Finicky work again

While in the process of prepping the side covers, I had to remove the Nighthawk emblems, they are pretty yucky looking and the wrong color. I am going to be having silver highlights on the bike so I don't want gold anywhere else on the bike. I am not into mixing metals. I tried to sand the gold off to reveal the silver underneath but that didn't work. So painting was in order. Out came the paint brushes and the steady hand went to work. I repainted the red for the 750 then highlighted with silver, the original had no highlight. I touched up around the edges where the black had rubbed off. I'll be clear coating them with the side covers.

Finally past the waiting game

For the last month I have been waiting for my exhaust to arrive and be installed.

Well Sunday I had a friend of Mark's take a look at the intended job, he said the only way he could do it was for me to bring the bike to his work. So today he helped me load my sad looking bike into my truck for the short ride to his shop. We worked together to figure out the best placement for my custom exhaust then he took over to get the two pipes to meld into one. This process was repeated on each side of the bike. The pipes that he created will have to be ground smooth and then chromed.

Now I can remove the engine to rebuild it.

Remove the wheels to polish and paint.

Remove the front forks to polish.

Clean & scuff the frame to get it ready for paint.

The last piece of the bike that is to be painted came off, the front fender currently chrome but it's dented and the only way to fix the dent is to fill it so it's getting painted. Mark thinks its sacrilege to paint chrome but I think it will pull the bike together. Started work prepping for my paint job, repairing, filling and sanding the side covers and aforementioned front fender. I have already bought the paint, the main colors are a dark almost black purple and plum crazy. I also got white, black and silver to do some decorative painting with.

Mark & I went to CMS on Tuesday and ordered the rest of my parts needed for the rebuilding process and I'm scared to see that bill.

Carb Work

Today it is was time to tackle the dreaded carbs.

The first step was to remove the lower bowls and clean them their was some serious varnish caked around the gaskets and some dirt in the bottom that took some serious scraping to remove.

The bowls were also polished not as shinny as the caps but better than they were. Then replace the bowls and work from one carb to the next replacing and cleaning all the small parts inside each carb. The float comes off first (the orange piece in the top picture) this regulates the level of fuel in the carb. Then their are 3 small jets that need to be removed and replaced with new ones two of them can be replaced with stock ones the third needs a different one that I still have to order. Then the idle mixture screw is removed noting the number of turns needed so it can be replaced at the same setting. Although these settings will most likely have to be recalibrated when the bike is finally put back together and running on account of all the crud that I cleaned out of the carbs. The slide needle is removed to be replaced by a new one.

Once all the jets and screws were removed the carb was sprayed down with carb cleaner to ensure that all the passages were free from crud.

Then all the passages were blown out with the compressor.

The final process was to reverse the procedure and replace all parts. This entire process had to be repeated for each carb to ensure that nothing was missed. the bowls are only lightly placed back on because I have that one last jet to replace when ever it gets here.

Also finally received my exhaust today, can't wait to get that all sorted out.

Information gathering

Finished polishing the other grab bar tonight.

Today was the day to go question the experts.

Carbs

Should I rebuild or not? Took them to Brien at The Bikesmith - he said I should go for it, it's not that hard. All I have to do is get a different Pilot Jet that will work with the new air filters that I am getting and make the bike run better - no popping & farting - better acceleration.

Purchased these today on Ebay. $52.96 /four

Cost here 14.99 each

Paint

Went to see Dave at Napa, he had so much information for me my head was spinning when I left. He had the perfect color of dark purple already mixed up as a mistint.

The Dark purple will be the wheels the frame and the base color for the decorative painting I am planning to do. I still have to decide on a color of purple for the main areas on the tank - fenders & side covers.

Purchased Primer for the bare metal areas and an air filter/regularor for my compressor so I can practice my airbrushing.

Also purchased some new handlebar grips cause the ones I have now aren't the right size.

These are for a Gold Wing so they should be nice and comfortable.

Purchased on Ebay $36.39

Polish Polish and Polish some more!

Another night of polishing this time it's the grab bars off of the rear fender. They were looking rather dull when I started.

The top one is the before and the bottom one is the after. The picture really doesn't do it justice!

I could only muster up the energy to do one because my hands are aching from all I've already done.

Working away

Still working on cleaning the carbs - working my poor little fingers to the bone - sanding - polishing - waxing parts that fit in the palm of my hand. Investigated the shop manual for the rebuild procedures for the carbs it doesn't seem quite as intimidating as first thought just finicky. Finishing the carbs is my first priority this week.

Decided to save a little money & just polish the chain guard, the side that you see cleaned & polished up pretty good.

Mark & I went to Courtenay today and went shopping at the Home Depot. Mark bought me an early Birthday gift - an HVLP (high volume low presure) paint gun and an impact driver so I don't have to borrow one from a friend - Yeah! We also stopped at the Hobby place in town and he bought me an airbrush kit with a how to book to go along with it. Isn't he just the sweetest! I am ready to get creative! Investigation of paint requirements is also on my list of things to do this week.

Hoping that my exhaust tips arrive by the end of this week so I can engineer a bracket to hold them. Also a new intermediate pipe to join them to the primary pipes. A friend of Marks has kindly offered his assistance in this endeavor.

Time to catch up

Since posting last I have cleaned the battery box, the pictures aren't very dramatic but I removed the rust and its almost ready to be painted. I will be getting a new rectifier so that wasn't cleaned ( the gray item on the side of the box ) It also needs a small weld repair on the opening for the battery to slide in you can see in the before picture it was being held together with zap straps.

AFTER

BEFORE

I also attempted to clean the chain guard, it will need to be re-chromed as the reverse side is pitted with rust and there are some serious scratches on the front.

I finally put my speedometer/tachometer back together with my new faces

BEFORE

AFTER

The only thing that I am a little concerned about is being able to read them at night, I'm not sure if the light will shine through enough. You can't really tell in the picture but the numbers are purple. It has Purple Goddess writin on the speedometer gauge and Vgirl on the tachometer. I had to paint the indicator red because I wouldn't have been able to see the old yucky white one against the clean bright white faces.

I will never be able to sell this bike, not that I would ever want to even when I get my Valkyrie this will be a nice bike to have just to ride around town.

Yesterday I received the rebuild kit for my carbs so I decided it was time to work on them.

I removed all the hoses and attempted to remove the caps to start disassembling them but I could only get two caps off. In order to get the other two caps off I will need to borrow a friends impact driver. But while I had the two caps off I decided to try a technique that I saw on Xtreme 4X4 - they used WD-40 and sandpaper to remove oxidation and then polish with Mothers polish. It worked really well it's a little hard on the fingers but it's worth it if I don't have to pay to get them powder coated which was my original intention. You can see in the picture that the two in the middle are the ones I have polished you can't see in the picture but you can see your reflection in them.