Wheels and gauges

In my last post I mentioned my plans for the wheels. This weekend I worked on the wheels and refinished my gauges. I'll cut to the chase. Here is the front wheel:

 

I masked off all the nipples and spokes then painted the rim with duplicolor wheel paint. In prep for the paint, I sand blasted the rim with play ground sand. Although I sanded the rim, the paint seems to still have issues sticking the the surface that was once chrome. I will most likely be redoing the paint with something a bit more durable, but this was enough for me to figure out the look I was going for. This paint scheme looks great with the rest of my bike. As for "something more durable," I am looking into a home powdercoating kit from Eastwood. All I need is an electric oven big enough to cook parts, and I'm set. Here are a couple of pictures from the prep work on the wheels. I used baking soda on the hubs, so I wouldn't damage the softer aluminum. The baking soda does wonders for the finish. 

Here is the rear hub before I started prepping the wheel. Note the rim, it looks pretty rough. 

Here is a picture after degreasing the surface of the hub with Gunk brand engine gel degreaser. 

Here is a picture of the rear hub while soda blasting. The difference is pretty noticeable. That brown colored stuff was not coming off with any kind of solvent I had in my arsenal. The soda blaster made quick work of removing it.

Here is another picture of the rear hub but the other side. This is the "drum" for the rear brake. There was a lot of baked on brake dust. 

 

It all came loose after a couple passes with the blaster. Clean enough for an area you cant even see on the bike. 

This is how the rear wheel sits now. There is still some work to be done, but it's a huge improvement from what I started with. The rim has also been cleaned with the soda blaster, which won't really damage chrome. The rear wheel will eventually get the same treatment as the front. 

I also refinished the gauges here's what I was working with.

Rusty mounting bracket.

Chrome on the backs was in bad shape.

So I pulled them apart. For anyone who is thinking of doing this on their own bike, I say go for it.

 

There are three main parts for each of the gauges. The top (with the glass), the bottom (it's usually chrome plated from factory), and the foam that insulates and protects the gauges. The foam is sandwiched between the top and bottom and is removable. I removed the foam insulator rings and masked off the glass. Then I sand blasted everything.

 

After sand blasting, I repainted them. I used dupli-color bed armor for the bottoms and the dupli-color matte black wheel paint for the tops (the wheel paint is a no primer, high temp, chip restistant paint). 

I will be replacing the hardware on the bottom of the gauge and replacing the bulbs with LEDs. Here is the finished product: 

That's all for now. I'm working on a wiring harness and headlight option to replace the old sealed beam. If you don't already, follow me on Instagram, check out @550project for more updates. 

Long time no see.

I usually only get to work on my bike during the weekend. The weather has been so nice lately I have been spending weekends outside. Today I spent a little time on the forks. They were pretty rough before I sand blasted them.

They are still pretty rough but they will work for the time being.

Next I'm going to work on the wheels. I was going to buy new spokes and get my wheels relaced. With paint this method was going to cost about $380. I've decided to just sand blast the wheels and paint them myself. It doesn't make sense to spend $380 when I could buy a set of oem wheels (it good condition) on eBay for $250.

As it gets colder out you will see the posts become more frequent.

Triple tree and wheels

Today I started on the wheels. I sand basted the front wheel after I removed the front rotor.

The rotor will be cross-drilled before it is reinstalled, il get to that soon.

The wheels are cleaning up nicely. I also decided to work on the triple tree clamps. I got tired of looking at them, dirty on the work bench. This, unfortunately is the only "before" picture I have of the top clamp.

Here are some shots of the work I did. 

Sand blasted the leading light cluster.

Sand blasted and repainted the upper clamp. 

Looks good as new! 

I also did more work on the forks. I was going to paint them but after all the work I did with sanding them, I want to show it off. 

Before I started on the lowers.

After about 5 minutes with a sand blaster.

This is after sanding with 180,400,and 600 grit paper. I'm going to go higher and hit the spots I missed, but you get the idea. 

