Things that suck...

I mocked up the final design for my tank and drove over to Kurt's place and dropped it off.  Below is the mockup, though the font in the mockup isn't what Kurt is going to use--he's going to paint "Mallin" in an Indian-style font, but I don't have that on my computer.  Anyway, you get the idea...

I thought that was that and very shortly I'd be getting a call from Kurt to come get it.  Well, I got a call from Kurt all right.  He said I wasn't going to be happy.  He said he began painting the graphics on the side of my tank, but when he pulled up the outlining tape, some of the paint came up with it.  Great...just great!  I went and picked up the tank...here's the damage...

At least Kurt didn't get too far into the painting...he simply put down the first coat of gold on one side and hadn't gotten into a second coat or the details with the black outlining.  

You know, I used paint and primer from the same manufacturer--the paint and primer recommended for use with each other...and I even scuffed up the primer a bit before applying the color coat.  The only thing I can figure is that somehow some way some sort of contaminant--oil, gas, oil from my hands...something--got on the primer.  Aggravating!

So for the third time, I will sand the tank down again (at least to the primer) and repaint it.  I think I will also allow a longer drying time before I take the it back to Kurt...maybe even put the tank in the oven for a bit (after 48 hours) to ensure the paint is cured.

On the plus side, it extends this project out a little longer and stops me from buying an old motorcycle for my next project...

Anyway...that's the current status.  I'm about to head into the garage and start sanding...[in the voice of Yosemite Sam] Frickin fracken...

Stay tuned...

Almost...

Well, as I mentioned earlier...tonight was the night for the final coat of color paint on the tank. I dry sanded everything...then wet sanded everything to make it as smooth as possible.  There are a couple/three imperfections in the tank...I left them.  The reality is, I don't want it to me "flawless;" I want it to look as authentic as possible, so the imperfections add to the character.  Anyway, I think it turned out beautiful!

I'm very pleased!

So for the next 48 hours I will let the paint dry.  Friday afternoon (night) I'll go see Kurt so he can pinstripe and put the "Mallin" graphics on the sides of the tank.   Then the tank will get a coat of clear enamel...then 48 hours after that I will reassemble everything and take a few glamour shots of the bike and call it officially "Done!"

Almost there!

Preparing for the final detail...

I found someone to paint the graphic and pinstriping on the sides of my tank. The guy is a professional artist who does this sort of thing all the time...and he’s giving me a pretty sweet deal to do my tank. I'm going with what most of you suggested: old-school gold letters in an "Indian style" font with a black outline around the letters and black and gold pinstriping around the tank.

So given that his work is professional, I wanted my tank to look just as nice as his work. I’m not the greatest painter, but my frame and fender came out great. Unfortunately my tank had a few fisheyes in it, so before I drop it off with Kurt, the pinstripe guy, I decided to strip the tank down and redo it. I don’t consider myself a perfectionist, but clearly I have issues.

Here’s today’s work...

Step 1...(kinda looks like Eddie Van Halen painted it)

Step 2...

Step 3...

In 48 hours I’ll sand it down one last time and give it one final color coat before it goes to Kurt. I figure I’ll sand it and do the final color coat on Tuesday night...48 hours after that it can go to Kurt...so probably Thursday or Friday night. Then once I get the tank back I have to hit it with a coat of clear...then 48 hours after that everything will final be dry so I can put the bike back together and officially call it done!

"Mallin" ???

So one more (multi-part) question for you guys...

A. Do you like a graphic on the tank?

B. If the yes to A. above, which do you prefer from the choices below:

Choice 1 (gold):

Click to enlarge

Choice 2 (silver):

Click to enlarge

Choice 3 (silver with a black and silver pinstripe):

Click to enlarge

Choice 4 (gold with a black and gold pinstripe):

Click to enlarge

Thoughts?

Beginning to end...

Since it's a little challenging to see the progression of pictures throughout the build in this blog, I made a little slideshow...

:-)

All Done!

Well... I that's that.

 All done (sans some minor little things...but it's 99.9% done)!!!

I see red...

I didn't do a lot today on other than lay down a base coat of blood-red paint.  I got all sorts of pieces and parts hanging and drying...

That's where it stands right now.  I have to wait 48 hours to give everything a good sanding then lay down another coat of red.  I imagine I'll have to do this at least three times...then a similar process for the clear.  Then reassembly, blah blah blah...

I also need to decide on lettering.  In my original mockup, I was going to put "MALLIN" on the side of the tank...but I don't know.  Here's a look at the original mockup again...

A friend suggested "MALLINATOR"  I dunno...

