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Okay... So I left my gas on last night... and one of my carbs flooded and leaked fuel down. What I discovered is that the starter cover will have to be powdercoated. I was afraid of that, but it's okay because I'm getting some carb bowls ready to get powdered now and I'll just throw the starter cover in on that.
Next thing is that I want to have my rims powdercoated black. The chrome is good on them, but I really want them to be gloss black or black chrome or something black and shiny. I've never disassembled a wire wheel before, although it looks like I could do it. Anybody have any idea how much it would cost to have it disassembled, powdercoated, and reassembled? How about doing it myself? Pretty easy? Pretty tough? Thoughts? Experiences? Do I need new spokes while I'm doing this? I'm just trying to get my shit togther here for my powdercoat trip.
Thanks,
Alex
oooh i dissassmble and re assemble them pretty reg. i still have a buddy that is in motorcross true all my wheels for me... take ALOT of pictures before you start!!! Also there are a bunch of how - to's on the internet... pulling them apart is easy! if you are going to do that, you may as well get some new stainless spokes... either that or have your stock spokes powder coated as well.. here are the wheels i did for my st bob... as well as a customers bike i did, high gloss black (wet black) on the rims, hubs and show rings... on mine, twisted stainless spokes... on his, caution yellow spokes... you will need a new wheel strip, as well as a new tube for each tire... if you have any ?'s let me know... but do not start untill you have alot of pics as it sits now (mark a point of refrence on the rim and hub) as well as a good how to guide online.... (i can also scan one for you) if you want to true it yourself... jack stands will make a CHEAP and quick truing stand.
Sick wheels Joe! I'll get to doing that some time soon... maybe when I paint the bodywork... maybe after.
Today I got out a replacement set of tappets, cleaned them, and am in the process of putting the wire wheel to them. After I've got them all prepped they're going to get painted... black! Anyways I've still got to take the wheel to three of them, but a here's a pic... They shine up pretty nicely, I might polish another set in the future.
Next time I'll post pics of them painted and on.
Later,
Alex
Here they are on! I didn't install the back inside two, but I will next time I remove my tank. Realized that the next thing to get attention is the frame. I think I'm gonna try an incredibly intricate tape job and spray paint the frame a bit at the time. Someday I'll tear it completely down to the frame and have it blasted and powdered, but that's going to wait until I do the 836 kit...
Got to work on the brake light today. "As Cheaply As Possible" right? I think I got that part handled for this mod. After my fender eliminate I had to do a new taillight and tag mount that would clear the tires. So I went to O'reilly auto parts, but they didn't have anything small enough with a dual element bulb. What they did have was 2 inch round marker lights and that got me to thinking. What I came up with was to use a conventional bulb round marker for the taillight and another round marker, this one L.E.D. so it'll be brighter, for the brake light. Total cost for both lights was about $11.
Then I made a template out of cardboard...
And I cut it out of my favorite street sign
Then I bent it twice, drilled the mounting holes, painted it black, and attatched a tag mount that I salvaged off of my old Katana.
Now I've got to mount the lights (off to walmart for parts) and wire them up. Then, hopefully, I'll have eliminated my fender for $11! I'll post the final product tonight if I finish... BTW the mount attatches to the rear fender mount... More Soon
Busa, I'm a little worried about that too. The L.E.D. is WAY brighter than the bulb, but still... Anyway, as you'll see below, it'll have to be rethought anyway. I may just break down and spend a few dollars more for the right light. This was just a case of me needing to find something today, so I can ride to work in the morning (one of the cages is busted!).
I finished it... I took it out for a ride and there was a problem... Apparently I didn't have the bends in the bracket right and my rear tire caught my liscence plate and twisted the whole assembly up inside the wheel well. UGH. I didn't get a pic of it all balled up like that, but it was a little funny looking. So I rewired my turn signals (wires pulled out during freeway fubar), rebent the bracket and it works... for now. This will need to be redone, I'm not happy with the clearance issues. Plus the lights are way too far under my seat, so I'll go back to the drawing board and rock this setup for now. Here are some pics of it after repair...
and with the seat on... the lights are about three inches back and bent upward to clear the tire, this just won't work longterm... notice the crushed tag that has been rebent(sorta)
in IL if thye can not read your tag they pull you over and a tow truck will take your bike... i have had it happen to a rocket i built and took for a test ride... sucked... man you can easily shoot that frame wiht the motor in it... when you mask the motor, use FOIL, it wraps around stuff real easy and holds there, will allow you to basicly wrap everything when you remove the pipes and tank you can get to almost all the frame, hold the foil wiht jsut reg masking tape and you are golden! with as much as the pipes have been on and off i woudl sugest you get some new exhaust gaskets as well brother. love the black wrap!
Check these guys out http://autolumination.com/truck.htm. I have bought bulbs and light kits from there for all my bikes and a couple car projects that I had. They have great stuff and it ships very, very quickly. Customer service is good as well.
Joe, Exhaust gaskets? I don't think my bike has them... The pipes slide over another pipe coming out of the motor and are held in place by a clamp...
