The Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon ('78 KZ1000)

Not sure why that didn't occur to me—I did drill holes and punched through the leather with an awl, and ran some tiny screws in just to hold the leather while the epoxy cured. Then I removed the screws. Since the holes are already there, and I think they're already conveniently sized at 1/8", I think I'll go ahead and add some pop rivets.

Thanks so much!
If I didn't recover a seat with it done that way I may never have known either. The other way is to epoxy on some wood strips that will accept the staples.
 
I've reunited the engine with the frame
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And I painted the first color, Chrysler Cool Vanilla. This will the the striping and lettering color; once it's had some time to cure, I'll mask it and paint British racing green (henceforth BRG) over it.

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For an ameteur paint job applied in a wood shop, I think it came out okay. Good enough to make up a lot with wet sanding and polishing, anyway.
 
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I've painted on the BRG. For this step, I had my son—the artist in the family—help out. He designed this tank badge:
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We sprayed adhesive on the back of it and rattle can stenciled it onto some wide masking tape:

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Then weeded it out with an exacto knife and blew the BRG, then pulled the lettering and the stripe tape and blew clear:

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So far, I'm pretty happy with the results. Pinstriping in my near future, and maybe some wet sanding, but it was a good day.
 
Here's everything in the sun after pin striping:

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I'm considering outlining the badge lettering with black One Shot. Has anybody here done that kind of work? I'm torn between having my son, who is a solid artist, do it, or having a veteral pin striper do it. I live very close to a memorial event for Ed "Big Daddy" Roth that annually attracts a whole passel of practitioners of that dying art:

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All advice is welcome, and thanks in advance.
 
Done with the wiring!

I still have plenty of work to do, but I figured I'd take a moment to wheel it out into the sun for a celebratory photo session

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Bike is looking awesome. Excellent work on the paint, and as for the pinstripe, my vote is definitely yes. It's going to look more finished, and if it were me I'd get my son to do it. Even if he messes it up, that's just going to add nostalgic value to your ride. I've got my son to help out on mine, and really that's at least as important as how it all turns out in the end. Just my opinion.
 
I'll either do that or get an old pro to give him a seminar on it. Learning stuff by doing it is great, but sometimes a teacher can be invaluable.

At least, that's what I tell myself when I go to work as a teacher.
 
We went to Rat Fink (which was awesome; if you find yourself in central Utah in early June...well, you should probably examine your life choices. But first, you might as well attend this car show/celebration of the life of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth.) I took the tank, seat cowl, and fender to a pinstripe and asked him to do black. He talked me into letting him do a little sample stripe of a green he mixed up which, on its own, looked horrifically garish. Once he had brushed about 4 inches of it on there, I was in love:

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It was really cool to watch him working—just a steady hand an technique that clearly came from long hours of practice. He gave me a really fair price, which is great because I need to invest in getting my son a set of One Shot paints, reducer, and brushes so he can start practicing.
 
Thanks everybody. I'm super happy, although as the close-up of the tank makes obvious, I didn't get around to wet sanding the clear coat before having this work done. Unfortunately, the enamel pinstriping paint tends to pull up if you clear over it, so I guess I'll either be doing some very targeted wet sanding and polishing or else just living with a little orange peel.

I'm on break from the throes of moving. One nice thing about running clip-ons; you can loosen them up and fold them in:

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