And, here are two pictures...I'm looking for input on the seat-post color, the seat-post-clamp color and the conduit brackets that hold on the tank...

I'm using simple conduit straps to mount the tank (four of them).  I was thinking of leaving them bare metal, but maybe they need to be red as well?  I guess I could paint them silver?

Basically, I originally thought I would do the seat post the same color as the frame...maybe leave the clamp chrome...the seat rails and springs are black...and leave the rear bracket I fabricated black...

Like this...

But the more I look at it...well, I dunno.

Here are a couple of other choices...

I like the back bracket being the same color as the frame like this picture...

On most original bikes, you cannot see the seat post or clamp, so it's not an issue...

WAIT!!! (I just though of this)... what about leaving the seat post read and making the clamp

Yeah...I still dunno. Maybe I'm brain dead from all the paint fumes...?
I'll think about it over night and see if any of you have opinions in the morning...
Decisions decisions.  I'm sure it will come to me sooner or later...
If you have thoughts on any or all of the above, I'm listening...

More details...

Today I got a chance to work on the bike a bit.  I spent a lot of time sanding sanding sanding...then Bondo Bondo Bondo...then more sanding sanding sanding.  Here's a shot of the frame at some point during the process...

At some other point I got it to a point where I could put down a coat of primer...

Here are some of the other bits and pieces with the first coat of primer...

Clearly everything will need to be sanded again...probably a little more Bondo...then some more sanding...then another coat of primer...then more sanding...then the first color coat...and so on...

And even better...my wheels are done!  I mounted the Quick Bricks on them today...NICE!

I was able to get the white letters off of the side using some MEK.  Here's a close up of the tread...

Retro!

So that's it for today.  I'll probably piddle a bit tomorrow with sanding and primering...

I'm in the home stretch!

No more Rat!

I'm to the point now where I'm ready to grind, sand, Bondo, sand, primer, sand, and paint. My new wheels will be ready on Tuesday…but that's no reason to hold up the finish work. So this is final picture as a rat bike…

After taking snapping that shot, I disassembled everything and separated the parts that need to be painted and started doing some test sanding. Here's where the project is right now…

The painted parts…

The non-painted parts…

My new tires are here too (forgot to take pictures of them). I used some MEK to get the white writing off the sidewalls…all black…they're going to look awesome on the new wheels.

Hopefully over the course of this week, I can take some time in the evenings to grind, sand, Bondo, sand, primer, sand, yada yada…

It's coming along...

I can breathe!

Before...

After...

That's better. Too much empty space before...

Details...more details...

Probably not a lot going to happen on the project today aside from gluing a piece of rubber on the outside of the clutch cover to quiet the clutch noise a little (which I already did). I read somewhere that this will significantly reduce the clutch noise…and sure enough it does. I first applied the rubber to the outside cover with spray-on adhesive and went for a test ride. Sure enough, the noise was reduced. So I removed the rubber and reapplied it with high-temperature silicon and clamped it on the case to dry…

It's like I say when doing carpentry work…and in the words of Norm Abram…"You can never have enough clamps."  Here's a project I built for a friend of mine...

... see...clamps good!

OK, back to this project...
Before I glued on the rubber to the clutch cover, I did take a picture showing the bike with the modified faux-oil-pump chain…

I'm much happier without the tentioner on faux oil pump...and I love the copper fuel line!

Tomorrow my retro Quick Brick tires arrive. And by the end of next week, my new wheels should be built. Then it's on to final tweaking…then all of the prep work (which is going to be significant--disassembly, sanding, grinding, cleaning up welds, Bondo, more sanding, more grinding…then eventually paint!) It'll probably be a while between getting the new wheels on the bike and paint…I'll more than likely ride it around like it is for a while (I like it). Though, maybe I will primer it and ride it around primered (like the hot-rod guys did in the 70s!).

Mas later...

Getting into the details...

Last night and today I worked on my fuel tank. I purchased a Kreem tank liner kit and went through all of the gyrations required thoroughly line and seal the tank. It seemed to work perfectly. Looking down into the tank, you can see the white liner….

The Kreem tank liner requires 24 hours to drive before putting any fuel into the tank. I will probably give it a couple days to ensure it's completely dry given the humidity we have here.

Next I worked on the exterior of the tank. Sanding…Bondo…sanding…Bondo…and so on and so forth…

I got it close enough to give it a coat of primer. I'll work on the finish more when I'm ready to paint, etc. That'll be awhile…so the primer will protect the exterior of the tank until I'm ready…

Next it was on to the fuel line. The rubber hose looks ugly…and I wanted a copper fuel line anyway. Without a whole lot of thinking, I was able to get the fuel line installed.