Busa, thanks for the link, I'll check it out after work (lunch now)
The good news is that the new bends worked out and my tag and taillights stayed put this time!
ooh yes sir it should... should look something like this (almost looks like a steel wool ring) on the inside of the motor where the pipes slide in, needs to be pryed out with a screw driver, new ones go in... on my HD i change then EVERY time i take the exhuast off as the V-twin is a bit picky on my old CB i changed them once i think (i can not recall that was 6 years ago)
Joe, thanks man, got a set on order now... Along with my brake lines!!! Someday soon I'll be able to stop quickly without my ass end squirting out from under me!
Also I'm working on a new bracket that will move my brake light and tag mount towards the back of my seat. I'll post pics as soon as it's done and installed.
Busa, thanks for the link man, I found a few good candidates for my taillight there!
Finally, I just bought a bunch of tin foil and some rustoleum for the frame! I'll probably tackle that next weekend. Again thanks for the tip Joe!
Okay, I got the ass end squared away for now (at least till I get a light from the folks Busa hooked me up with). I made a new bracket(out of a street sign!) that installs on the fender mount and the holes in the frame where the grab rail used to mount. The assembly I made before bolts to the rear of the new mount. It's very solid and pushes the tail lights and tag mount to the end of the seat. It also gives me more clearance on the tire, so no more twisted metal under the seat where my tail light and tag used to be. I like the look of the whole thing much better now.
I also installed the final two black tappets.
Here's a pic with the seat off so you can see the new mount...
And here she is with the seat on. The lights are much more visible now... Finally she's got an acceptable ass!
So my thread's been dead for a while due to life in general, but I'm about to start up on her again. I've painted some more bits since the last posts but it's all small stuff so I'll point it out in the pics of the next progress post. First things first, there's a valve tapping (I think) so I'm gonna figure that whole thing out and fix it. Thing two: While changing the oil recently, I over tightened the drain bolt on my oil pan and cracked the oil pan... that sucks. But I've taken an oil pan off of a spare engine and cleaned it up (it was extremely dirty), and I'll throw that on this week some time.
Also, sometime soon I'm going to execute the paint on my tins. My idea is to do a two tone with bare metal with a clear coat below where the current pin stripe is on the tank, and flat black above there with a red pin stripe running the edge where they meet. Since my tail is made of a tank, I'm going to do the same thing on the tail, maybe with a pinstripe flourish on the ass end. I think this is going to go along with the colors already on the bike, the blacks that I've painted, and the patina on the engine, which is kind of a dull silver.
Okay, more to come soon.
Time to start working on the bike again!
I got my valve issues sorted out (finally) so I've been doing some little things. First up I installed my cb900 shocks. I was going to paint them, but I just cleaned them up and installed them for now. I'll paint them when I have a good way to get them apart. The ride on the bike is much better with these. I like a firm rear (heh), so these shocks are doing a good job for me.
When I installed the shocks, I also moved the tag mount to the top mounting stud on the right side shock. The blinker slightly obscures my tag, but it would really take a dick cop to pull me over for that. I made the tag mount out of a street sign and painted it with the cheapo truck bedliner stuff.
While my bike was down, I also stripped and painted a spare valve cover to have something to do. Only when it was done did I realize that the motor has to be removed to install it... so I guess it'll wait for the rebuild/836 kit.
I also painted an oil filter cover and put on a sweet chrome bolt that I found in my parts stash. The pic's not that good of it, but it makes for a nice detail close up.
I had a beat up old fork brace lying around, so I cleaned it up and painted it, then I decided to throw an old tank badge onto it. It's one of the badges that attatches with two little screws through the o and the d, so I drilled and tapped the brace and it looks pretty sweet if I do say so myself. I will eventually mount it lower, but that's going to wait until I disassemble and paint the bits on the front end.
Right now I'm waiting for some bondo to dry on my seat. I'm doing a bit of clean up on the sides, rounding sharp edges, smoothing out the sides where I beat the street sign into shape, etc. I'll try to post more progress tonight.
Okay, so I love bondo! It seems like every time I do something else with it I get a little better(little being the key word). The sides of my seat were really starting to annoy me with their rough edges and dents from the hammer, so I decided to go at them with some bondo. I also decided to redo a bit of bondo on the rear of my cut up gas tank/bum stop. I have a before pic of the sides so y'all can better see what I'm talkin about...
after this I took the old paint off and laid the bondo on. After it dried I took to it with the sand paper... for a long time. There are still some pinholes, like four I believe, but I'm going to repaint it when I do the tins anyway, so I'll do more bondo then. I also cut the corners down from sharp angles to rounded edges. Then I painted it. The pics might not show much difference, but in person, it almost looks like I bought it... almost.
Here's a close-up of the seat back on the bike...
and a nice shot of the bike (I haven't had an up-to-date shot of the bike in a while)
I think the wheels are gonna get it next... I'm gonna shoot the hoops in the cheapo black truck-bed liner. The fork legs might get some black too... maybe gloss, maybe flat... not sure yet.
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so I guess it'll wait for the rebuild/836 kit.
