Holy hell, it's been a long time..

I haven't logged in for a long time. My bike is so damn close to being on the road and I haven't even looked at it in months.

I need to go finish it. I really wish my paint would have worked out. The midnight purple I had done looked so great in pictures. Too bad that ended up being an expensive disaster. I don't know that I'll ever have the guts to go after a new paint job again.

I'm going to try to convince myself to finish this soon. We're dumping the Mikuni and going back to amals. It's really close though.





Ignore the oil on the cardboard...that was from the center stand when the oil bag leaked into it (I sent it to CNW to be repaired).

Welcome back !
Looking good.

KSUWildcatFan said:

We're dumping the Mikuni and going back to amals.

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Why would that be - if it hasn't been run yet ?

Remind us what happened with this midnight purple paint job...

The oil bag had a crack in it and the oil all wept out into the center stand. With the stand down, it all eventually poured out onto the cardboard.

I think the only "leak" it has now is on the cylinder head where I decided to use neoprene gaskets (JUNK) instead of paper gaskets. It sprays out a bit as it's going down the road. Those will be swapped for standard paper gaskets and RTV sealant soon.

The tank fiasco....ugh. The pictures looked AMAZING. The body work was bad however and that left large waves in the paint. I was told to ship it back to "fix", with the claim being that it just needed wet sanded. Even though I knew it was the body work that was the issue, I shipped it back. He said it got scratched up in-transit (stemming from my packing job on the return trip) which caused him to have to repaint a bunch of it. He said he fixed it and shipped it all back. When I got it the tank had a huge dent in the front--damaged in transit and not insured. The waves in the paint were of course still there because the only way to remove them would have been to strip it all down and start over. I ended up having it all stripped off with acid because the situation pissed me off so much. He offered to re-do it all for about half of what I had originally paid but being pissed off as I was, and having run out of money (as I did), I never was able to make that happen. So now I've got a stripped down and worse-dented-than-before tank sitting in my garage, with my average-ish black and gold tank on the bike.

I'll probably be forever black and gold. That experience was one I doubt I'll be able to afford to attempt to rectify, especially now with a third kid in my house. It is what it is I guess.

This guy just did my kid's Bonneville: http://vintage-vendor.com/

It came back perfect. Check out the Norton tanks on his site.

Jim, I sent you a PM. :/

Glad your son's bike turned out well.

Whoops, Rohan, I thought you were asking about the oil.

We don't like the Mikuni. Dad isn't good at tuning it (he KNOWS how to tune the amals) and it sounds awful. Plus I had a brand new set of amals I got with the bike.

Get in touch with Travis at TC Concepts right there in Topeka. He does top notch work, repainted a friend's Firebird Scrambler, not to mention numerous other bikes for friends. I've never heard a complaint yet about him.

cyclegeezer said:

Get in touch with Travis at TC Concepts right there in Topeka. He does top notch work, repainted a friend's Firebird Scrambler, not to mention numerous other bikes for friends. I've never heard a complaint yet about him.

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Wish that were an option right now. Any attempt to get the paint where I want to be is going to have to happen later, when I'm less broke. Three kids (two in daycare, both in diapers) has pretty much killed any spare money I had.

The main thing right now is to get the bike finished up, as cheaply as possible, and then to get it on the road. It's close, as it has been for 3+ years, I just need to dedicate some time to finishing it.

+1 ... Welcome Back. Sorry to hear about your paint job issues. I certainly understand the age old money and time problems you are going thru though since we have 4 girls and 2 boys, ages 5 to 13. Shoot, my bike has been under a cover, right outside our front door for the last 3 years.-----I was in and out of Afghanistan doing contract work for two of those years, and my wife replaced the cover with a new one at least once----I am a lucky man ---- I just don't get to ride motorcycles much at this point, but I will again. Anyway, when I had the money I didn't have the time, and when I had the time ....well, you get the idea :wink: Hey, they way I look at it ......your Norton will wait for you, they were built to last.

Oh well on the paint issues. I'm one of few people to have issues with this painter so what the hell, maybe it *is* my fault. I don't know. Whatever.

My bike has been sitting at dad's this whole time. It's got a nice layer of dust on it at this point. Eventually...

Maybe not such a bad thing to work on them but not ride so much when you have little kids who will be dependant on you for some time.
I curtailed my riding to off road stuff during those years. Even though you can get hurt off road, I never once had a tree pull out in front of me!
Once back on the road about fifteen years ago now, I could see it is fraught with danger. Reading some specs about the introduction of ABS brakes for the European Union next year, the figure given is that a rider on motorcycle involved in an accident is 20 times more likely to die than a driver of a car involved in an accident.
Until finding the EU stats yesterday, I have looked everywhere for stats on motorcycle deaths/injuries, but it seems these are very unpopular numbers to read, so the stats are tough to find. Motorcycle manufacturers would probably prefer that those numbers were kept as hidden away as possible.
Work away, get em perfect, then when no one is dependant on you for more than mowing the lawn, have at er!

Glen

Don't be putting a nice expense paint job overtop over your own dent fillerings. Ya gotta $pend here. :wink:

I figured $1200 was enough to deal with body work issues and paint on my stuff. I figured wrong.

worntorn said:

Maybe not such a bad thing to work on them but not ride so much when you have little kids who will be dependant on you for some time.
I curtailed my riding to off road stuff during those years. Even though you can get hurt off road, I never once had a tree pull out in front of me!
Once back on the road about fifteen years ago now, I could see it is fraught with danger. Reading some specs about the introduction of ABS brakes for the European Union next year, the figure given is that a rider on motorcycle involved in an accident is 20 times more likely to die than a driver of a car involved in an accident.
Until finding the EU stats yesterday, I have looked everywhere for stats on motorcycle deaths/injuries, but it seems these are very unpopular numbers to read, so the stats are tough to find. Motorcycle manufacturers would probably prefer that those numbers were kept as hidden away as possible.
Work away, get em perfect, then when no one is dependant on you for more than mowing the lawn, have at er!

Glen

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My wife's mom died ten years ago on the back of a motorcycle. It's not a terribly popular thing in this household, though she never objects to me riding if I want to.

You don't want filler in any holes , bangs , bumps or dings. There are skilled people such as Ross Thompson metal refinishing who guarantee there will be no filler once the work is done. Then you can research who can do the paintwork required to your likes because the paintwork is the first thing viewers see and criticize , or praise. $ 1200 seems right but things went wrong for you. It all requires a lot of labor and time. Think about building a proper protective shipping box too , even if it has to go to the other side of your own city... or another country.

I knew the tank I sent out was somewhat battered but I'll never understand why a "professional" painter would go to the effort of fully documenting the process and insisting on top-of-the-line paint but then wouldn't put the effort into making sure the body work wouldn't cause issues at the end. Just seems..odd.

But yeah, shit happens. I'll have to run what I have for quite a while.

I think Walridge motors is having a x-mas sale now and you could get one of the new steel tanks at a very good price ,the American dollar is strong now.

Never did finish. It's still sitting in the same spot, coated in dust. :/

Well, if you are burned out on it, I'll take it home with me.
I will waive my usual "Norton Disposal Fee".

Slick

"Technically" I don't own it anymore. I was hard up for cash a few years back and my dad bailed me out to keep me from selling it to someone else. Eventually it'll get finished now that he's retired..I hope.. :/