First build

This is my first build. I have posted for a while now but today was the first day I had where everything was in that allowed me to do my first step of painting the frame.

So far this build is going to be a retro/vintage looking Indian cruiser/board track racer.

The frame is a GT2A Skyhawk frame with 150mm drop out. The front forks are black powder coated 1 1/8" threadless Sunlite Deluxe double springer. Once my threadless stem arrives Monday I hope the paint to be cured enough to assemble the head set so I can cut my steer tube down to size then I will be using Eastwood Down to Metal paint and powdercoat stripper so I can paint the forks in the same color as the frame.

Anyways here are the photos I have taken from what I have done today.

Primered with Dupli-Color self etching primer

Base coat

Base Coat w/ Indian Script

First coat of clear

Second coat of clear

Third and final coat of clear

For me the shape of the frame resulted in some over spray with the clear so I am hoping when it comes to the buff stage after this clear had time to dry it will buff out. If not I still have some clear left over and I will simply put more clear where it needs it and just blend it in.

For those that are wondering the paint is 1949/1950 Dodge Red. This red as per PaintRef.com shows the mixing code is the same as Coke-Cola red. Which from my research a guy who had these bikes new said the closest match to Indian red was Coke-Cola red as that's what his guy did when there wasn't any Indian red for his bike he would use Coke-Cola red for a almost perfect match. The clear is automotive grade high gloss clear that I purchased from AutomotiveTouchup which is where the base coat came from as well. I have used their paint in the past for automotive and am very impressed with color matching even for 40+ year old vehicles that are sun bleached.

 

[Crisco]

You gonna flip those bars or what..?!

 

[gary55]

Hand extruded spokes into a manually beaten rim.. Ceramic bearings personally sourced by mechanic from an ancient Chinese quarry

Sounds like the guys taking 3 wks. on a wheel are hand extruding something.

 

[gary55]

Ah ok, well that's good to know I could always take and modify the correct cable to fit the throttle I use then. I will just use the 6feet of cable I have for the front and rear disc brake and the clutch as they are all the same style attachment.

You can use a wire welder to weld a little blob on the end of the cable for the carb. end. Then your back to reg. brake cable for the throttle.

 

[Rusty_S85]

You gonna flip those bars or what..?!

I might, I have to get the seat and seat post first then see how it feels.

You can use a wire welder to weld a little blob on the end of the cable for the carb. end. Then your back to reg. brake cable for the throttle.

I wasn't thinking when I bought the twist throttle I got the one with the straight down fitting now I am having to try and locate a 90 degree cable end to thread in as I think it is going to put too much stress on the cable housing to pull it to the brake cable housings and use cable clips to hold them all together. I was looking and I found some 90 degree cable ends that are pre built for Mikuni carbs which is a straight bolt on thing. Only thing is if I would be able to disassemble I could disassemble and use my own cable housing for custom routing and length and just buy the kit since I was looking at running the VM18mm Mikuni carb for my build.

http://www.mikunioz.com/shop/90-degree-throttle-cable-adjuster-mikuni-vm-and-tm-carbs/

 

[Rusty_S85]

Well I think I figured out how to do my on board lighting system for a headlight and tail light at the very least. I have to see how heavy Duolamp`s are as they are vintage but they also have a glass lens. They might be too heavy to mount on my rear chrome ducktail fender these short fenders don't have rear bracing so I have to run a fairly light light assembly.

In any case the headlight and tail light that I use I will convert to LED via 12V LED strip lights. Tail light will use Red LED as if you use white LED with a red lens it will wash out and look pink. For the headlight I am leaning towards using warm white LED strips to give a incandescent bulb color.

Problem is I don't want to run a battery as I don't want to clutter the bike up too much. Plus a battery to run just lights seems strange to me.

So I will be buying this as Ive seen people on here say good things about it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/400108733087

This how ever puts out 12V AC from the same people talking high of it. Will work on incandescent bulbs but wont on LED as they are polar sensitive. So I would need to rectify the AC to DC. Well today I spent most of my day looking for a 2 stroke analog tachometer when I found this one site that sells Voltage Regulator/Rectifiers. Ive seen them sold on this site for motorcycles, mopeds, scooters,etc with 4 wire all the way up to what appears to be 7 or 8 wire setup. I did some reading and a 4 wire Regulator/Rectifier would be what I need but there are so many out there I don't know what to get. But the gist of it is this small regulator/rectifier with 4 wires will see two input wires and two output wires. The two input wires you hook to your AC magneto and the two outputs is regulated and rectified 12v DC.

From my understanding I would hook the red wire from that generator above from Ebay on to one AC input wire, then the other AC input wire I have to either A. attach to the engine itself or B. run wire through grommet into magneto case and attach it under a mounting bolt for the new generator. From there all I would have to do is mount a toggle switch to run one wire to and then out to my lights. I think I am going to install the toggle switch on the negative side because I know for a fact positive switching causes micro arcs inside the switch that wears it out but switching the ground does not create the small micro arc in the switch. This means now what I will have to do is create a plug that has multiple positive wires to run out for my system. so it would be one positive wire forward for headlight, one positive wire rear for tail light. Then one ground from tail light and one ground from headlight to the toggle switch. There is how ever a draw back for this system if I wire up a brake light I would use a common ground in the tail light and have a secondary power wire from the brake switch to activate the brake LED strip. This means to be simplified I need to run the toggle switch on the power side as my power wire to momentary switch can be taken from the terminal before the toggle switch.

