Got the new seat setup in last night! Very happy with it. It's a hand made seat by Rich Phillips, steel seat pan with black leather on the top AND bottom, and foam padding inside. Install took a bit longer than expected for only a hinge and 2 spring mounts. The Biltwell hinge is coped to match the shape of frame tubing, but where I wanted the seat to mount there wasn't much for 'round-ness' which was at the joint the hardtail met the original frame. So there was a lot of trimming on the hinge mount and I even ground notches in the frame for more surface contact when it was welded.

While I was tacking the hinge I ran out of welding wire so I flew over to Lowes. The Lincoln flux core wire made such a huge improvement. Still has some slag but nothing compared to the cheapo wire that came with the cheapo Harbor Freight welder. HF slag = nonpareil sprinkles, Lincoln slag = glitter.

Got the motor in last night, didn't fight too badly going in but definitely heavy. Took a pic standing above it and it looks nice and symmetrical. I guess I got the brake pivot in just the right spot. It lines up pretty well with the shift lever on the left. (don't mind the 2x4, its angled, the bikes crooked... I'm crooked).

Been a while, but I have been able to spend a good amount of time on the frame. My last update showed a start at removing the neck gussets, well now they're off and the new ones are on.

Here's the neck all nice and stripped.

Old gusset versus new 3/16" steel.

New gussets are on!

Also realized that I would need a rear brake pivot mount. There are kits out there made out of tubing, but why spend the money when I have the pieces here - that's the chopper philosophy right? So with the sawzall I cut out the brake pivot from the old soft tail section.

After some trimming and grinding, I welded it right at the cross tube joint. That seemed to be the best place for it so that the pedal would be right under the foot peg that will bolt onto that bracket with two holes in it. Also had to trim the under side of the engine mount on the inside of the pivot. It was too low to be able to slide in the pivot. Now it fits like it was made that way - oh right, it was...

I also relocated the kick stand mount. Where it was originally it would have been right under the foot peg and I wouldn't be able to kick it out. In the pic below you can see I moved it back about 6".

Next on the list - put the engine back into the frame so I can line up a gas tank and coil mounts. I need to get the tank ordered at some point. To mount the coil, I want to weld nuts to the under side of the frame hidden under the tank. Also need to get a rear fender to make the fender mounts.

Going to try and get the rims and hubs to powdercoating this week too!

Quick progress pic. Been trying to spend a little bit of time each day before work trimming the frame of tabs and brackets I don't need or will be replacing. In this pic you can see I removed the top engine mount because the new tank that I want to use won't fit over the original mount. I will have to make custom brackets out of flat stock instead of the tubing design that was there. I also removed on of the neck gusset plates, the other will come off tomorrow. When I removed the engine mount I couldn't reach all the way in to grind down the welds, so the gussets will come off to clean that up and new gussets made from thicker steel will go in.

Hm, just came across this pic. Makes me think about painting the rims white! Most of this bike has the same scheme that I will be going for - brushed tank, fender, engine covers, with black frame. Was going to paint the engine but now I think I will just see how well I can brush it and clean it up.

Small update today. The frame is welded and waiting for me to get the flapper wheel onto the angle grinder and smooth out the heavier slag from the flux welding. I will say, very impressed with how it handled the job. I will put up pictures when its all ready, maybe Tuesday (day off).

Today I spent a little time before work brushing and buffing the front hub and rim. I'm going to go with a brushed raw metal finish on the wheels, tank, and rear fender with a matte clear coat over it for protection. Stainless spokes for the front wheel will arrive Wednesday and hopefully by the end of the week I will have the front wheel together. Still need to get the rear hub apart in order to replace the left wheel bearing.

Come to find out my new rear wheel I bought is for a different model - TX500. Good news is I can make it work, same axle size, same drum brake, same spoke size. Also seems to be an improvement because it has rubber spacers in the sprocket drive. The sprocket is different but the right one will fit on it with the correct hub spacing and sprocket spacing. Thanks to some help at xs650.com I know exactly what I need to do to make it work. 

http://www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?p=226126#post226126

I don't think I'll be cutting up the extra sprocket like 5twins suggests. I think I'm going to see what I can find for actual spacers of the sizes I would need. Shouldn't be too hard....... shouldn't be! I'm also throwing the idea around to replacing the rubber drive dampers with some RTV urethane. Can't be any worse than the fixed drive of the hub I meant to buy that should be for this 650 model.

Will follow up with pics when I can get the thing cracked open. It's not cooperating with me right now, and hammering on the lock ring at 4am isn't very considerate...

Got up early today (11am) before work tonight to try and get some grinding done. There were some remnants of the frame pieces I just cut off that had to go, which went smoothly. Here's another test fit, looks pretty good to me.

Also got my rear wheel delivered today too. Got it on ebay for a great price. Included the assembled rear wheel with drum brake and also the extra rim which is very clean. Just needs a bit of cleaning and will be good as new. The brake drum needs to be hit with a wire wheel badly. Also have new stainless spokes in the mail for this wheel. Gotta get spokes for the front wheel and they will be complete, but I'm trying to sell my mag wheels first to keep the cash flow down since I jumped the gun on buying the hardtail last month.