple of days I've been tracking down everything I need to build a new wiring harness, including a new keyed ignition switch, new brake light switch and a new tethered kill switch (required to race at Bonneville and the drag strip). I had everything lined up, started cutting the holes in the box to run the wires. Everything was all good and then I went to go start on the harness.... AND the box doesn't fit my other bike. I forgot to take into consideration that my "mock up" bike has my an '83 Suzuki swingarm on it that is about 3" longer than the factory RE swingarm. A minor set back, but at least I now have a battery box built for my Chief when I finally put that bike together. So I started building another box that actually clears the rear tire for the '58. Pretty much the same as I already made, except a little bit shorter in height and half as wide (front to back) as the first one. Not sure if I'm going to make it to the shop this weekend to work on it or not. I'm supposed to help my friend finish spraying his kitchen cabinets this weekend, so I will just have to see how that plays out.

A couple more pics.

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

Paint on that tank is just great! ;D

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

Finished making the new electrical box tonight and started to run wires. Nothing real exciting, but it's progress.

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

Something different.

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

awesome tank work............

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

That engine still looks the bollox - even after all these years ! 8)

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

Finished making my new electrical box for the Blackhawk! The box itself is made from 1/8" plate steel and has holes cut in it for a key ignition and wires to run in and out of the box thru rubber grommets. All connections will be made inside the box except for a couple, but they will be hidden under wire looming. The lid is made out of 16g cold roll steel, and I intentionally bent the sides a little tight so it "snaps" into place. I will put velcro on the 2 side flanges just as a secondary measure. I will also glue a small piece of rubber foam to the bottom side of the lid above the battery to secure the battery in place. I built the box to have minimal clearance for the battery, so after I coat the inside with rubberized undercoating, the whole box will be insulated and have a soft cushion for the battery to rest in. Tomorrow I will weld a short M6 stud to the inside of the electrical box for a grounding point. The box itself will ground thru the frame at the mounting points. Then hopefully after work tomorrow I can get the box painted and officially mount it and finish the wire harness and complete the connections inside the box.








I'm also going to weld two 6M to right side (in this pic) to mount the rectifier.



Also, I spliced in a 3 wire waterproof plug into the brake light harness. So, any time I need to remove the brake light when I remove the exhaust, I just unplug it!

Re: 1958 Enfield Indian Twin - Kustom Cafe Racer Project

Alright! Productive day today! I got the front end disassembled on the Chief today. Originally I was just going to paint the triple trees black, but after I stripped the paint off of the top nacelle with the wire wheel on the bench grinder, it started looking shiny. So I decided to remove all of the casting marks with a Scothbrite 3" disc on my grinder, keeping the pad wet. Then I wet sanded it with 500 grit, and then a quick once over with 3000 on the DA. I didn't waste time sanding it step by step to get a mirror finish because there are a few deep gouges that can't be sanded out. But all in all, it looks really great! The lower stem I just painted black with the battery box after work. Tomorrows plan is too officially finish and install the wiring, and if time permits, do the front end swap and get the new controls installed.









I also took a pic of both bikes next to each other finally.