cafe seat fabrication part 2

Right, so school has been sort of slowed the project down a bit this past week so all I have managed to do was continue to mock up the seat cowl. I decided I wanted to keep the frame the way it is and work around any problems that may come up. This is so that, In the event I want to change the bike back to stock I can.

Instead of fabricating a mounting bracket from scratch I wanted to re use some of the junk that came off the bike that was probably going to be chucked. What I found was that the mounting bracket for the brake light and license plate. I began hacking away at it until it looked like this. All that is left to be done now is to drill two holes in the bottom of the cowl and drill two holes in the fender bracket on the bike (circled above in red) so that they match up with the original mounting holes on the cowl and hope a CJ360 seat pan will fit on the stock seat hinges and thats it for fabrication. By the way, If anyone would be able to donate a CJ360 seat pan I would really appreciate it. If it needed to be shipped I would cover the cost.

So just to re-cap. Here is what I needed to make the cafe seat:

• CJ360 seat cowl
• CJ360 seat pan (still haven't found one)
• CB360 tail light bracket
• LED lights
• Tin snips
• Hack saw
• Pliers
• A few nuts and blots

And stuff to be done to the cowl:

• Drill holes (2 frame, 2 cowl)
• Fabricate back plate cover for cowl
• Shorten CJ360 seat
• Clean
• Paint

Anywho, Once that is done I can clean up the frame, take it over to my grand parents and prep and paint the frame!

Got questions? E-mail me at nhshrub@gmail.com and I will help you out as best I can!

Cafe seat fabrication part 1

Today I decided to take a stab at mocking up the seat cowl. I started by re mounting the seat pan, marking off where I would need to cut and bend the seat up, and fixing the handlebars so I could get a better idea of my riding position. At this point, I have decided to take the somewhat easier way out and make the seat without cutting up the back end of the frame. I did a terrible job of cutting up the seat pan and I have decided to buy a CJ360 seat pan, and cut the middle out to shorten it. It should look good once I've gotten the new seat pan on there.

Oh, and by the way, NEVER buy ANY powertool accessory from princess auto. THIS is what happened when I tried to cut through the seat pan. lousy thing could have killed me! When it happened I ended up tossing it in the garden bed, and while it was knawing away at the daffodils I ran for the extension cord plug! Good times!

cleaning, cleaning, sand and more cleaning

Today was an unusual day because for the first time I actually felt like I was making major progress! I am at the point now where I have more parts ready for paint than I have waiting to be cleaned. During the week I managed to sneak in some time with the wheels and gave them a good scrubbing. They almost look as if they would be fine to go back on the bike, but since there is rust on the rims still I figured that It would be best to sand them down and paint the black, saving me the hassle of having to repaint them next season. It will also make them look bad ass too! Today I got the front forks, swingarm, sprocket cover and handlebar controls all sanded and taped up for paint, and after looking inside my dirty parts bucket, I found NOTHING left to clean! I also was able to measure out the wiring harness as I plan on keeping the wires but scrapping the black insulation keeping them all bundled together. I will be replacing the insulation with braided PET wire sleeves, and I may even use orange sleeving just to spice things up. The handlebars and rear shocks were delivered yesterday, and for what I paid for them I am happy with what I got. Here is a pic of one of the shocks

I know that this update isn't too exciting so to spice things up, here is a crummy photoshop attempt at what I want the bike to look like once finished (keeping in mind the handlebars and exhaust will be different by the time I am finished).

The bike will be painted in low gloss black spray paint (duplicolor) and will have a harley orange racing stripe down the middle of the tank and seat cowl.

Since I cannot continue with the painting until I actually know what modifications I need to do to the back end of the bike, I hope to, sometime during the week, get the bike partially back together again so I can figure out what needs to be cut, where to weld and so on. And I assure you, I will have many pictures to support the mock up post!