Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

Pictures taken 5 min ago:

Here's some of it here:

Attachment 12685

Some more here:

Attachment 12686

and here and here:

Attachment 12687

Attachment 12688

It's in the middle of being broken down for paint. I need to do some final fab and a couple extra brackets for the air system, then clean up all the metal for painting.

Paint scheme has changed again as well, probably going to be black and silver now.

Thanks for all the interest, I'll keep the thread updated as I get further into painting it. This will be my first time painting so we'll see what happens :y

Attachment 12689

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

Not Bad. When you get it all back together could you take a couple photos of your jackshaft assembly? Not interested in stealing your idea, just curious of how it works. Kinda reminds me of a '77 Suzuki GS400 I built about 8 years ago. Looking forward to more updates.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

I'll try to see if I have a shot of the jackshaft assembly somewhere.

today I was working on taking the gold anodized coating off of the forks. They'll be painted black eventually but I wanted to strip them first.

I had heard that oven cleaner will remove anodizing, but this is only partially true. It thins it a lot and removes it pretty well, but it definitely leaves a residue that must be sanded off. Also, the stock forks have little tiny ridges from the CNC machining when they are made, and the anodizing hides in these little ridges, so they must all be sanded smooth to get all of it. Giant pain in the neck, but here's a couple photos of the work.

Oven cleaner, let sit for about a half hour:
Attachment 12600

One fork mostly clean, viewed against an untouched one. Also here you can see my sander of choice:

Attachment 12601

Using the whiz wheel leaves a fairly rough finish, so I started sanding the forks starting with 220grit, then moving to 400 then 800grit. There's still some imperfections, but they'll be painted black eventually anyway:

One side mostly done:
Attachment 12602

Both legs polished fairly well:

Attachment 12603

Take a look and let me know whatcha think.

thanks
Sky

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

Nice, is that a SATA spray gun??

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

It's my dad's gun, and I believe it's from Harbor Freight :y

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

You ever get the electrical issues ironed out??

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

Negatory. I'm still flummoxed on it, but honestly, I kinda just threw the first wiring harness together to get it running and riding. So I'm thinking I may have made a mistake there. And also, the brushes were not right either. So when it all goes back together I'm going to really take my time, do it right, use new stuff, and replace the regulator one more time. Hopefully that'll do it.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

More work today:

All this metal prep takes forever, because now I have to get the metal real nice for painting and just the way I want it because once it's painted it's done.

made a little gusset for the seat post area.

Attachment 12114

Had to cut the nose section of the seat pan down a bit to make it fit.

Attachment 12115

Made a couple of similar gussets for the pegs.

Attachment 12116

Made the battery hold down/air solenoid mounting plate.

Attachment 12117

Attachment 12118

also, on the bottom of the frame, there are little posts that the bike rests on, they were just tacked on before, and weren't quite the right size, so I cut them to the proper length, and bought some polyeurethane shock mounting bushings, cut those in half, and shaved them down to fit into the tubing. Then I drilled a hole through the tubing, in the final version cotter pins will be used to hold these in place.

Attachment 12119

Attachment 12120

Thanks for looking everyone, more work to come soon.....
Sky

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

Damn nice work I cant wait to see it painted.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

Finally got my electrical box built today, I just need to smooth it out and make the cover for it. Added a bunch of holes to the sides for airflow, single hole in the back for the wires, and two holes in the front for the Momentary switches for the air system.

This is a lot cleaner setup than I had before, Now it's real simple, the top button for up, and the bottom one for down.

Attachment 11854

Attachment 11855

Almost finished with the metal prep finally, just a little bit more to go and I can prime everything up.

Although it's the wrong time to paint right now, we had a high of 6 degrees today, and it's supposed to stay like this for a week or so.

Thanks for looking
Sky

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

I seriously wish I had to tools and the place to let my imagine wonder. I think having the space in my ol ladies dad's garage is one of the reason's I want to get married. Ha Ha. JK honey! ::)

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

you can paint in temps like that if you use good paint and use the right hardener and reducer to match the temp

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

A break in the action to go sledding with my 9 month old daughter :)

Attachment 11699

Little vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUNDTAE7jK4

Back to our regularly scheduled program tomorrow :)

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

you fail at sledding. You build better bikes lol

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

Truth ;D

Whipped together most of my makeshift paint booth today :)

Going to wrap it in plastic tomorrow:

Attachment 11563

Finally finished with all the metal prep. Phew, that sucked. I still have to strip a couple items and fill the little dents in the tank, then etch the metal.
Thanks to Mechwerks for the tip about getting the metal etch for cheaper at Home Depot:

Attachment 11564

Got some of the paint, still need the silver and clear.

Attachment 11565

And here's most of what's waiting for paint, more little things here and there, but this is the majority of it. Now I just need it to warm up at least a little bit around here!

Attachment 11566

One of these days the bike will actually be done, I swear it!

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

Nice update I can wait to see here done!

