Thursday, July 24, 2008

Still haven't learned to leave well enough alone.

So with the chop laying more or less stagnant in the garage, I look at it multiple times every day. See I keep my smoking seats there and also the bicycles. Plus it is easier to leave the house through the garage than the front door. (That fucker gets hot from the sun in the afternoons.)

A couple of days ago I figured that I may as well get to doing some work on the damn thing before it decided to rot into its base elements.

So I drug out my handy angle grinder. I am guessing this thing is not more than 15 years old. It is a hand-me-down and things are going further and further out of spec, it is still spinning along and has yet to fail me. So I took the grinder and began to clean up the stuff I had done to my Fury a while back. I won't lie, I am still not sure if I am keeping it, but I might as well take off my fuck ups in case I try to save it.

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During this time I was also "cleaning up" the garage. Which is to say I was out there making a bigger mess and putzing around with all the stuff I was pulling out of boxes.

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And while I was at it took a good shot of my old Davey Crockett (sp?) forward. Got a set and I need to clean them up. But since I do plan on going jockey shift, they will be getting some modifications done.

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After I did the girder pieces (still not totally finished getting them flush to the trees) I put the wire wheel on the grinder to see if I could clean up the chrome on my valve covers. It didn't work. Looks like I will probably have to locate a media blaster and get them down past the old chrome and then polish them up from there.

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The wheel is getting pretty tired and has begun to fling pieces of wire while it's running. So I was tagged a few times. And even had a couple pieces hit me in my angelic face (angelic HA!). But I had to get a pic of this one. I was smoking while I performed this bit of masochistic metalwork. And one wire decided to embed itself right in my Camel.

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So I figure that I should purchase a new wire wheel before I do any more of that work.

Now a while back I actually had some money so I picked up a few things from Tommy over on the Honda Chopper board. ( http://lowridersbysummers.com ) So I have this snazzy set of new gaskets for my motor.

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I had just assumed that the set was just the regular engine gaskets and nothing particular big. Well I was wrong. It came with new head and base gaskets and a host of other goodies that I probably would need sooner or later.

So I started thinking. Why not just tear the motor down and replace the gaskets? I can get inside and check out the motor and maybe get some other work done while I am at it.

So yesterday I started to pull the head.

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Then ran into a big fucking snag. There are four head nuts that sit out in the weather. Well they are corroded, and I think that the PO thought that they needed to keep the fuckers nice and tight. Tight enough to strip the sides off a couple of the nuts. Sigh. So here I am with a half disassembled head and four nuts rusted and stripped and generally stuck. And of course they are stuffed down in the sparkplug hole. So I have to figure out how to get them off without hosing the heads. I will try to use my dremel kit to cut out the nuts, or may just drill them and cold chisel them the rest of the way off.

Why am I starting to worry about what I am gonna find inside?

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

You gotta get some toys son.

Well we are back. Survived the round trip from here in Utah to So. Cal and back again. The trip itself was pretty uneventful. Lots of hours on the road. We took my little car since it gets almost ten miles per gallon better than T's Jeep. It adds up after a few hundred miles. Especially with gas prices the way they are.

Though over the course of the week a "Check Engine" light did come on. Oh well, I will dick with it when I got some more cash.

We spent the week visiting friends and family and running around. The boys were off and visiting grandparents and T's son spent most of that week with his dad. So it was nice, T and I got to run around. The only responsibility we really has was the dog.

We did have one big project for the week. We decided to re-do the lawn at T's folks. I guess a few years ago the grass died thanks to some very bad fertilizer. (note: never buy it off a truck that is going door to door. ) And has basically turned into a weed incubator. Her folks have treated me and the boys well and I was happy to help dig around. So in between that and running around we stayed decently busy.

Also, last week I stated getting some more tattoo work done. Had to drive into 29 Palms to get it worked on. I have gone to the same person for the last few years for the tattoos I have. And really haven't found anyone I would have work on me. Plus you can't beat the friend discounts either.

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Step one has begin and it healed up very quickly. It kinda sucked that I got it worked on the Sunday we got there. That meant I had to spend the week covered up and have a worse farmer's tan than I already had.

Since I haven't work on the motorcycle since before I left, I figured I would put this up instead.

Saturday there was a yard sale down the street. And as I was looking down in the direction I saw that they had a little dirt bike. So I wet with the boys and took a gander. I originally thought I was too late to get it. Some guy was handing a twenty to the people to hold it. So I just gave it a once over and got gone.

Well luckily for me, the locals can't turn a wrench to save their lives. So they walked from the deal since it "needed a pipe, chain and a tune up." And $40 later, we had a cheap Chinese pit bike.

Now here was what I found wrong with it. It pulled a spoke from the hub and that went into the tube, causing a flat. Loose spokes on the rear rim. Rancid old gas. The pipe lost the muffler, but who cares about that. I don't like to be quiet anyway. Though it did need a exhaust gasket and a brace for what was left of the pipe.

So I picked it up at noon. And by 5 or so I was romping up and down the street on it.

PICS!!!!!!!!

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So when I get the chance I have taken the boys around on it. And trying to talk T into playing around with it as well. And hopefully in a few weeks all four of us will takes turns riding it around the neighborhood.