No updating for now.

Things are happening right now. So we are on another hiatus. I should know something soon.

http://toothpastefordinner.com

Hahahaha!!! I win!

Time to start scrubbing it off. It only took a drill, a lead mallet, a cold chisel, and a gian flathead screwdriver.

Simple.

Two down and two more to go. Fuck.

Cold chisels rock. I have been grinding and pounding away on those Headnuts. For a while nothing was happening. But I changed tactics. I went from my small light duty tack hammer to my little lead persuader. I love that thing. Thump! Thump! Thump! And the nuts began to spin off.

Excuse the blurry photos.





I am definitely going to need to replace the studs now. But it really is the least of my concerns. So off with their heads!

Well that was easy (the tale of two years worth of dumbass decisions)

So back about a year and a half ago, I pulled my girder apart. Well I buggered up all the threads on the studs for it.



So here I am thinking that I am as good as fucked. I have gone back and forth over this for nearly two years now. (two years!!!!!!!!!!) Do I fix it? Do I scrap it? How do I fix it?

So I have tried to cut the studs down and put new ones in. I have looked at drilling and tapping. Then started to think that maybe I should just say fuck it and get a DNA and put it on.

A while back I did try and weld the studs in. Of course that worked splendidly. Shit all fucked up and off center. So I just put it off to the side and figured that when it is time, I would do something.

Well I have been fucking around on it lately. Here is the thought...

Grind the step off and get it all flush. Weld the legs of the girder together and drill and tap it to accept bolts. Find some type of hardened steel bolt that would work with the girder. Jig it all up to be straight and weld.

A couple of weeks ago I started on this project. I cut the buggered studs off and got back down to the original steps. I had always assumed that this was just the head of another bolt. I hesitated to weld it, because I didn't want to fuck up the only mostly good chrome I had. I gave up on it. Burn motherfucker, burn.

Rather than grind it totally flush, I figured I would cut it at the weld and see if I can get it to fall off naturally, or chisel it off.

When I got to grinding off the weld, it all began to come to pieces pretty easy. That's when I found this.



Looks like they had a special stud build for it. Basically with a locater stud in the back. The trees are also drilled for this stud. Pretty damn neat. Guess it cut down on the possibility for a fuck up. That is until I got my greasy mitts on it.



After I cut the studs out, I took a stone on the dremel and smoothed off the welds and got it nice and flat. So it shouldn't be too bad to get it back together. When I am ready to replace the studs, I will build a jig to get everything in alignment.

I also started to grind the tops of those fucked up studs off.



It's going to take a little while to get all four down. Thankfully they make replacement studs, so I don't have to be delicate.

A story of tragedy and hope with Rosanna Rosannadanna for good measure.

What's there to say? I have been working piece by piece to get those damn fucking rounded off stuck ass nuts off my head on the motor. Stupid (proceeding to go into cussing up a blue streak) just won't budge. So I have resorted to going at it the old fashioned way. A cold chisel and hammer. I went over to Cycle Exchange's site and they offer replacement studs for relatively cheap. So if I bugger up the threads I will just get new replacements. This damn motor better not be a boat anchor.

Recently, one of the sites I have frequented has decided to go to a mostly H-D and British format, so while I might be welcome there still, I am not quite as interested in the threads currently being posted. But during the fallout that came from the adjustment of format, someone at the site decided to have a go at creating a forum that would be accepting to older metric bikes. The Metric Underground. is still pretty young and as of right now doesn't have quite the traffic of some of the more established sites. I do have my hopes up and keep an eye on what is going on. And I am trying to be somewhat useful, if I can be. So if you are riding or cutting up something older and metric, check them out.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of catching something from Joss Whedon called Dr Horrible's Sing Along blog. Personally I thought it was a hoot. My girl, not so much. But I decided to check out the company that hosts the video, hulu.com and found a damn nice site. It has a few current television series that you can watch on deman. Plus some movies free to watch. Damn sweet site. Now I really can't stand to watch new SNL stuff. I pretty well think they should go off the air now. And then get replaced by a show that is actually funny, I did find some gems from the true heyday of SNL. And I had to share them with you, my faithful readers. (Both of you. I really mean it. I love you guys.) So enjoy.

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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.







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?

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.





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!!!!!!!!





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.