Gratuitous Engine Shots

Making Progress

Making progress on the bike without buying anything has been hard. My bobber fund has run dry and there are still crucial parts that need to be bought. I'm making due with little things here and there that must be done but haven't contributed much to the assembly.

Front end is painted and reassembled:

I was also able to finish grinding down metal on the frame that was useless (old tank bungs and wiring hooks). I was also able to work up a set of drag bars from the stock handle bars (money saver too)

Cut the bars apart

Welded them back together

 polished a side cover... yawn*

Biggest thing right now is getting a front tire, front and rear tubes, and new neck bearings. Once I have those items I just might have a rolling chassis together in the next few weeks. :)

Hardtailed

I was able to have the hardtail welded by a real nice guy who had experience with motorcycle frames in Nappanee. Progress is still going steady, and I'm definitely on track to have a rolling chassis soon. I hope to have the front forks back together soon and purchase tubes and tires.

 As you can see from looking at the photos, a significant amount of metal needed to be removed from the stock frame in order to add the hardtail section. The previous owner had already chopped off most of the stock rear section, but grinding down the metal to the main frame was still about a 8 hour job.

I was very happy with the end result. The welds look very nice, and all frame lines were measured and squared before welding. Clamping and squaring it took longer than the welding, but the whole process was maybe 3 hours total.