Wednesday 15 September 2010

To use the foghanger lens I had to cut the bugger out of the lens (must admit that i smashed one as i tried to bend back the seam)



Lens out, and with Pete and Rowans suggestion a good clean with some vinegar, and she came up beautifully.




And finally with the body on (now in black)



Little more progress on the bike today, working on smoothing out the rear fender, and the front headlamp.

Picked an old Austin headlamp up a while back, and had decided to make it an old school / modern effort. That means old looks, but modern functionality – Xenon bulbs in the old housing.



So this is the original light, the shame of it is that on the other side to this someone had started to “clean it up” (read – sand off all the quality patina!!! Bummer!)

I also picked up some Foghanger headlamps to fit in



First hurdle was that the headlamp didn’t fit into the front cover, 4mm to take off, so in true shed build fashion I mounted the angle grinder in the vice and trimmed it back



I nicked the gubbins out of the XS650 headlamp, as the guts of the foghanger were rusted to buggery and back. Luckily enough the rear mount on that accommodated the xenon bulbs really easily (just had to remove the 3 locating pins with a small grinding bit.)Et voila! The xenon fits snug as a bug!

Had another hour tonight to work on the bike, decided to mark up and chop the rear fender. I had picked up an old triumph fender on the cheap, marked up and then the good old angle grinder out!



There was then a load of holes on the fender from the old lights etc, from asking on here i had been told to grind back the chrome, then weld the holes up.



I also used the copper coin trick that was recommended, worked a treat!



Half hour later and all the holes were suitably welded up! Much fun!



had to then grind back the welds, and decided that as the fender will be painted i would key the whole thing back with the good old grinder!

So a decent bit of progress on the engine, had a few head scratchy moments while working on it, and swore at quite a few circlips!
I had a new set of pitons and rings that came with the bike, so fitted them with the new gaskets.


Haven't yet gone down the route of properly cleaning the engine up, I want to get the bike running, them it can have a full strip down when it's all working to paint and clean it up a bit.
I was planning to have the bike built by my birthday, Thursday just gone! Whoops, ahh well youth, inexperience and all that to blame there. I’m happy with progress on the bike, and really loving the time I’m spending on the bike.

As my deadline has been and gone I thought I would have a bit of a mock-up to see how it’s starting to come together (plus if I’m lucky I may be able to sneak into Scarlett’s pictures of users bikes!!!)

I’ll start with the money shot!






Got a load of new bitties on order, so I’m hoping it’s gonna start coming together over the coming weeks. Inverted levers have been ordered, and a massive thanks to Indie scot for the cable operated master cylinder – that will be getting an overhaul shortly!
For some stupid reason i thought i would try a different approach to my earlier successes and peel back the masking before gilding – ERROR!!!



I later tried to brush off the excess, but no chance, it had stuck to the tank!!! Balls!!!




Sat down with a couple of ales in a bad mood, thinking of how to salvage the situation. The only thing that came to mind was to try and pressure wash the leaf off, so I didn’t have to sand back yet again!

Now some of you may have seen that some mistakes work well as I posted before, the gold actually blasted off unevenly, and actually looks old and patinated.


The tank has been the bloody Bain on my life, god knows how many hours I’ve spent sanding this bugger down! Had a massive run down the tank which I had to sand back, then re paint, then went and bloody did it again.
This is my spray booth!!

Got it all finished and the final cover on and put it in the back bedroom for safe keeping. I couldn’t believe it when my bloody kittens had scaled up a small bookcase, which toppled over and smacked into the tank!!!!! Another session of sanding down, filling and re-spraying.

Had a bit of a play with gold leafing as previous, and wanted to have a bash on the tank. I wasn’t really sure what to put on the tank, had various ideas, which grew and grew until I had drawn up a design that looked like Lawrence Llewellen-Bowen had draw it up. After the comments on the back plate for the number plate looking like a sign for a gay bar, I had a re-think and realised that it doesn’t need to look perfect, and too contrived. So I brought it back to the shed built roots, and just decided to freehand some lettering on the tank. Armed with liquid mask and my beloved sharpies I just roughed out some lettering for leafing.




As you can see in the second picture, I could doodle about on the mask to get things right.

I also drew up some freehand outlines of a scallop type shape on the side of the tank.



Armed with a scalpel I cut out the designs as best as possible, and sized up the design one piece at a time

Sunday 5 September 2010


Next it’s a case of using a large flat brush to manipulate the leaf onto the size – its a bit tricky, especially in this heat with sticky hands!



Leave to dry for an age, then you can peel them off! (slowly does it!) I’m really pleased with the results. The photos don’t do the gold justice really, but when I’ve put a nice line around the outside it will look quality!


Getting a bit cocky, so trying something a bit more detailed – details to follow!
Had another good day on the bike today, albeit on the pretty pretty side of things.
Started up making a fake oil tank that will house all the leccys when the bike is done. Basically had an old CO2 bottle (empty) that a mate gave me when I said I had the TIG (thinking i could just that filled). Cut a good section out, and welded a few lugs inside to bolt some end caps to.

Made the end caps out of some old ally plate I had spare, and backed them with some rubber sheet I’ve been hoarding for years. Gave them a spray up to match the tank, and for practice for the gold leafing that i have been planning.


