Paint and progress

The sun is starting to come out and the bikes are going by my house. It has been a short winter and I have lots of work left to do.

I am, however, making progress. I have my headlight bucket and fender rails powder coated gloss black and I  have my tank primed and sanded and read for the first coats of paint. Today I got the first coats of paint -- real paint -- on the highlight areas of the headlight bezel, the air cleaner and a few other trim pieces. It took a while to get the right red -- I wanted something dark, but that would still jump out. What I ended up with is Regal Red from Rustoleum - which is actually pretty close to the stock red. So far it looks good and glossy and I'm pretty excited about what the final product is going to look like.

I haven't settled on the paint job for my tank and fenders. That's why I'm focusing on trim pieces where I have a better idea. This is either going to be a red bike with black trim or a black bike with red trim.

AIS is gone. New pegs is on!

Meanwhile, I've been cleaning up the front of the bike. I took the AIS system off - a common mod -- and then noticed the California emisssions can on the other side. Turns out, I don't have an California tank, so I took that off too. Now the front of my bike has a cleaner, more open look without all the nanny-state plastics. That said, I could not get the AIS plugs out of the engine, so I sealed them off. The back plug elbow  broke off while I was trying to use the slide hammer to yank it out. So I sealed that up with some steel reinforced epoxy. The front one is sealed with a little bolt. I'll paint them black -- maybe put a little copper plumping cap on -- give it that steam engine look.


The two hoses left behind by the removal of the AIS and the Cali Can are plugged with a golf tee and a rollover valve respectively, but I might remove the rollover valve and extend the hose.

I also put on the new front pegs, which are much better than the bent ones that were on there previously. I took the exhaust off and discovered a lot of rust and dents. I bought all new gaskets and I'm giving it a nice coat of ultra hi-temp Rustoleum gloss black. My goal is to get it looking like an old un-restored bike - no chrome, just a tough old donkey ready to go anywhere.

I still have a lot to do. Even if the paint progress is encouraging, there are still a lot of projects left before I get on and ride. I have a braided brake line and new brake pads for the front. I need to take the rear wheel off and lube the splines of the main drive shaft. While I have the wheels off, I want to paint -- or plastidip -- them.

Ready to paint - I'm using a total of three
different kinds of primer on this project. 

Fenders are almost ready for paint.
Another coat of primer and some sanding first. 

Good bye rusty pipes. 

This is my blank canvas. 

El Burro Restoro Update

New bike stand from Boss Power Outlet on Ebay. It's cheap and works great

I just came inside from tucking El Burro in for the night. The temp is supposed to get down in the 20s tonight and it is forecast to be rainy and blowing in the morning. I've been busy before and after work doing little things and surveying everything that needs fixing. I bought a bike stand - cheap and easy - and a mirror on a stick to check the oil sightglass while riding. I also bought a cover -- since my garage is waterproof but just barely and less so during a big storm. I repaired the  neutral switch which stopped the oil leak. The directions here at  Zia Rider  were invaluable.

 Tonight I changed the oil - very easy, but I noticed a few bolts were missing! Just the engine covers, but I bought some new ones to replace the missing parts anyway.  Next up: Tear down, clean up, rust hunting and adding the sissybar. 

Dents I don't mind. Rust needs to go. I'll pull the tank, strip it to the bare metal like I did with the Honda.

Here's the bike stand in action. 

There are bits of rust you can't see in the pictures. The wiring from the handlebars is rust-stained too. 

This bike once had a windshield - the mounting plates are still on either side of the headlight.

The bike stand made the oil change a piece of cake. Need a long-handled allen wrench set to change the oil filter.

Bolts missing from the the side covers.

For as bad as the dents and rust on the bike. The seats are in great condition.

Rust monster.

I wasn't going to do anything to the binnacle until I realized it was plastic and the chrome was peeling on the  right hand side. Maybe I'll sand it down and paint it brushed aluminum or flat black.