The new tail light came in last night along with the new battery. Here are pictures of mounting the light.

 I am very happy with the new tail light. And this is what will be powering the electronics.

 

Well, that's all for now.

Tank update

I worked on the tank some more today. I think I have the exterior right about where I want it. I have yet to treat the inside. I will most likely leave the liner for last.

 

I used paint stripper to get the decals off. After a couple coats of paint stripper, the paint and decals wiped off. I cleaned the rest of the tank up with the sand blaster. Then I sanded the tank using 180 grit paper on a soft block. This is what I came up with.

Looks much better than this...

 

You can also see that I de-tabbed the frame (removed side cover mounts).

The tank looks even better in person. I might go a bit higher with the sand paper maybe 400 then 600. I did however come up with a way to protect the raw metal. After reading tons of stuff online, I came across a product called "Gibbs Brand" lubricant. It is extremely popular with hot rodders and die hard mechanics. It goes on clear and protects the raw metal for up to four months at a time (according to a guy who has a whole car that is raw finished, protected with only Gibbs). You can paint over it at any time because it's isopropyl based and doesn't contaminate the metal. Isopropyl is a key ingredient in Rain-X so it's no surprise that it also makes water bead off like wax. I'm pretty happy with the finished product. I could have done clear coat for about $100, but why? It takes all of 5 minutes to wipe the tank down with Gibbs, and that also helps keep the bike clean. Clear coat seems to be very hit or miss as a permanent solution as well. Gibbs is said to work 100% of the time, as long as you aren't too lazy to re-apply every now and then. I'm the kind of guy that keeps 6 coats of wax on his car, a little gas tank is easy!

Fuel tank

So I started messing with the fuel tank yesterday. The original plan was to do a raw finish. After looking around I decided that a raw look has been done too many times. Last night I sanded the tank with a sanding block to get an idea if what I was going to need to fill in preparation for a new paint job. 

For its age this tank is great shape, but in order to paint it the right way it's going to be a lot of work. I'm not above doing that work, that's not the issue.

 As soon as I got through the paint on the tank and saw the bare steel I though "wow this looks cool." I am now seriously reconsidering the raw finish and more likely than not, it's probably what I'm going to go with. The reason is the look you get, with so little work (relatively). I think the small dents will be unnoticeable when the tank is raw and the dents that are visible will give the bike some character. The biggest issue is the clear coat, there are probably a hudred ways to do the job. I have been doing tons of reading on this, picking up where I left off when I was iniatially thinking about the raw finish. I have come up with a couple of ways to accomplish the look I want. I will be prepping the rest of the tank as soon as I get time, probably in the next week or two.  

Productive weekend.

I got a lot done this weekend. Jorge helped me weld the tail section on to the bike. 

We also made the frame bracing for the new frame loop. 

 

I think I have finally honed my skills using the die-grinder. Previously, I used the die-grinder to smooth out the old welds after removing the old seat bracket. This time around I noticed I was much, much better. After about 30 minutes I had a roughly finished product. 

They look even better in person. Jorge filled in pin holes that developed while I was blending the metal. 

I have a little more work to do in the bracket before paint, but I think they will look factory-smooth when they are done. 

I will be posting the rest of the progress throughout the week. Until then, thanks for reading.

Soda blasting the motor

I prepped the motor and started soda blasting the other day. 

I used about 8-10 pounds of soda. I think il need about 15-20 pounds more for the motor, good thing it's cheap! It made short work of most of the rust and oxidation on the outside of the motor. I took a bunch of pictures of the motor before I started. The engine isn't completely done so I don't want to show those yet. I did take a couple of shots that give you the basic idea of how awesome soda blasting is.

The left side of the cover is after one pass with the blaster. The right side is untouched.

 

A bit harder to tell in this picture, but the right set of fins got a couple of passes with the blaster while the left side was left untouched. I ended up hitting the fins a bit more and they now look better. Il have the motor finished in the next week or so.