For now I think my biggest issue is trying to figure out what voltage regulator/rectifier I will need for proper operation. Considering all this will be running is a headlight and tail light maybe a brake light with LED strip lights the power draw should be so minimal that switching lights on should put no draw on the engine.

Another thing is I am looking at plastic electronic project boxes. I think I might have to get my engine and my CDI first as if I can get a black plastic electronic project box large enough to mount not just the CDI in to hide it as well as mounting my toggle switch for lights and my key switch for grounding the CDI out to shut the engine off I think that would be a nice thing to do and install on the back side of my seat tube via clamp. At least now all I will have is just electrical wires coming out of it which those will be high dollar cloth braid wire with colored tracer strand braided in for a vintage look.

 

[samuelric]

I wanna see some of the photos but I guess the URL was broken.

 

[Rusty_S85]

I wanna see some of the photos but I guess the URL was broken.

The older photos were hosted on Photobucket and they are trying to blackmail me into paying them $650 a year to allow 3rd party hosting which was free for years and years. I just haven't gotten around to uploading those previous in progress photos to replace them here.



Aside from that a update I got my laid back seat post in today in black. Fits kinda loose in the post tube but it was a 1" seat post. Down side is I cant sit it down flush with the housing as the weld on the gusset is preventing it from slipping between the grove. The way it is now it is way too high for me to sit on the seat and put my feet flat on the ground. So I think I might take it to work and use my airtools and grind the weld down and repaint the seat post and see if I can get it to slide down all the way on my bike. If I can do that and if it doesn't weaken the gusset I should be good. Might have to do some grinding to allow some play in the seat post as it looks like the pinch groove is cut off center a little on the bike so I need to have some adjustment side to side to center to the bike. Then I will get a clamp and mark the gusset and drill a hole for the clamp bolt to go in.

My fenders came in but they are too short to reach both mounts I am thinking of mounting the main 90 bracket to the frame and then use some chrome flat stock to lengthen the slotted forward fender mount to attach it to the bottom bracket. Might not look professional but if I mount my electrical project box low enough it could obscure that adapter and my chain guards on both sides should help to obscure it as well.

 

[Rusty_S85]

Going to have to buy another brake rotor I got my rear caliper adjusted as good as I can get it on my frame but found out my rotor is warped out of the package. Front might be as well since I have to retract the pads so far just to get the pads to not touch the rotor when spinning.

Was going to buy a Zeda80 engine last night but I decided to wait till I see what my paycheck for this past week is on Monday/Tuesday then go from there. I am also looking at picking up a 36T rear sprocket to replace my 44T as well as some axle tugs that I found that I can make work on my bike. Rather have all that so I am not pulling my rear wheel off another 5 to 6 times.

 

[Rusty_S85]

Little update, haven't done a thing to the bike with the storm everything is just on hold at the moment. My Zeda 80 engine I ordered from Flordia before the storm hit was shipped out finally earlier this week but is now on hold last I saw in Orlando due to weather. The seat post and leather Velo quilted saddle from Amazon still hasn't arrived even though they were prime items. The seat post arrived in Humble yesterday, seat which should be in the same box doesn't say that with its separate tracking number. Then the Oz reed valve I ordered three days ago still haven't shipped from Amazon, the small $25 Dremel and burr bits still haven't shipped from Amazon Prime either ordered on the same day.

I did how ever email Fred last night and got a reply this morning he recommended the 7cc head to me so once I can get the boss to take some time from the busy last couple of days to write out our checks I will go ahead and order the Stage 2 Fred head in 7.0CC so it can be in the process as it states it takes 2 to 3 weeks from order.

Aside from that I got some things to do to the bike but haven't. I also need to get a new rear brake rotor I remember now the wheel fell out of the bike when I was first assembling and that is why my disc is warped it bent the disk as it was pressed up against the frame and scraped the paint. So I need to order a replacement 160mm rotor as well as a 36T sprocket so I can replace both at the same time when I pull the wheel off. I also need to buy some axle tuggers to install so I wont have to pull this back wheel off again.

 

[gary55]

Little update, haven't done a thing to the bike with the storm everything is just on hold at the moment. My Zeda 80 engine I ordered from Flordia before the storm hit was shipped out finally earlier this week but is now on hold last I saw in Orlando due to weather. The seat post and leather Velo quilted saddle from Amazon still hasn't arrived even though they were prime items. The seat post arrived in Humble yesterday, seat which should be in the same box doesn't say that with its separate tracking number. Then the Oz reed valve I ordered three days ago still haven't shipped from Amazon, the small $25 Dremel and burr bits still haven't shipped from Amazon Prime either ordered on the same day.

I did how ever email Fred last night and got a reply this morning he recommended the 7cc head to me so once I can get the boss to take some time from the busy last couple of days to write out our checks I will go ahead and order the Stage 2 Fred head in 7.0CC so it can be in the process as it states it takes 2 to 3 weeks from order.

Aside from that I got some things to do to the bike but haven't. I also need to get a new rear brake rotor I remember now the wheel fell out of the bike when I was first assembling and that is why my disc is warped it bent the disk as it was pressed up against the frame and scraped the paint. So I need to order a replacement 160mm rotor as well as a 36T sprocket so I can replace both at the same time when I pull the wheel off. I also need to buy some axle tuggers to install so I wont have to pull this back wheel off again.

If your going to order a new rotor and your still not happy with the pad coverage you might want to consider a 180 with a diff. mount to see if some mods. could get better coverage.