Wow it's been 18 months since i've posted although I have accomplished some. My wife had told me that until I finally renovated the basement I couldn't spend my time working on the bike, seemed fair as I'd been promising for several years and it was in rough shape. I spent 8 months working on it full time and was finally able to return to the bike in Jan. '23.
The first thing I had done was powder coat the rims and hubs in a clear coat. The results were terrible, the person who did it was careless, dirty fingerprints all over, bearing surfaces coated. I had to remove all of it.
Next I started painting smaller items. I've decided to paint certain pieces a bronze colour to add a 3rd colour to my scheme. I used Angelis brand leather paint for it's flex. Metallic Bronze is the colour.
I also started working on the 2nd exhaust (as my first attempt didn't consider the kickstand placement). I'm running it under my frame and popping out near the rear. I want to use cocktail shaker headers but because the bikes not a hardtail I don't really have anywhere to secure them so I had to make a brace (which I'm not crazy about the look). At first I had made the angle too extreme so I had to lower the angle. The finished pipes are not perfect but it's better than my first attempt and it's time to move on.
Kickstand is now on. I tried for an 11 degree angle. Also decided to change the handlebars, I was never sure about the Panzer bars, now going with mini apes, Zombie Performance.
On to fabbing the frame. Welded on the rear bake stay, replaced the cross bar, made a mount for the reg/rec, put on gussets. My welding is brutal, I seem to be getting worse at it! the frame will have waves and the moulding will be tough.
And that's where it stands. I'm about to send the headers to be ceracoted. I will blast the frame for the final time and epoxy prime. Moulding's next.