Took 2 steps forward and 5 steps back this weekend. The rear fender is painted on the underside with black appliance epoxy paint and the top side is sanded/brushed and rubbed down with WD-40. Also painted the exhaust with VHT flameproof silver paint on Saturday. Sunday I mounted the exhaust and did a couple rounds of curing the paint by idling for 10 min, let it cool, idle for 20 min, cool again, idle again for 20 min.

Here's where things fell down hill. During that last round of idling to heat up the exhaust paint, I was utilizing that time to balance the carbs. Part of the balancing causes the engine to die. During one of the restarts I randomly struggled to get it running again followed by backfiring and smoke out through the left carb. WTF. It finally fired back up and I finished that idle run. Few minutes later with the engine off I noticed gas dripping out of the carb. I know what that means because that is something I saw the first time i tried to get the bike running when I first bought it. The bowl float has pin holes in it so it must be full of gas and not stopping the gas flow causing it to over flow out the carbs. ARG!!! So now I need to buy bowl floats for both carbs because I know they both have holes but during the rebuild I tried to avoid new floats by flipping the old ones upside-down - I guess that didn't work. So there goes $30 just for floats!

Also found that during all the kick starting this weekend, the bolt I used for my brass kick pedal bent. I'll be up-sizing it to 1/2" and probably welding it to the arm instead of threading it through.

And for my third step backwards, I planned on finishing the e-tank completely this weekend. That is until I test fit it to the bike. The brackets I welded to the tank are too short so the holes don't line up because the tank hits the frame. I have no idea how I'm gonna fix that now and keep it looking clean.

While trying to find something that would go well for me I found more things I need to spend money on. I forgot that the front brake caliper I have is frozen, so I got that apart and need to buy a seal kit for that.

Step 5 - because I am using a Triumph throttle I had to shorten the inner cable and solder a new cable end. I did that last week and worked perfectly. So perfectly I had the chance to ride the bike around the yard remember? Well today when I started the bike the throttle cable was tight and holding it at about 25% throttle. After all kinds of wiggling and head scratching it appears that the outer cable sheath grew from the engine heat and now I need a new throttle cable and re-solder the end.

What an exhausting weekend... all I have to show for it is a painted/sanded fender and painted exhaust, and a shopping cart with $77 worth of bike parts to order. yay...