Saturday, December 21, 2013

CAFE RACER/BRAT PROJECT - ODDS & ENDS


ODDS & ENDS

Tonight I got a lot of little things done in order to prep for tomorrow.  The frame will be waiting for me at Justin's Cycles @ 9:00 am, fresh from the powder-coaters, so I am going to take a bunch of parts over to put on so that they can get started on re-wiring the bike next week.  Of course, due to the Holiday, it will most likely get pushed to later in the week, but I want to make sure I'm not the one holding things up.  The engine will hopefully be done as well and ready to put back in the frame.  The new gaskets and allen bolt heads hadn't been done as of Wednesday, but I was told that it'd be getting started first thing Thursday morning.

The clip-ons are loaded with the new gel grips/throttle tube, left control switch, clutch/brake levers and ready to be tightened onto the front forks.  The tach & speedo have been bolted onto the triple tree and that too just needs to be attached to the steering column and tightened to the forks.  I was disappointed to find that the bar end mirrors didn't fit the the clip-ons I purchased even though the posting said they would, I might be able to figure out a way to get them to fit, but ugh.  I picked up a few large washers so I could attach the two front black smoke turn signals to the headlight brackets more securely.  While I was at Pepboys I grabbed a few more Hex bolts as well because I wanted all new ones for the fasteners on the bottom of the forks, where they secure to the front wheel shaft.  

There wasn't any good rust remover for gas tanks there like the kind I bought from Justin's but I did end up bringing home a small bottle of Evapo-Rust to give the inside of the gas tank one last cleaning before I seal it using the RED KOTE from Dime City Cycles.  It didn't work well (the rust remover).  While it did clear some of the rust, as soon as I rinsed the tank with warm water it flash rusted within 30 seconds, making it almost look worse than it did before.  I guess the inside is as clean as I'm going to get it, so as soon as it dries, I'm coating this thing so I can be done with it already.  When I grabbed the mail, I was surprised to find a new cable adjuster nut among the junk.  I bought it on Ebay a week ago to replace the crusty/rusty one I had on the front brake perch.  That only took about 10 seconds to screw on, but it now matches 100% with the one I have on the clutch perch.  I'm still waiting on my new bucket headlamp, rear sprocket, throttle cable and Honda decals.  Most of those should arrive before Christmas…CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S HERE ALREADY.

The bolts and washers that attach the swing arm were really really gross, so I scrubbed the crap out of those so they could pass as worthy of going back on the bike.  The final thing I did was put the rear brake on the rear wheel and fastened it on with a brand new large cotter pin and cleaned bolts.  All I will have to do tomorrow is slide the swing arm into the brackets and tighten them down and it will once again be able to stand on its own, pending the kickstand installation.  I will definitely grab some good pics tomorrow so I can show the progress and we will all have a much better idea of how it is going to look!

Till next time…  

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