78 CB550.

[andrew]

last order of business before bodywork and paint is to glass a seat pan for the upholstery. taped off the seat, then sprayed the tape with some spray adhesive and laied down a piece of aluminum foil. marked the edges with tape and went to town.
ready for fiberglass:

resin and fiberglass mat laid.

once the pan is dry, ill peal it off and cut it to shape. updates then.

[andrew]

got my seat pan cut to shape and ready for some foam and a cover. i found an old brown suede jacket at a thrift store and cut that up to be the upholstery. updates on the upholstery when i complete it.
seat pan:


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completed the mounting rails as well. painted and cork applied to the top to give a little bit of cushion, as well as a buffer between the fiberglass and steel.

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drilled the holes in the seat into the rails. the rails are tapped for a 6mm bolt that will sit flush in the tail piece.

on the bike.

[andrew]

earlier today i sanded, primered and painted the tail piece.
primed:

painted:

tail light in:

on the bike:

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[cyclefreak]

Looking great man.

[andrew]

thank you.

[andrew]

used some heat shrink to cover the threaded rod on my rearsets. worked great, and def. makes them look finished, as well as helping them stay rust free. thanks for the idea!

[andrew]

buttoned up the exhaust today. as suspected, the mac muffler was in the way of the rearset, so i cut the muffler off at the weld in order to use the foot or so of pipe. found a simple, 2 1/4 exhaust tip at pepboys and cut the set screws out of it. slid it over the pipe, and put the whole thing back on the header.

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in this picture you can see that i now have enough room between the brake arm and the tip. it doesnt look like much, but at the angle the lever is at in the photo, would be physically impossible to get my foot to angle down that far.

took a baffle out of an old muffler i had and cut it in half. stuck one end down into the mac pipe piece and the other into the tip. packed some corse steel wool around them and used some safety wire to hold all the steel wool in place. the set screw that holds the tip onto the pipe, also holds the baffle in place as well. i cant say it does much for quieting the bike down, but i imagine it give some sort of back pressure. somethings better than nothing i suppose.

and a side shot.

[mothgils]

Looking good man!  You are making killer progress!

[andrew]

always hated how far the side stand stuck out and how low it was without the stock exhaust on there, so i cut a piece out to make it sit higher and tighter in on the frame rail.
before:

after:

much better.

[YogiBear]

I really like the direction you're going with this bike. The exhaust looks great.

[andrew]

thank you much. looking forward to see how she sounds when i blast it down the street! 

[andrew]

well not much of an update, as im waiting on the battery to show up, but progress is progress i guess. got my tag brakcet fabbed up and in place.

and plenty of room between the tire and tag.

also realized i didnt need the rubber mount piece on the side stand, so i got out the ol' cut off wheel and went to town.

ground down the weld, smoothed it and gave it a coat of epoxy.

hopefully the battery gets here by the end of the week so i can make the mount for it, and call all the electrics complete.

[andrew]

battery showed up this morning, so i got all the electrics done. all i have left is to wire in a pigtail for my charger/tender.

[andrew]

seat pad is done. the photos are lousy as the lighting in my warehouse doesnt get along with the crappy camera on my phone. the upholstery is brown suede from an old jacket i got at a thrift store. matches the brown grips pretty well.

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overview.

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[JustinLonghorn]

Hell yeah man, that brown leather seat is most excellent.