A dud of a weekend.

My wallet thinned out on me this weekend. So my work was kinda limited. Grabbed the rear wheel and began to fit the fender and seat. And it is confirmed. The seat will not play nice with the sissy bar.



If you sight it, the mount for the sissy bar and the rear of the seat are off. No matter how I set the seat it will not line up right. The only way I can get the rear right is kick the seat and fender forward. And the lines would be screwed up. The seat is really designed for a bike with a longer rear section.

Oh and dammit, if the cush drive doesn't hit the nut for the sissy bar...



Now I have to figure out what the hell I am going to do about that. I am going to try and spin the bolt around and use the hex side to the inside.It is a bit shallower than the nut. But that means I will have to clean up the outside. I bought hex heads to make it cleaner to look at, and now that one went to hell too.

Plus the fender is not quite as wide as the tire. I am going to need at least a 6" wide fender to not have the tire sticking out the sides. I wonder if they make 6" trailer fenders.

I did get the rear drum scrubbed out and cleaned out the cush drive. A lot of grit and grime back there. I also cleaned out the bearings of all the old caked in grease. Now all I got to do is repack the bearings and I will have the ass end unsituated.

I also need to get some extra washers for the rear axle. The P.O. had some screwball ideas on how to set up the rear. Now I have inherited their ideas, and those ideas have to go.

Gutted

The tank, that is. Got up on Easter and started the running around for stuff. I picked up some 1/4 20 stainless nuts and cap screws for the fender, sissy bar and oil bag. Then I went looking for tools I could convert to metalworking use. My first stop was Harbor Freight. Closed... What, you would think today was important or something. Oh well, I guess not everyone can be a godless heathen. So I cruised my way over to Lowes. They are a corporation, so God doesn't matter when there is a profit to be made.

And after browsing around, I got this....

The house brand tack hammer and a piece of baseboard. The tack hammer has nice lightly contoured edges and a small footprint. And the baseboard chunk is a handy dolly. And for less than $10 dollars it was the perfect addition to my tool bag.



You can see the bondo repairs from before on the left of the tank. One was pretty deep. Almost like a chunk of metal or something whacked it. So the filler was thicker than I like. Plus I want to avoid bondo, if I can.



Right now almost the entire dent is out. I have a small low spot to attend to, but that shouldn't be too bad. I still need to get a flap disk for my grinder and get the scrapes out of the steel. When I used the body file, I wound up gouging the metal. I get a bit overzealous when it consists of tearing shit apart.



But there is hardly any rust in the tank. It is very nice shape for a tank that obviously has been around a few days. So a bit of scotchbrite to the innards and that will be as good as new.

I do have some plans for the tank. I want to lower the tunnel, not to the point of being "Frisco" like but just nudge it up a bit in the front and also make the tunnel itself a bit slimmer also. It will also give me a bit more capacity which is always good.



I began to fit the seat and fender last night also and found this little issue. Nothing wants to line up right. I only did a quick assesment but am stuck with just a couple of options.

1. Replace the fender and sissy bar to better fit the arc of the seat. I don't like this one, because I really like the way the twisted sissy bar looks and am a cheap bastard so I don't feel like replacing the fender if I can help it.

2. Replace the seat. Maybe I trade the king/queen set-up for a solo seat and then make a p-pad. Which could be a workable route also.

Tonight, if I have the time, I think I am going to take a real careful look at all of my options. Part of me is thinking I might be able to make some adjustments to the sissy bar to change the angle of the fender, but I am not sure if I have enough room to cut it down.

Just something to laugh at.

I saw this on both hondachopper.com and jockeyjournal.com . I know it is scripted, but still good for a laugh.



The kids are supposed to be spending the night with their grandparents, so I am gonna try and cut open the tank tonight. If I get it open, I'll post some progress pics.

Fixing me some frame.

Ok, anyone on dial-up has my deepest apologies. There are going to be a lot of pics this round.

Today I planned on doing more than I did, but I guess all in all I got a lot accomplished. Gone are a couple of extra loops and fittings that were on the bike. I also removed the gussets at the neck and cleaned up the welds. All of my photos are hosted with Flickr.

I wanted to get the tunnel opened up on the Mustang tank and get that started, but such is life.

I started by scoring the sides of the gussets. And then began to dig in deeper.


A closer and slightly clearer shot of the crack in the frame. I am waiting to take this section out.


I removed the botom frame rail to get the bad repair out. It is also going to be my piece to fit some bar for a plug and also get the right tube thickness. But gotta love that piece of all-thread in there.


Everything I don't want is gone. Now I need to get the tank ready and piece this fella back together.


Here is a close-up of my neck area with the gussets removed. I may change the way I reinforce the neck.

I got plans for the weekend.

Yep that's right. I am hopefully going to get a few big things started up this weekend.

I will be back to show what has been done to the bike.

Bondo makes the frame.

I picked up a couple of wire wheels for my grinder the other day. So on Saturday I stripped the frame down to metal.

She doesn't look as good naked as I hoped.

I found assorted bad repairs and cover-ups.


And there is a crack on the downtubes right at the gussets. I will be taking cleaner photos of them later today.

And there are a few other repairs that have me concerned.



It isn't beyond my ability as a welder, but damned if I like the idea of cutting out sections of the frame to replace and repair. Though, would much rather do that, then end up dead on the side of the freeway. It is one thing to do things that are risky, but it is something completely different to just go out on a suicide mission.



When I took the frame down to metal, I didn't find any old VIN numbers. But I am positive this bike has been on the road some time in its life. Makes me wonder about the history of it.

Soon I am going to start fitting pieces together and at least make a roller from it. Get things where I want them and then begin getting it ready for inspection. I believe I will try and get the frame and motor inspected by the CHP before I start the repairs. The last thing I want to deal with is a cop giving me grief over fixing the frame and trying to accuse me of scraping numbers or some shit.

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.