The Tail: Frame prep continues

Since I'm going to be ditching the stock licence plate bracket, turn signals, and grab bar, I've got a bit of clean up to do on the tail of the AR80's frame.

This is one of the passenger grab bar brackets.

And this is where the stock licence plate holder bolts on.

I finally have a chance to use one of my Christmas presents.  A Bosch 4.5" angle grinder.

This should be just a bit faster than my Dremel tool with a cut off wheel.

Yep, I zipped these things off in no time.

Better.

I pulled the plastic bar ends out of the frame.  I don't want to melt them when I cut off the licence plate bracket.  I have a plan for them.

Nice.

Cutting off useless frame parts is almost as satisfying as deleting useless source code.

That is looking nice and tidy.  But what about those bar ends?

My plan is to insert these Supernova LED turn signals (from Revival Cycles) into the frame using the stock bar ends.

They are just about the perfect size.

I'll drill a whole through the bar end, and then fish the wire through the frame.

Hole drilled.

Bar end LED turn signal constructed.

Make that a pair.

Then I drilled holes in the frame to fish the wires through.

It wasn't too hard.  I stuck a piece of electric fence wire through first, taped the wire to it, and then pulled it back through.

Note: There is literally nothing electric fence wire can't do.

I didn't push the bar ends all the way in because they are kind of a pain to pull back out.  I'll wait until final assembly to put them in for good.  But this gives an idea of how it'll work.

I think they'll look pretty good once the frame is black and they are pushed all the way in.

The next things to eliminate are the forward grab handle bolt holes.  I won't be using them, so they must go.

I am not a welder.  But I did manage to fill the holes with metal using a welder.

But let me stress, I am not a welder.

A couple of weld and grind sessions later, the holes are gone.  I welder would only need one session.  I am not a welder.

The little divots that remain will disappear when powder coated.  Not a welder.

Mommy and baby got home before I had a chance to finish grinding everything down smooth, but still, I am pretty happy with the progress.  There are a few more things to take care of on the frame, but I am getting dangerously close to powder coating this thing.

Frame mods

I cut the mounts for the side covers and the helmet lock off of the frame.  The Dremel, with a couple of cut off wheels and grinding discs, made pretty short work of the job.

I've still got a little more grinding to do to smooth things out, but I like how clean the center "triangles" look now.

Happy New Year

I got a whole bunch of old tools from my Grandpa over Christmas, one of which is this heavy angle grinder.  And when I say heavy, I mean heavy.  I've been using it to strip paint off the frame and I have to take a break every couple minutes to give my wet noodle arms a break.  But I must say, the wire brush head really does a good job taking off paint.

Other than a few hard to reach places the frame is stripped down.  There is a bit of rust in a couple places that I'm going to treat with Krud Kutter.  I also plan to clean up the frame by cutting off the passenger peg mounts and side cover mounts.

Since its finally gotten cold around here I picked up this little heater to warm up the garage a bit.  Its never going to make it 72 degrees in there, but it keeps it comfortable.  Not bad for $20.

With the heat and The Mayor's solemn look of approval I'll be D'ing W in 2013.

Paint prep continues

I basically finished up the swingarm and then got started on the triple clamps.

I've also started on the frame. I figured the frame was going to take forever, but I found a better chemical stripper that may make it a quicker job.

I picked up some Rustoleum Aircraft Remover because its quite popular with the online motorcycle crowd. So far its worked well.

The Aircraft Remover has a big airplane on the can so when you look at it on the shelf you think "Whoa, they use this stuff to strip paint off of 747s!". But then you read the directions on the back and it says "Do not use on aircraft". That's just not right, Rusty.

Paint prep

Today I started prepping some of the smaller parts for paint.  I used some chemical stripper to start and then finished up with sanding pads.  The shifter, brake pedal, and kick stand are ready to go.  The swing arm is going to take forever.  I should really just bring these things to someone with a sandblaster.  But then what would I have to do on a rainy Sunday morning?