Go to page: 1 - The Beginning 2 - Oil tank, seat & gas tank 3 - Coils & fender 4 - Electric box & frame 5 - Welded frame & battery 6 - Oil tank, seat & taillight 7 - Painted parts & covered seat 8 - Painting and final assembly 9 - Last minute changes & starting 10 - Final bike photos Credits: Me: guy that owns the bike and comes up with "great" ideas that usually don't work. I can't weld Dad: does most of the tack welding and brings home lots of scrap metal from the weld shop where he works. (when I say "I welded" I mean "Dad welded") Brother-in-law Rich: mechanical engineer that comes up with great ideas that do work. Also has the mig welder that my Dad and I borrow when we work on the bike. Last updated Tuesday, August 02, 2005		My wife went to a baby shower last weekend... so I turned the kitchen into a workshop. The dog liked it! This paint that I'm using [Por-15] is tough stuff, but it requires some special surface preperation. You have to degrease the metal first. Rinse, and wait for that to dry. Then etch it with a zinc phosphate coating. Rinse, and wait for that to dry. Then the metal is ready to paint. So I had to use the kitchen sink to rinse everything in since I don't have an outside faucet. I painted the small stuff upstairs in the attic with my little 2 gallon air compressor and airbrush, but took the gas and oil tanks to Dad's garage and the big air compressor.		Click for a larger view Click for a larger view
			In the garage, I set up a temporary paint booth. I just hung three 9' x 12' sheets of plastic from the ceiling, forming a triangle, making sure it hung down to the floor with some overlap. I didn't want any dust or dirt to creep in from the floor. I hung a florescent light overhead. To help the paint dry faster, I had the stove going in the garage, The thermometer was reading about 90F, so it was hot in there.
			Here is the frame, all stripped of paint, degreased, etched and ready for paint. With Por-15, you want the paint to be next to the metal to prevent moisture from entering and causing rust. You put two coats of paint on first, then do any body filler, then topcoat. Speaking of body filler, I'm using Por's Straightline body filler. This is the best body filler I've ever used. It goes on real smooth and is much harder than other brands (Bondo) when cured.		Click for a larger view
			Here are the tanks and the swingarm after paint. The oil tank gave me some serious problems. I'm not sure what happened, but I got a real bad orange peel on the paint surface. The gas tank and swingarm turned out nice though.		Click for a larger view
			Here's the painted frame. It's painted with Por-15's chassis coat black. It turned out to be a smooth, velvety suface... and it's very hard. By the time I painted the frame, I had all the bugs worked out with my cheap air gun, and was able to lay down some decent, thin coats. I did get two little tiny runs, but I was able to sand them out without any problems.		Click for a larger view
			Finally, it's time to start the final assembly of the bike. I was so excited, and didn't want to waste much time taking photos, so the only pics I have are after I was done in the evening. I took off work on friday and spent most of the day cleaning my carbs, resetting the needles and re-jetting to accept the K&N pod filters and drag pipes. After that was done, with a little help from Dad, I got the engine back into the frame without scratching the new paint. I put foam pipe insulation over the frame to protect it.		Click for a larger view
			From here, I stuck the rear swingarm on, greased it up and mounted the rear wheel. Then I moved to the front of the bike and managed to get the triple tree back on without losing any of those 37 ball bearings. The front forks slid into place without any problems. Wow! I love those fork gaitors. I haven't messed around with the front brake calilper yet, but that will go on next time I hit the garage.		Click for a larger view
			Putting the cleaned carbs back on proved to be a real chore. Those rubber carb boots were stiff and didn't want to give much. I've heard that you can boil them in a pan of water with some wintergreen oil in it, and they will loosen up. So I went to the drugstore and picked up the first bottle I saw that said wintergreen on it, took it home poured it into a pan, filled the pan up with water and stuck it on the gas grill to boil...		Click for a larger view
			...everything was going fine until the water started boiling then burst into flame. Ooops! I had bought rubbing alcohol with wintergreen in it instead of just wintergreen oil, and now the alcohol on fire. After putting out the flames, I didn't feel like going out and finding real wintergeeen oil, so I just forced the carbs back on the engine with the stiff rubber boots. It took some silicone lubricant and a lot of sweat, but they eventually went on.		Click for a larger view
			So, I'm working on putting things back on the bike... that should be easy, right? No problems, right? Well, one of the things that took a lot of time this weekend, was altering my throttle and clutch cables to fit the new throttle assembly and clutch perch and lever. I ended up having to cut about 2 inches of cable off the throttle, and solder the little round end back on the end of the cable for it to fit the new throttle. At the end of the day, everything worked fine. I may still have to get a little bit of a longer throttle cable, but for now it will be ok. Next step... wiring and firing!		Click for a larger view