Giving her rear end some attention.

I got a chance to pop into the garage today and stayed there for the duration of the Ramones' Greatest Hits and the Cure's Disintegration. In those combined 33 tracks worth of time I decided to test out the simple green and scotch brite pads on the swing arm and rear wheel; I am happy with the results because it is clean but not too clean, I mean this is a rat bike after all.

Here is the swing arm lookin all sexy and whatnot:


The wheel and brake assembly (I just carb cleaned the crap outta the drum and cover so it is fresh and clean), and a closer view of the clean drum:


Also I am pretty happy about the arrival of my clubman bars and bar end mirrors. I put the clubmans on just to see how they fit and they feel really good. I can't wait to get them mounted for real so I can check some more off the ol' checklist.

Bars and Mirror(s):


In my last post I mentioned that I took of the sprocket cover so I just figured I would post a pic of that so you can see whats up under there. On the inside of the cover is the clutch actuator mechanism (not the official name, just what I am calling it.)

This one gives me a warm fuzzy feeling, probably because I am a bad photographer.

Here is a thing.


Next up: Finish this g-d tank! I just hate sanding so this is why its only this far. Also I need to still put in some ear plugs and shake the devil (bob ross tribute) out of the tank because I have 25 1/4" nuts in there to loosen up the large rust chunks before I give it the HCl acid treatment, but it is loud as hell and I just can't take it for more than a few seconds. Its progress is pictured here along with my new set of tools I got for Christmas!


I say farewell for now and happy wrenching!!!

Bits and pieces

Took the swing arm off today. Will clean it and grease it and put it back on so I can get the rear wheel back on. I also removed the front sprocket cover which contains the clutch actuator so I can get that all cleaned up in there and stuff. My philosophy is to do a little work each day even if it's only 10 minutes here and there so that I can see some progress on this thing. As soon as there is actually something new and cool to show I will put up some pictures. For now here is something unrelated.

Some happenings

Started pulling the control wires from the handlebars so I can install the clubman bars as soon as they get here. After I do that I am going to take off the swing-arm to grease it and clean it since the rear end is fully dismantled anyway. Once I do that I can get the wheels back on so the little guy can stand on his own. Unfortunately no work will be done this weekend since I am taking the lady up to the mountains, but I hope to really get moving in the coming weeks. Thats all for now.

Much to get done...but little getting done.

Just a little update on the conversion.

For christmas I got a nice 154 piece Craftsman tool set, which will come in a lot of use, and the other day I bought one metric shit ton of simple green and a bunch of scotchbrite pads so that I can start doing some cleaning.

I have somewhat rethought out my immediate goals with the bike. I started out wanting to have a rat bike/cafe racer. Then I got the bike and started tearing into it and got really pumped up and had thoughts of full restoration floating through my head (which is silly for someone on my budget), but now I am back to rat bike. All I really want is a mechanically sound bike to hooligan around on, so that is what I am going to do now.

In response to that thought my game plan is as follows.

1. Finish the tank (sand, treat the inside, protective clearcoat) so that I can actually run gas through the bike.
2. Change the oil and filter.
3. Clean up and get the wheels back on so its not all up on milk crates and such.
4. Charge up the battery.

When this is done I will be ready to at least start up the bike. I anticipate having to take off the carbs and clean them and having to sync the carbs, but that will come after the above stuff is done.

Once I have the bike not necessarily in running condition but in condition where it could run (sounds funny but at least I know what I mean) I will do surface cleaning etc. so it will at least look a little nicer.

After this point there will still be lots more to do before it is close to road ready, but that is the whole fun of the adventure.

Also, I have a set of black clubman bars and black bar-end mirrors on the way. These two items alone will make the bike look a whole lot more completed so I am really looking forward to getting those and getting them on the bike asap.

Hope I have my shit in order now and my priorities straight so I can stop talking about this build and start actually doing something. Oh and there will be some pics to come in the near future, so stay on the edge of your seats please.