After much deliberation about what to put on the panels, i went for good old lucky number 7 (it is my first attempt at leafing after all)

Now I’ve deviated away from Scarlett’s way of doing things slightly in that I’ve some pretty detailed plans for the tank, so had a go at masking off with liquid mask. Ordered if from a hobby shop, and had watched a few tutorials on simply painting on the liquid mask.

2 thick coats and time to dry, and they were looking worth a try. I found a nice number 7 on t’internet, cut it out, and put on top of the mask. I then used a permie marker to trace the outline onto the top of the mask.

Then it’s a case of cutting out with a scalpel, and peeling off the inside of the 7. It was real easy to do!

I got some of the coloured 1 hour size from writes, and it is pretty easy to see where you have painted!!!


Had another big day tinkering about in the shed today, spent a good couple of hours welding up some mounts on the tank, then prepping for it to be sealed. using one of those 3 stage kits, so its currently got rust eater (stage 1) in it until the morning!

I also made a start on the number plate hanger, had loads of bits kicking about for it, so got a cheap plate knocked up in halfords for it in the week. I'm thinking of "borrowing" an idea ive seen on here wherby i will be using a detachable plate on the forward facing side and no doubt have a go at putting a design on there some how. Anyhow -- basically got my faithful sharpie pen out, and measured up the base plate to hold the plate, break light, plus 2 LED number plate lights i picked up cheap on ebay. After a bit of cutting and filing it came out like this


then tried all the bits on to see what it looked like, the only annoyance, i assumed the 2 mounting bolts on the back of the break light were horizontal, so its currently a but squint ! (scoolboy error!!!) i'll have to do some jiggery pokery to sort that out.
Picked up a pair of these lights to put on the front of the bike


paid a little bit too much for a Fogranger lamp to fit in it - still awaiting the arrival of that!

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Spent more time on the bike this weekend - outside of course! i spend hours yesterday chasing holes aroung the welds i had to make for the new tunnel. started off with 2 tiny pinholes, but at one stage i got upto 6 leaks with the old - just one more lick with the TIG!!!! how frustrating.

With all the leaks bunged up it was a case of getting the filler out and getting it looking nice. I hadnt quite realised how the heat and cutting about had altered the shape of the tank, so as well as around the "blanking panels" the bottom had valleyed (the only work i could think of) making the underside a bit unsightly.

Now i'm not a fan of filler - would prefer not to have to use it - but ive had to have a good crack at this one to get it looking right. (ive spent the whole weekend looking like ive been lightly dusted in icing sugar!!!!)

This is where the majority of the filler is!


then set about it with various wet and dry grades before the first lick with primer to see how many small blemishes there were!

What do you think to my improved spray area!


Took another 3 sessions of filling and sanding to get it half decent, and this is how it sits tonight in its rightful place!

the more attentive of you will realise that there are no mounts for it as yet - they will be welded on shortly (ran out of Gas AGAIN!) and so no more work for the tank for now. in saying that its looking quite nice!

after the mounts i'll be lining the tank before spraying and maybe some fancy lettering before clear coat
my Kangaroo leather lace had arrived in the post, so simply had to have a go at finishing the seat. plenty on measuring, hole punching, lacing and re-tightening later its all done. i cant tell you how please i am with this - makes the hard work all worth it.
the 2 tone leather works really well!

















Ive had a big day on the bike today!
Started by playing around with the seat, the plan is to have creme leather on the bottom, and a dark brown distressed leather on the top. bit dissabpointed as the kangaroo leather lace i ordered hasnt shown yet, so i havent had chance to finish the seat. but the bottom half is all done:-

I then had a go at dying the top. i wanted quite a distressed look, so had a bit of fun with a mini blowtorch to make a "mottled" look on the leather, then used the dye that Caulfiled suggested.:-



looks a bit darker in this picture, but its come out really nice. the embossing looks wicked!

Spent a lot of time on finishing off a lot of welds and cutting off mounts that werent needed on the bike.

Then had another look at the tank. i took heed of all the advice i was given, and went back over the welds, and played around with the current. finally got it looking really good. Then got the nitromors out, and started cleaning the tank up.


Then out with the filler, and sorting out the overall shape of the tank. Still not finished, but need to have a bit more time on it tomorrow.


Finally just thought i'd have a look at the tank on the frame. overall v happy with the days work!




it its been busy times recently with work, so the bike has been neglected. managed to snatch a couple of hours on the bike tonight.

Been held up with everything with the seat mount. i ended up buying one in the end, and got it welded onto the frame today. als got some lugs from sumo to sit the springs on, so had to tack them in place.



i got some different foam sent to me from the lovely Mr Caulfield, so with abit of carpet adhesive, i got it stick on the seat pan. Found it a bit of a bugger to get it to stick at the edges because of the curve, but stuck with it, and persevered in the end.

cut the majority of the waste off with an old kitchen knife, then tried to shape the foam. ive been told to try an orbital sander - just took off chunks, then hand sanding - took bloodty ages, and again took chucks out, then tried the dremel, but that wanted to dig in, so in the end i had to tickle it with the angle grinder. with a slowly slowly approach it worked really well, and gave a great finish. .


this is it atop the frame


hoping to try and get a fair bit of progress next week, ive free'd myself some time to get cracking on the bike. the plan for the seat pan is for creme leather on the bottom (which should match the colour of the tank and fenders when completed) and brown leather top cover (with the embossing as previously posted). need to get some stitching lace sorted so i can finish the seat off.