Monday, February 25, 2013

More progress on the e-tank. Cut some vent slits too right near where the rectifier will mount. Next I need small hardware to mount the electrical components and something to make mounting brackets from.



No pics, but I spent a while on the bench grinder rounding off the weld on the lid. Looks pretty good so far. I need some more time on it will maybe a flap wheel and round file. That won't be fun....

Saturday, February 23, 2013

The headlight is now mounted. Just a 2" piece of 1" angled steel with a few holes for mounting. Also ran some jumpers and lit it up. I will keep the visor on there, looks really nice.



Also made a new rear brake linkage. The stock linkage was too short because the hardtail is 4" longer. I was originally going to just extend the oem linkage, but it would have just turned out ugly with welds and couplers in the middle. So instead, I picked up a 3' length of 1/4" steel rod. You can see in the pic below, I threaded the left side the same amount as the oem linkage. The right side I welded the oem tab onto the rod. The whole assembly came out really nicely. Just need to make a brake stay to keep the brake pad housing from turning with the wheel.






Thursday, February 21, 2013

Remember that brass pedal? Got that on the kick starter finally. It came with a bolt meant for a Harley, where it would rotate around the kick starter arm, but on this bike the whole arm rotates. Replacing that bolt with a standard bolt would mean I would need a 1/2" bolt but that would be too big to thread into the kicker.  In order to make up the space but use the largest bolt I found four 1"x1/2" nylon spacers that I could press the whole way through the pedal and would fit a 3/8" bolt.





Also got my headlight delivered today. Got it for $12 on ebay - and the bulb works! Not sure if I will keep the visor on there.


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Kick stand is done - big deal right? Well lets see whats left...

Paint underside of fender, tank, and the battery box
Sand/brush topside of tank/fender and the alternator side cover
Gas tank liner (epoxy type rust preventative)
Paint/wrap exhaust
Add mounting brackets to e-tank
Assemble electronics into the e-tank and wire it up
Mount brass kick pedal to kick starter 
Finish taillight/license plate mount
Clean up front brakes and install
Fab up rear brake linkage and rear brake stop
Mount headlight and fab bracket
Throttle/clutch cables
Wire up the headlight, taillight, ignition, horn, and respective switches
?????

So obviously a lot of little things still to do, and we'll be moving soon so it's a good thing there aren't big projects left.


Monday, February 18, 2013

The bike is finally a roller! Need to paint the inside of the fender so that can go on for good. Also have to finish the electronics tank. Trying to figure out what to use to mount it. It will end up hanging above the battery but dont' know what brackets to make. The exhaust has baffles in them now so they need paint and heat wrap to finish them off.

Oh notice the new handlebars and grips - love em! Bars are custom bent from 7/8" stainless from Front Street Cycles. Sitting on it has a very comfortable position.




Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Spent time on the electronics tank tonight. I was having a tough time thinking of the best way to build it - should the top come off to access the components/fuses if needed? Should the bottom come off instead? But that would make it hard to install the ignition key. Should both top and bottom be removable? Well Jenna just happened to pop her head into the garage, I vented about my troubles, and she came up with a great idea! Add a lip to the dome, that would cover the seam between the parts as well as add functionality.

I stopped at Lowes on the way home today and bought a 4 foot length of 12 gauge steel 3/4" wide. Then clamped it to my bench and just wrapped it around. Had to wrestle with it for a while working it to have the best fit and to minimize the space between it and the cylinder.


Later I will drill 2 holes through the lip that will go through the cylinder and the center plate which will hold the components. A nut will be welded onto the tabs of the center plate to make assembly very easy.



Next the bottom piece will get the same lip for the same mounting purposes.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Forks are done so now I've moved onto building the electronics housing.





Kinda looks like R2D2 right now... soon to look like a fire hydrant...

Friday, February 8, 2013

Got the forks mostly finished up the last few nights. Only thing left is to put oil in them and cut 1-1/4" off the springs because I put in lowering spacers.

Here's a before/after. First rand the whole thing through with a wire wheel, then sanded with 110 grit sand paper, and finished with a 3M scotchbrite green pad.


This shows how the lowering spacer goes on the damper rod. This will go down through the fork tube and the left side of the damper rod bolts to the bottom of the forks lower half (above). It was a 2" spacer but I cut 1/2" off because I didn't want the bike to lean too far forward now that the exhaust is level.


One fork finished, still needs oil and spring installed.


And for the fun of it, I put the trees and forks on with the lowers pushed almost all the way up without springs in them, then slid the front wheel in.


Sunday, February 3, 2013

After all those progress pics, here's the almost-final product. Whats left is paint, heat wrap, and a bracket to the frame near the exhaust tips.




Oh, also going to cut a few slits and weld in washers cut in half as a baffle. I almost forgot I was going to do that...
Ok got the hard part done. I'm very happy with how they turned out. The next step is to add 14-16" to the ends so they extend past the frame.

Here's a few shots of how I used the mounting flanges from the old exhaust.





And now for some of the semi-finished product. I didn't care much for the neatness of the welds because when they're done they will be painted with black high temp exhaust paint then wrapped in heat wrap for leg protection (and a little style).





 



Here's a couple exhaust progress pics from yesterday. When the bends are done, the ends will extend straight back past the frame.