And yes…there is a filter; it's inside the petcock.  Here's how everything looks so far...primered tank and copper fuel line...

The final thing I wanted to accomplish was to remove the "chain tensioner" from the chain on my faux oil pump. To accomplish this required significant amounts of pain and suffering…but it lost--I won!

Looks much better!

I also switched the pedals for a less ratty set...though the new set are still a little ratty.

Anyway, that's all for now.  Tomorrow morning I get to put fuel back into the tank and go for a ride! Slowly but surely, it's taking shape.

More later...

A couple of daytime pictures of the new fork...

The picture from last night was obviously not too good...very dark, little camera, weak flash, etc.   So I took a couple more pictures this AM at different angles to show how the new fork looks on the bike.  I think it is a very nice improvement...

The bike rides a lot better as well.  I'm happy!

I ordered a different air filter...a different petcock (so I can run a copper fuel line easier and cleaner)...my tires have shipped (finally!)...and I have two new wheels being built (the front wheel with a Sturmey Archer brake...no brakes is a bit challenging...FUN!...but challenging).

Stay tuned...

Fork me!

I got the new fork installed tonight.  Too tired to do much other than post the picture...

It rides much nicer!

'night.

Choke me!

Well...I had a little time to do a little this and that on the bike tonight. I did some piddly things like adjusted the clutch arm (the way it comes from China is crap...it’s now at a right angle to the cable--much nicer), greased the gears on the right side of the engine (dry as a bone from China), and moved the choke from the handlebars elsewhere.

There wasn’t much to the clutch arm or the gear greasing, but I did have a bit more fun with relocating the choke.

I guess they (whoever they are) think the controller for the choke should go on the handlebars. It looks like crap in my opinion, so I moved it.

After searching a bit, I found a great spot--on the right side behind the tank.

I took apart the controller and welded the back metal part it to the frame...

Then I drilled and tapped a hole and screwed the rest of the controller to the frame...

Nice, right?

I also installed the cheap chrome pipe...though not sure I like it...

We’ll see.

So I’m still waiting on my new fork, tires, and rims...and while I do, I might figure out a cleaner way to mount the coil...just need to think about it for a bit...

That’s it for this weekend...I’ll probably find some time to piddle during the week. Hopefully the rest of my parts will show up next week!

Update on parts and pieces...

No pictures to add this morning, but things are happening...

My Sturmey Archer front hub arrived, so I dropped it off at the bike shop last night to have a wheel built. While the original board track racers didn't have brakes, living in Houston requires a front and rear brake! I thought about doing a disk brake up front, but stylistically it's not appropriate for the era; hence, I went with a hub brake. I also ordered stronger rims and spokes. The 12-gauge spokes I have now look the part, but the reality is they are just old pot-metal spokes...so I'm having some double-wall downhill-racer wheels built--black rims, chrome spokes.

I also ordered a new front fork...again, something appropriate for the period. I went with a Monarch replica. I like the design of the forks and think they compliment the rest of the bike. And yes, I've read all the comments on the Monarch forks on the Internet. I actually called the guys at Crossbow--apparently they were aware of earlier problems with the forks and have addressed the issues. The forks are now welded--not brazed--but if needed, I'll reinforce it with extra welds where it's needed (if needed).

I also got a chrome exhaust...it was cheap (really cheap)...so I thought, why not.

And I'm still waiting for my Felt Quick Brick tires to arrive--they've been on backorder forever...ugh! I'm told they will ship today...though I was also told they would ship on the 8th. Maybe they’ll arrive before my wheels are ready...

So when all those bits and pieces arrive and are installed, that will pretty much be the end of the "building" (aside from moving the choke cable from the handlebars elsewhere)...then it's on to the finishing. I have to clean up welds; Bondo where needed (smoothing out the tank, for example); sand blast a few parts; send a few parts out to get chromed (my buddy owns a chroming and plating company); paint the frame, tank, and faux oil tank their respective colors; and so on. But the question is...do I want to do all that finish work? It's not that I'm lazy or averse to the work...the reality is, I sorta like the bike just the way it is--bare metal and raw! Most folks I talk to (you cannot go anywhere on the bike without random people talking to you about it...I love that part) love it just the way it is...in general folks are trying to persuade me to leave it a rat bike. I dunno...I guess we'll see...

The littlest things take so friggin long…

Mas progress!

I got the rear fender installed, but like everything else, it wasn't without a few challenges. This had to be ground down; that had to be drilled; this over here had to be bent…

Anyway, here are a few shots of the fender…

More later…