Finished the fender mounts today. The tabs are only tacked on for now. The fender is much more rigid than I had expected, almost rings when I tap on it. To make the tabs I welded into the fender I bent a length of 1" flat stock down the middle, then cut the bend in half. This gave me two identical curved pieces that matched the fender pretty well. I'm very happy with how it has turned out.

Sneak peak of the fender mounts. Not welded in yet, need to make tabs on the fender for the spacers to mount against because the fender has too much radius on it. After that everything will be ready to weld onto the frame. I'm real happy with it so far.

You can hardly see, but the nuts on the inside of the lower tabs/feet will be tack welded on to make mounting easier.

Finally got the wheels today!!! Didn't waste much time to lace them up. Took a while but it was worth it. I still need to true them up, but first I caught a snag on the rear wheel - 1 spoke didn't have any threads! So, the front wheel is ready to trued, and the rear is still loose. I'll have to contact the manufacturer and get another spoke sent to me. Figures the rear had a bad spoke, the front came with 4 spares and no spares for the rear. Ok less blah and more pics.

Another fender update. I'm so glad I figured out how I want to mount this thing, it's been driving me crazy trying to do something a little different than the norm but still structurally sound.

The fender is also cut to length, and the duck tail is ground to the shape I want.

Put the engine and chain in so that I will have the spacing between the fender and tire that i want. It is now ready for the mounts. For the lower mounts I'm going to cut two 1" lengths of 1" angle iron. They will be welded onto the lower cross tube side by side on either side of the fender rib as feet against the fender. I picked up a bunch of leather washers so they will go between the feet and the fender for as a damper.

The upper fender mounts usually are struts made from round stock from the axle plate up to the end of the fender. I'm going to try and not use fender struts, but instead weld tabs on the upper frame on each side of the fender with 1.5" steel spacers and of course leather washers between the fender and the spacer. I'm pretty excited by this design, hopefully the fender doesn't bounce around (too much). If it does I guess I will just throw on some additional fender struts. I am noticing the rib in the center adds some great additional structure to the fender.

Did some fender mock ups today. Found where I want to cut the fender and trim up the duck tail. The duck tail was pressed so I want to trim it up with a grinder to look like it was folded. You can see the lip under the tail that will be ground flat, corners are masked off for grinding too so that it blends better too.

I called the powder coater for an update. Rims are done and he's doing the hubs after Xmas... ugh! Well I realized I had all the pieces to assemble a wheel, mount the tire, and fab up the fender mounts. So today I laced up the spare wheel using the TX500 hub I decided not to use. I also threw a few things onto the frame to see how it's looking. Fender will be shortened a few inches.

Quick update, coil is mounted, battery box mounts are on, frame welds are finished, and the rear brake stay is on too. hm what else... Only thing left are the fender mounts. Waiting for the wheels to come back from powdercoating before lining up the fender and making the mounts.

Now a week later, I had a bunch of goodies delivered today. Also took a long lunch to drop off the rims and hubs for powder coating. Now that I have the tank, the frame should be done this week and off to powder coating as well.

Here's a pile of swag I've accumulated from Lowbrow Customs where I got all the seat stuff and the fender. I find the little square one in the middle particularly hilarious.

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!