I have been working on the bike, I promise.

Though it has been pretty dull stuff. Primering and sanding, getting it ready for paint. I am trying to get the worst of the high and low spots out and making it look at least presentable. It is a cheap build, but I am not in the mood to build something that is total shite. I am OK cutting a couple of corners, but not cheaping out on the whole thing.

Yesterday I went and tore down the last of the bike. Pulled the rear wheel chain, motor, etc. I have it now in (mostly) manageable chunks. I can see a few spots on the frame that I will need to address, but nothing that scares me. Things like an off center hole for the front tank mount. I would rather weld in a threaded bung than punch a hole in the backbone. And there are old weld from what I can only guess was the kickstand mount. Three of them in a triangle shape at the bottom of the frame. So that needs to get cleaned up and checked for cracks.

It looks like I will probably have to either cut down my rear fender or find another for the build. There is a lot of bad bondo work on that thing too. It looks like I can move the mount position and then cut the end off the fender, but I am not sure if that is going to be worth it. It may be more time and effort than good sense.

The earlier post on the machine work for the girder looks like it is gonna be a bust. My main boss has been in and out of the country for some major stuff that is happening in the company. So I doubt he is going to have the time to do the stuff that needs to be done. So I will have to find someone else that can do this for a reasonable price.

Hell yeah!

Still no pics, but I do have a quick story to tell.

I started my new job a couple weeks ago. So far I am digging it. No one really wants me to work on their stuff yet since I am still the FNG and the last tech did a good job for everyone. So it has been a few days of cleaning things up and kind of forcing myself on people. "Hey I am the new guy. Nope, she is working on other stuff so you gotta cope with me" stuff.

But the other day I was having lunch with the others from the IT department and the big boss mentioned his machine shop at home. Now of course I couldn't let a line like that pass, so I mentioned this project. And he did show some interest.

So last week I took the pieces for the girder that are in bad need of repair and we began to discuss how to go about fixing them up.

I have a basic idea of what I want to do, but nothing totally concrete yet. So next week I am going to pen and paper some stuff down and see what it would take to make it work. And then have to get up the cash for the steel and then work out a concrete deal with the boss to make this stuff happen.

Progress, we don't need no stinkin' progress...

Hit the wall this week.

I started a new job on the 29th and my mom has been in the hospital for a bypass, so no work was really done on the bike.

I did buy a can of black primer and bombed the tank. I had begun to think, "if this is supposed to be a ratbike, why the hell am I being so damn careful about it?" So I slapped on a coat of primer and let it dry. The finished product brought out the dents so wonderfully that I think I am gonna go ahead and at least try and get those filled and sanded.

I may try and see if I can either find or create a tool to get into the dented areas and beat them out a touch. But I don't know if it will be possible with what I have around here. If I can, then it gets that good ol' bondo treatment.

I am still trying to figure out what I am going to do about the top tree on my girder. It makes me sad. The new shop I am working at has a full machine shop and welding rigs, and I can't sneak in and use any of it.

Back in the kitchen.

Bare metal is beautiful thing. I took the tank and girder arms to the place where I am keeping my project at and began to sand. The belt sander was a stupid idea. Totally worthless.

But luckily I got access to another sander. I only had a couple sheets of sandpaper, so I was only able to finish up one girder. If I can get this girder pieced together, I think that I am goint to go with maybe a flat black with red or silver accents.

I also found a body file while I was over there and began to make very quick work of the tank. There was quite a bit of bondo on that old tank. So here is the way it went.

Top layer - Nasty ass red, sun faded and cracked.
Second layer - I originally thought it was a faded gold. But now I think it was silver-ish color. Not really positive.
Third layer - Bondo, cracked and generally nasty.
Fourth layer - Now here is where it gets interesting.

I found black underneath all the bondo and just kept scraping away at it. Then I realized there was a painting of some sort. Kept at it and the image began to appear. Someone had hand painted a naked angel on the tank. I sorta wished I didn't gouge up the paint so bad with the body file, it would have been cool to get a good pic of the work. I did take a couple with my camera-phone, to at least keep around for the digital project book I am making here. Now the crappy thing about that is Sprint wants me to pay 5 dollars extra a month to even send a single pic. I would have done a one-time charge easily, but not add an extra service I would hardly use. So if I ever find a data cable for my phone I will upload them.

I feel like I made some real progress. I am hopefully going to do some more sanding to get the tank smooth so I can begin the filler and primer process again. This time it won't be quite as thick.

Ummm... Shocks?

One of the more liberating things about having a place all to yourself, is the fact you can tear apart shit in the kitchen and no one will bitch at you.

I tried to pull the shocks off the top tree again today. But it still ain't happening. Damn things are pretty well stuck.

But I did pull the coils off and got a better look at how they are constructed. The shocks are so worn out that really they are there to hold the springs in place. There is zero tension to them and the seals are pretty well eaten away.



The only markings I have found so far are the tension settings for the coils and a "Made In The U.S.A." marking. I am wondering if it would have been better to have never pulled the front off and run it as it was. You know ignorance is bliss and all that.

I didn't get a chance to pull out my belt sander today and try knocking the chrome down yet. But tomorrow is looking pretty quiet so I think I will go for it then.

Too damn cold.

It is very hard to get motivated when you are working on a bike on the back patio during a cold snap. This is just wrong, I live in California. It is supposed to never rain and all the women are beautiful and in skimpy outfits.

But since I should at least keep up with this blog or I will slack off and forget about it.

I was driving in from work last night and noticed how many lights there are out here. Houses to the horizon. My favorite roads have been straightened and stoplights have been added. I didn't really notice how much has changed until I really looked at it. I wonder how much longer will all the good roads be here.

Nothing like suburban sprawl.

Update: Nothing happened.

That's right, I accomplished pretty much nothing.

I did take some time on Saturday to sand the girder some more, but to get past the top layer of chrome is a lot of work. Mind-numbing slow work. But there is no way I am going to have the extra dosh to get the forks sandblasted.

But it wasn't a total bust. I did get a couple of milk crates for the back patio. I now have a white-trash work bench. Next weekend, I am gonna try and bring out my belt sander to see if I have better luck with the on the forks.

I also grabbed a copy of The Horse and browsed through it. There were a couple of decent personal built bikes, but I know I am not alone in liking the rat look. So where do people like me go? It seems like those of us that really enjoy a classic home built bike are left out in the cold as far as media goes. Is it because we are cheap-ass bastards and they figure we wouldn't care about publications and programs about what we find fun?

On second thought, that may be true. How many rat bike builders give a damn about the new gas tanks from West Coast Choppers? It is more likely we are scouring an Ace Hardware for bits and pices to put on bars. Or stomping around swap meets for some old treasure.