Shaping the seat

I read on Choppercharles forum that a polisher sander at low RPM can do  great job of getting rid of the rough edges on seat foam.   It sounds good but since the gas tank incident I am leery of that machine.    Last time I used it I ended up catapulting my gas tank across the room,  dented the crap out of it. 

So this time I took the advice but instead of using the electric flinger I did it by hand.   I used 40 grit sandpaper and a dust mask.   OK, I didn't think of the dust mask until a sneezing fit got me.   Snotty foam can reach impressive velocities, just ask my dog.   He sniffed the projectile that landed near him, looked at me and left the room thinking that his owner was an idiot.   Point taken Chico.

Back at it with a dust mask this time and I'm pleased with the results.   The foam turned from a hacked up piece of couch to a decent looking seat.

 This is before.

And this is after.

A little more and I'll get it how I want it.

Engine removal

I dropped the engine today.   I'm going to need it out to clean and paint the frame, the motor could also use a some cleaning.   With the engine on the bike lift all I had to do was unbolt it.   A couple things gave me grief.

 First was the drive shaft bolt.  It was angled wrong and scooching the boot while trying to get the ratchet on from the other side had me cursing.   The other snag was the clutch cable.   It had almost no play in it so I had to get it out of the top part before I could wrestle it out of the linkage at the case. 


Now that the engine is out I can remove that coolant overflow.   There is no getting that thing out unless the engine is out.  I hope I remember to put it back before I put the engine back, probably not.

I found some sort of deep sea creature in the overflow bottle.  The elusive Squishy Blob fish  ( Limosus Stilla )   is only seen deep in the Marianas Trench and in my overflow bottle. 

Good buy little guy.  Man he looks angry.

Now you can see how much cleaning needs to be done.  It's going to be a long winter.

New welder

I got a smoking deal on a welder.  I have no idea how to weld but I always wanted to try.  Seems to me any machine that makes sparks and light as intense as the sun is something I want to play with. 

It came with an auto dimming mask, real cool. 

Like I said, I have zero experience welding.  I took one of the crash bars that saw some action and figured I'd try to fill in the scraped off part with some welds. 

WONDERFUL GLORIOUS SPARKS!!   I'm melting metal with electricity.   I'm fusing metal. How freaking cool is that.   Looks like crap but who freaking cares.  I am like a god, changing the state of elements at will. 

I'll grind that, more sparks, and see if it's good enough.

Seat pan

Today I wanted to get the seat pan a little closer to what it's going to look like.  The front end had to be cleaned up some, round it off so that it looks better and doesn't poke through the seat fabric. 

Just a small amount removed at the front but it looks much better.

I'll probably round it out a little more.

Next I cut another 10cm or so off the rear.  I rounded off the corners again and that gives me a good size seat that has potential for something nice.  If I keep trimming the back end like this I'll have to sit on the tank. 

That's good gor mow.  Eventually I'll have to figure out how to clean up the end of the frame.

More frame cutting cx500

It looks like I should cut the frame a little more.  There are two captive nuts that would make an excellent place to mount the rear fender.  These will keep the fender high and short. 

Now off comes the rear wheel.  I need the room to saw between the rails. 

That was a lot easier than I though.  Again, nothing seized, everything is in good condition. 
I checked the rear brake now that I have access.  Lots of shoes left, no corrosion.  A little rust on the drum but that's no big deal, just surface rust.

Now I have the room to cut.  I want to make a step cut so that the outer half of the rail is longer than the inner one.  This will give me a channel for the fender to slide in.

Twenty minutes and an Advil later, sawing at a weird angle is killing my back, and I have the step cut I was looking for.

Once I slipped the fender in I had a little issue with the fender bulges.   They where too large and the fender wouldn't go all the way back.  No problem, where's my hammer.  With a little convincing with the hammer it fit beautifully.  I like hammers, just not as much as sparks. 

This is the end result.

That's what I'm talking about.  Looks good.  Jeez, that's a first, it actually turned out like I planed. 



 

Headlights and fairing

I figured I might as well start making the brackets for the headlights.  I was going to work on the rear fender mount but I can't for the life of me remember where I put the metal rod I was going to use.  It's in here somewhere.

I used two bin dividers and marked out holes and where I wanted to bend them.

Next a little bending.

This is what I ended up with.  No, I won't be using tapcons.

Now I just have to figure out the fairing and where it will mount, then the back end of the bracket gets done.

Here's a little video of me hammering the fairing.  Notice I have no real clue as to what I'm doing.  Things are falling off the table and I whack the light right above my head.  What a mess.  That said, it not looking too bad.  I am getting the shape that I want.

It's freakin' loud, you might want to turn down the volume.

Sheet metal

It looks like riding season is almost over for most of us.  I say most of us 'cause Mr. Double J usually rides well into the fall.  As long as it's not snowing or chances of ice patches he''ll be out there. 

Mr G and I are putting the bikes to bed.  With that said, it gets hard not to work on the winter project. 

I've hammered out a rough shape for the fairing I'm attempting.   This might end up in the recycle pile but I have to give it a try..  I'm always memorized by watching those bike building TV shows  (not the one with the family father son soap opera),  especially when they hammer out custom tins.

This is the rough draft,

Not bad for now.  I might want more height.

The brackets for the headlamps and the fairing have to be figured out.  I still have half a day to kill so we'll see.

As I've mentioned before, copper is super expensive but really cool.  I've pilfered some of the housed plumbing and made a couple of tags to go where the Honda emblem goes on the engine.

Now don't worry, nothing is leaking.  I have some extra from a bathroom that was removed from the basement.  That thing was nasty.  The previous residents where real bad do it yourselfers.  I have tongue and grove flooring as strapping on the basement ceilings and only one phone line that works 'cause they put in an alarm system that they took with them, along with the phone cables.  

Sorry, I digress.

I got a set of stamps at Lee Valley Tools.  I love that place.  With a little cutting, hammering, and stamping I ended up with this.

Not bad.