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. 

Cleaning up the tail

I was hoping to save and use the seat latch mechanism but it made the rear look too bulky.  I'm not fond of the big tumors on the back of some of these things.  Like this one.

In the interest of fire safety I used a Dremel to cut the seat latch bracket off.  No sparks, well maybe if it was night and the lights where off, oh well.   
The length of the rear frame of the bike might still be shortened but I don't want to go past the bolt next to the shock.  That will probably come in handy for mounting stuff.

This is what we where looking at before,

.

With a little seat pan over the knee, like a bad over 18 girl, and a little gentle persuasion this is what turned out.

That cleaned up the back nicely.

Here is a little flowchart Mr. Double J shared with me when I told him I wanted to crack open the spare engine.  He also gave me a look very similar to Mr. G, this one meant "you dumb shit" I assume.

I stopped friggin' with the engine.

Fender shortened

Today we tackled the fenders.  The rear fender was media blasted to get rid of the rust and scuff up the chrome.  I'm not fond of chrome so they will get painted.  Once that was done we found one spot that had rusted through the steel.  a little grind and some naval gelly and this is what we're left with. 

The front fender was cut back a few centimeters, I wanted to see if I could recreate the lip.  No chance, the steel is too thick, so it was cut to the final length.  Nice and short.

With that done, I tried to eyeball the finished edge of the fender.  That didn't go well.  It's like shaving sideburns, a little more on the right, oops a little more on the left, darn back to the other side and so on.  You'll notice that I shave my head, that's not a coincidence

In comes Mr. G with a simple solution using basic math and kinder-garden craft skills.
Voila presto, it looks much better.

Thank (whatever deity applies) for Mr. G, he has the knack of looking at me with that amused look and showing me the simple solution, versus the Rube Goldberg solution I had.

Some new tools added to the collection.