Shelves

So, Made a new storage area/work bench in the garage on Sunday. The hope being that we can move as much stuff out of the main house as possible to free up room in the bedrooms for baby stuff. We will be labeling each container numerically and the content of each will be listed on a spreadsheet. Whole thing was built around the HDX 17 Gallon storage containers from Home Depot. This storage area can house up to 25 of them. It also has 58'' of reinforced workbench and accommodations to store the bicycles on the end. The VW still fits easily next to it. Power will be run over the workbench next week. Big thanks to Tim, helped me pickup the lumber, build the shelves, and drink the beer.

More painting

The new house came with abunch of Tiki torches out back around the pool. They were pretty janky and sun rotted so they are slowly being returned to the atmosphere via the carbon cycle. The canisters inside them however were still mostly alright. Half were rusted all to high hell so they got pitched, but I managed to save 4. Some tricky welding and afew old bicycle cogs for a platform (they are quite tippy in their natural state) and now I have some rather nice looking citronella lanterns for the patio.

They are drying right now, but ill be sure to get a picture up of the thing in action sooner or later.

I hate painting

I really do. Im not very good at it and I find it tedious. Also, I dont think rust looks that bad. But sometimes we do things we dont like. Found a dark gray for the frame that I kinda like and most of the other stuff is getting satin black. I think I will do the wheels in the same gray as the frame. Got it alittle put back together tonight. Rear end is just kinda mocked up right now to give it something to balance on. Still need to paint the wheel and get everything installed correctly. Also, while these tires are holding air, I am never letting them get over 1 MPH. Still, glad to have it back up off the ground and looking a teeny tiny bit motorcyclish again. So far the paint booth is working really well, I am glad I took the time to put that together. It is saving the garage and everything in it from overspray and is also going a long way to catching grease, gear oil, and other nasty shit. I have the seals and dust wipers for the fork being delivered and they should be here by the end of the week.

Coasters

Not much progress on the bike lately. Other chores, work, money commitments. Anyway, so i dont know these women:

Nevertheless, I have had to see them every day for the last year. Christi bought a set of coasters, in which you can insert your own photographs. She has yet to follow through on this and consequently I have had to eat dinner with these two young ladies for the last several months. Admittedly not a big deal, but everyone has their thing, and I admit this is one of mine. It feels like I am sitting in someone else's house. Well I finally got a hair up my ass today and did something about it. Christi is napping right now, lets hope she likes my selections.......

Into Her Birthday Suit

Alright, Had the day off work and got to work on removing the remainder of components. Really wanted to get down to the frame, I am not super good at painting, so anything thats not in the way is going to be better in the long run. Took most of the afternoon and alittle help from Ryan and his floor jack, but got the engine dropped and the front end, rear wheel, and drive-line removed.

Patchin' the Frame

So that big hole in the frame we were worried about......Got that taken care of. Alittle wire wheel action quickly revealed that all concerns about rust were entirely superficial. The pictures really dont do justice to how minor it really was. Moral of the story, Ill be dead and gone before the little bit of rust on the inside of that tube ever becomes an issue. Thank god for Arizona I guess.

So what to do about the hole? Piece of cake glob on abunch of boogery weld then grind it all flush. I am sure it wouldnt pass an X-Ray test, But I am certain it will pass the "wont make me crash and die" test. Once I get to stripping the frame and repainting, I think ill throw alittle bondo over the rougher spots. I am confident at this point that when all is said and done, it will be like nothing ever happened.

The Ground Breaking

The project kicked off today. Bike was delivered around 1230, rolled into the garage and the initial inspection began. Right away it was apparent there was virtually nothing left of value on this bike

Virtually all electronic components were showing their age pretty heavily. The plastics werent too bad, but I had no intention of keeping them anyway. It took several hours, and at least 4 Banquets, but eventually I got my present unwrapped. Underneath all those old used-up components, was a functional transmission, a clean motor, and more or less rust free frame.

Removed the radiator, found a gallon of clean, green fluid, looked like it had been put in last month, no rust, no nasty. Drained the oil, no water, no metal, just cleanish (slightly used) oil. Kinda of inspiring. The motor turned over very nicely with a turn of the wheel, and all things considered I think I scored pretty nicely here. Only downside is some apparent road rash toward the back of the frame, not that bad, but its going to need to be addressed when the frame gets chopped. I have some options, but right now im thinking ill start by cutting the bad part out, possibly just weld in a piece of plate, and grind it all flush.

All things considered, Pretty happy with the whole situation.

Braaaaaaaaaap

Time to revive the Blog, This time as a method for update on my latest project. Having quit smoking and sold my awesome truck, my cool factor is at an all time low. I have no personal vehicle, I spend far too much time cleaning, and while I love the KLR, it is probably the only motorcycle in the world that gives you negative cool points (especially with the milk crate on the back). So I am building a cafe racer. Ive always enjoyed the look of these bikes and having recently acquired a pay raise and a welder I feel alittle more up to the challenge. The donor, a 1980 Honda CX 500.

I'll admit, alitte rough around the edges, but thats why it is a project. Main goal is to learn some new skills and have something to occupy myself in the evenings. One day It might even be a good looking motorcycle. At the very least I will get another bad idea out of my system. This is kinda the end game...........

Pretty badass right? Has a shaft drive, Laterally mounted V-twin, tubeless wheels, and it is about as badass as they come. I know ive got a long way to go before I get to that point, but thats kinda the idea. Because I am often accused of wasting money on these endeavors, I am going to try to keep a pretty good track of how much I have spent on this bike, maybe not down to the dime, but by the time all is said and done, i would like to have some idea how much I have into it. So in that spirit, full disclosure, I am paying $400 and a case of beer to have a non-running motorcycle delivered to my door tomorrow. Upon completion, and pending inspection, there is sufficient documentation around the bike to allow it to qualify for a clean, non-salvage, title. So that is worth something as well. More updates to come, I am very excited.