Busy Weekend...

I took what I had over to my parents place for some serious progress.

This is the cork board in my dad's garage showing all the past projects, bikes, vw's etc. I didn't get a shot of the impala from when I was a kid, but oh well.













Here are the unwanted/needed tabs on the frame. The one on the left was for the rear fender, and the one on the right was a bottom mount for a horseshoe style oil tank.










I grabbed a quick shot of my Dad tacking some mounts in place. Don't worry we used a helmet for finish welds. I was outside mostly making brackets from the 1/4 plate, using the real tools.










Real tools part 1
Metal Chop Saw
Bench Grinder with Wire Weel















Real tools part 2
Cutting Torch
Angle Grinder with Coarse Pad

Made things A LOT easier.









Raw plate with markings













Drilling the holes after shaping it on the bench grinder

















With the welds.

My Dad's exact words:

"Don't take a picture of that, those welds are real ugly."

I have nothing but time to shape all the welds and make them a little nicer. You might never see them, but I'll know they're there.




Top view of new brackets:
Seat hinge pivot
seat spring perches
oil tank top brackets
oil tank back bracket fabed and welded









Wider shot of the new brackets

This one shows the fabed and welded bracket for the bottom of the oil tank.

That's what I get for putting in a custom tank, and not just using a horseshoe tank that was meant for the frame.






We also welded up the old tank mount holes.
Ground smooth, ready for new ones.

The seat...

So i bought a seat pan and foam from Biltwell, along with their seat hinge.

I have also purchased a dual choppershox kit for suspension, as well as a kit to cover it with leather.







The leather kit came with a large piece of leather, some foam padding (not needed), brass screw rivets, choice of leather dye, and a sealer for when it's done. The kit in black came predyed, so I got natural and bought some black dye from the shoe store. The kit was $85. The closest bid from the pros was around $800. They are much better, and do it for a living, but I can't swing the loot.





The shock kit came with two shocks (for 200lb or over) and all the hardware and tabs to weld to the seat and frame. It was $149. The word on the street is these pay for themselves through skipped trips to the back doctor. My kidneys will thank me.

How I learned to tool?

I watched all the videos by this chick on the expert village youtube channel. The info is good, but nothing is going to make up for just doing it. Trial and error. Here is the link to the youtube stuff.

I couldn't get the leather to stretch over the curve of the back of the seat without showing dimples visible from the top (I can't care how the bottom looks, not a professional here). I improvised with a leather tool belt and leather boot laces bought at OSH. I cut the belt to fit the area I needed, laced it up with the leather by punching holes with an awl and drill bit when I could, and dyed the whole thing to blend together well. Real McGyver stuff. Leather Belt and laces were around $20. Still around $100 spent for a custom tooled seat. Plus it falls into the overall theme of the bike - "Blame Me, I Built It." The seat is mostly black, tan for the hockey mask, some laquer pens were used and sanded down later to get the weathered blue and gold on the mask rivets. We shall see if the color lasts. Even if the whole thing wears down, I can do another one, learn from past mistakes, and still do it for around $100 bucks. I could probably do one for someone else if I was inclined. And I thought my BA in Art was wasted. Ha!