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.

Well thursday bike night got brought to an early conclusion for 3 main reasons tonight:-

1. I ran out of argon for the TIG, so couldnt do any more welding
2. I ran out of grinding disks, so couldnt do any more grinding
3. I ran out of food in my belly, so my brain wouldnt work.

Needless to say i had a good couple of hours on the tank finishing making and then welding the blanking panels.

Considering this is the only TIG ive really done, i'm slowly getting the hang of it all. Pretty bloody pleased with the welding ive done on these seams.

After grinding back the welds on the tank, its apparent that the tunnel welds will need some more work, there are a few hairline marks where the weld didnt quite penetrate as far down as ive ground.

Whats best with that - tig it again, or getsomeone to braze it for me to ensure its sealed?!?

Anyway one more pick of it on the bike. I love the "gascap" off to one side!

Sneaked a couple of hours in the shed tonight, made good headway on the tank. got the bottom all seamed up to the tunnel, then started making the blanking panels for the front of the tank where it is higher than it origionally sat.

and sitting in place:-

needs a little more love with the hammer before it gets welded up, but i thought i'd better stop hammering for the night!

A couple of hours and half a bottle of Argon later i mastered using the tig without the pulse setting and without blowing holes in everthing, and have got the new tunnel securley welded in place. need to make some filler sections now for where the origional tunnel was. I think its sitting quite nicely as it is. pleased with the look so far!



no comments on the weeds in the garden!

I picked up a cheap tank i bought from ebay today, from an old excelsior. Its a bit rusty, but it'll be alright i think.

Problem is the bloody thing wont fit on the bike as the tunnel is too small!!

So, went and got a bit of metal from the local fab place, only thing is they wouldnt heat and bend it for me! balls! i would say the most frustrating thing i'm finding is that i have a distinct lack of tools up here, and i cant just keep buying them. Decided to have a go at annealing it myself, and swiftly eyed up some nice council galv hand rails near my place. Slicghtly over sized at 60mm, but better than nothing. After about what seemed like 3 hours with a plumbers burane blowtorch i put my formidable weight over the metal and the hand rail.

Its not perfect, but i'm pretty pleased with the outcome.

Got an hours work to do in the office, then i'm getting the old grinder out to have a play at cutting this old piece of biking history up! mwah-ha-ha-ha!

Also picked up a new argon bottle (there goes this weekends beer fund) so i can get my welding done today i hope.