It's been a while

It's been a few weeks since I have updated the blog, but this doesn't mean I haven't been working on the bike whenever I have time. My schedule has been crazy busy since school started up again. I have still managed to put in a couple of days work on the motorcycle.

 I finally decided to reassemble the carbs. I had previously planned to wait for the exhaust and jet them for the exhaust I pick up. My options for an exhaust are still wide open so I'm going to just rejet the carbs later, meaning they are going to come apart again. 

Side note. Part of the reason for reassembling the carbs is to make room for the engine disassembly. I ordered a full seal kit for the motor and will be attacking the engine within the next month. While I have the motor apart I plan to soda blast and engine paint. 

While reassembling the carbs to the bracket I noticed I was missing a retaining cylinder for one of the slides. This for sure would render the carbs useless. I looked around the shop for about half an hour and found nothing. Jorge saved the day big time. He came downstairs and looked at what I had lost. Luckily I had three for the other slides (there should be four total). I gave Jorge the part and he went to the lathe and made a new part. He was worried about it being within half a thousandth of an inch of the original part. I looked at him and laughed, he was totally serious. The guy is a perfectionist. He saved me a very annoying eBay parts hunt and most likely made a part that far surpasses the factory spec.  Retainer on the left was made by Jorge.

I know the silver one looks bigger, it's an allusion. I confirmed with the caliper, the parts are identical.

In other news, the new seat, frame loop, and handle bars have all arrived. I haven't had a chance to get the new frame loop on the bike yet, but here is a picture that gives you the basic idea.

I bought a sand/media blaster and getting that dialed in for this project ate up a good amount of time on Sunday. I did manage to get everything working the way I wanted and do some testing. I cleaned up the rear fender in preparation for paint. I was so excited about the sandblasting, I forgot to take some good before pictures. The fender was the original fender that came off the line in 74, it was rusty as hell. 

 Here are some "before" shots I took half way through getting the blaster dialed in.

 

You can see in the picture above that I had already blasted a lot of the fender. The corner on the left was some of the lightest pitting on the fender when I started.

The picture above shows rust that formed on the chrome that was under the factory seat. 

.

..outer side of the fender. And after...

As you can see all the rust is gone. Now I have my system set up and I can get to work on a couple other parts of the bike. This motorcycle is constantly on my mind. I'm really excited with the direction the project is going. I'm going to try to be better about posting stuff. Thanks for reading!