Slow and Painful.

This is going to be a short post, but you can rest assured that the process was long. I finally painted my wheels, and it was time to lace them up. That is something I have not had the misfortune of doing previously. I'm glad that I took a lot of photos before I took the bike apart, because this was like trying to solve a puzzle.

The black wheels and hubs look great with the steel spokes. I'm very happy about that. I did manage to scratch the wheels up pretty bad during this process, so now I'm going to have to repaint the wheels anyway. Rather than take them all apart again to do so, I'm just going to tape up the spokes. I guarantee that it will take less time than re-lacing them.

That's all for now. I told you it was going to be short.

I see some bike parts and I want to paint them black...

Progress has been scattered, but significant. The garage was in desperate need of an overhaul, and I also needed another work bench, so I used all the scrap wood that was taking up space and made one. This worked out quite nicely, and it's been a hell of a lot easier to work on the frame up there. It's also become my painting table.

I picked up a few new goodies for the bike, and my "to buy" list is steadily shrinking. The tail light and turn signals are going to work perfectly, and look great. The tail light is going to be one of the few chrome parts on the bike by the time I'm done with it. The turn signals are aluminum.

I also picked up some awesome Gilles rear sets that needed to be mounted up. I was going to try and make it work with only the brackets that are on the bike, but it became clear very quickly that some welding was going to be needed. For that, I took a trip over to see my friend Andrew. We figured out where the controls would work out best, and welded up the new brackets.

The controls needed to be set out about 3/4", so I had to make some spacers. I also used some metal putty like caulk to smooth over the welds and make the transition from the frame more gradual. I still need to sand it down, but once its painted, you won't even notice it.

I've spent most of my time recently working on getting parts ready to be painted, and painting them. I decided that the smaller parts (hubs, brackets, etc.) would be best painted with aerosol cans since I still have yet to use the paint gun, and the frame is going to be a better place to practice.

Ceramic paint for the headers.

Shock cover prepped.

Shock cover painted.

Painting station.

So at this point the hubs are done, headlight trim ring is done, the engine mount brackets are done, and the one of the shock covers is done. The front fender is primed, but I'll probably wait to paint that when I do the frame. The headers need another coat or two. The wheels are next on the list. Once those are completed, I can lace the wheels and get a rolling chassis together. It will also be nice not to have as many parts floating around the garage. I finished up with cleaning the spokes as well. Now they just need to be polished up a bit.

Shiny!