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

lookin good. this really makes me want to make a bike, i just dont know how

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

is that a paint booth.
you shoulda just built a little oven big enough for the frame and powder coated that bitch.
you can get the powder coating gun setup for a little over 100.
and the oven woulda been easier to build than that big old building you constructed inside your garage.
but still, its tight. good job.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

Attachment 11560

heres a quick diagram of how to build it. i had the idea just never built it so if you do build it
you'll be the first. theoretically it should work fine. spray the powder and bake it on.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

Oh yea, i'm ready to etch and paint some metal now!

Attachment 11541

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

looks like a good paint sniffing booth :P

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

FAIL, it takes a ton of insulation to bake powder in an oven. i do it on a daily basis

Sky, did you pup plastic on the floor. if not you will have a very colorful square on your floor

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

or just water.

yeah i thought about the insulation part but didnt realize it needed a whole lot. hmm. ?

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

i have only powder coated with a homemade fluidized bed in my garage. works but kinda thick coating.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

I've left it bare right now, I'm trying to get it as clean as possible inside the booth, then before I start painting i'm going to put the plastic down. I'm probably going to take off my shoes before I get in the booth as well, just so I don't track anything in with me.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

with a wood frame, you sould build a port for something like a hvac air filter, like ones used with heat pumps. then let that run for a while before you start. also, i've seen people wet the floor with water before they paint for dust control

---- looks good, can't wait to see the finished product

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

Got my tank stripped today:

Attachment 11461

Man, what a pain in the butt! took several coats of paint stripper, then sanding afterward. Still have to finish stripping the front half of the frame itself, and the air tank, but I'm getting really close to priming everything.

I'm also about a hairs-width away from deciding to darth Vader this bike. I know black has been done to death, but I'm just not liking my color combo's right now. I'm thinking about the bike being all black (gloss black not flat black), with chrome wheels, chrome headlight/taillight, and polished forks, everything else black, could be really cool.

What do you guys think?

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

What was the color you where going to paint it?

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

good ----

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

It begins-

Attachment 11194

Attachment 11195

Overall I'm pretty happy with how the primer went on.

There was a moment about 2 minutes into the painting where I was scared of what I got myself into. But when it all comes down to it, you can't learn unless you try, and if I screw it up, who cares? Give it another try down the road I guess :)

I'll update as I go along
Sky

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

More paint progress:

The tank and rear fender are just about ready for the base coat.

There's still a little dent on the front side that needs to be fully taken care of, I've highlighted it in the circle there. It's a stubborn one, doesn't seem to want to go away.

Attachment 10960

Attachment 10961

Everything else is already masked, primed and sanded, ready for basecoat:

Attachment 10962

and just today I put down the basecoat on the frame, swingarm, and handlebars. I'm going to clear them in just a little bit, got to check them over and make sure everything is fully even.

Attachment 10963

Attachment 10964

Attachment 10965

Thanks for keeping in the loop
Sky

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

good stuff man. i am a big fan of black bikes with small amounts of chrome.

there is going to be some dust and things in your paint. no amount of trying to stop it will make it not happen. what you are doing should give you pretty good results though. a little wet sanding a buffing later will make them nice. its best to do that a day or 2 after it dries. while its still soft and easy to do.

if you have any questions let me know, i paint these on a daily basis

http://www.extraaircraft.com/images/ea300L/3extra6.jpg

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

Got the tank and rear fender painted:

I couldn't be more pleased with how the gas tank turned out,

Attachment 10772

The fender came out looking really nice,

Attachment 10773

Until I saw this little section,

Attachment 10774

Not exactly sure what happened there? but now I'm going to have to wetsand the fender and re-spray it :(

Now I need more paint, first time, thought I could get it all done with one quart. I was wrong, need more black!

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

This sure looks like a lot of black by itself!

Attachment 10519

Should look a lot better when all the contrast is applied.

I've also come to the conclusion that the messed up section on the rear fender must have been caused by me accidentally bumping into it when spraying some of the other items in the booth. The respray turned out really good.

Later
Sky

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

loving the 100% DIY action. i hate chrome myself so seeing this is great!


NEUMAN

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

Thanks man.

Initially I was going to have my Dad paint the bike, but he and my Mom are chilling on his sailboat in San Diego right now. they left in october and won't be back until March sometime. I didn't want to wait that long, so I tried to do it myself. It's coming out OK, probably what I should expect for my first time.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

looks damn good for your first time

prep work is 95% of a paint job and you clearly have patience

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

So let's get this party started!

Attachment 10232

I took about five hours today rearranging and cleaning my garage. It was driving me insane, I'm kind of a neat freak. Now I can actually access my tools again without walking across one of my tables. Everything is in place, but I do still need a few items. I should be able to reassemble quite a bit of the bike now though, it should come together nicely over the next few weeks.

Yeah I know, it shouldn't take that long, but I'm not in a huge hurry, it's still winter here ;)

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

Got the front end on today while my little one was napping.

I think it looks pretty good with the scuffed front forks and black triple trees. The bike definitely looks different than it did before. Looks almost like an exile style bike.

Attachment 10215

Attachment 10216

I should get a more complete image when I get some more of it together.

thanks
Sky

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...
 

pretty awesome man, I like the brushed forks and black tripple tree as well. its gonna be sweet