Gophers and Cheese

View of the Stillwater lift bridge from P.D. Pappy's parking lot.  The water level is still quite high but seems to be receding.

I did so much work on my Sportster this past winter that I thought I would try to recap it all in a single post.  If you are interested in more detail, I've organized and included links to prior posts. Like all of my pictures, click on any of them to see a larger version. The most notable change was swapping the tank and painting the rear fender.  I had a stock 4.5 gallon tank and replaced it with a 3.3 gallon king tank with pop-up gas cap.  I painted both the tank and fender using good ol' rattlecan spray paint and went with a lace panel style.  I protected them with SprayMax 2K clear coat, also in a spray can. Posts about the tank and prep: Purchase , Sealer , Draining Gas , Mock Up , Sealing The Tank , Primer and Bondo Posts about the horn and fender and prep: Stripping The Horn , Stripping The Fender , Rubberized Undercoat Posts about the paint process: SprayMax 2K , Testing Lace Technique , Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4 , Part 5 , Part 6 , Part 7 ,...

I was determined to reassemble the Sportster this weekend and succeeded.  I was also able to take it for a short ride today which was awesome.  It ran great and looks fantastic. The seat is a lot smaller than my last one (I replaced my Mustang Vintage Wide Solo with a LePera Barebones).  I basically went from the biggest seat you can get for a Sportster to the smallest.  My ass-to-seat ratio has definitely swung in an uncomfortable direction but I don't really care.  Ask me again after I get a chance to get a good 200 mile ride in.  Maybe I'll change my mind. Here are some pics that I took today, just before I washed it and took it for a ride (in case you're wondering why it looks so dusty).  I'll get some alternate-angle and detail pics up soon. I am VERY happy with the results.

As promised, here are some pics of the tank and fender in the sun.  They were just sanded and buffed but they're not waxed yet.  I think a little wax will make them look even better. I'm delighted with how they turned out.  Not bad for a rattlecan paint job if I do say so myself. I will say that the biggest thing I would do differently would be to not use the transparent red over all the whole tank and fender and just limit the use to the lace panels.  In most light, including sunlight, the black parts of the tank and fender look nice and black.  However, under certain light, such as under a flashlight, the black looks like black cherry with a definite dark red tone.  I wonder how it will look at night under streetlights. The other thing I might do differently is buy a second can of clear coat so I could layer it on and feel more comfortable sanding and and buffing it down to a high gloss. I can't want to get these things mounted on the bike! UPDA...

I gave the clear coat about 72 hours to cure and then it was onto buffing... another thing I have never done before. It could have been caused by any number of reasons but I ended up with some "orange peel" in the final coat of clear so I wanted to smooth it out. The trick was that I didn't want to be too aggressive with the sanding/buffing and go through my clear coat - I just wanted to smooth it out a little.  A show quality mirror finish would be great but this is still a rattlecan paintjob so it doesn't need to be perfect. I picked up the following from the local auto parts store: Foam buffing pad (for use in a drill) 1500 grit sandpaper 2000 grit sandpaper Meguiar's Fine-Cut Cleaner Meguiar's Machine Glaze There might be a better method or collection of tools/materials but, again, this is my first try and I don't exactly know what I'm doing. I wet sanded with 1500 and then 2000.  I used a little dish soap in the water to lubricate t...

So I waited a week for the last round of paint to dry and finally got the nerve to use my $20 can of SprayMax 2K clear coat this past weekend. Once mixed, the can was only good for 48 hours so once started, there was no going back. I did a light wetsanding with 1000 grit paper and then used degreaser on it. Then I strung up my tank with wire so I could access the underside.  I put my fender on a horse. I found it was difficult to get all the dust and lint off the tank and fender using a rag (shocking) but I found brushing then off by hand while wearing nitrile gloves worked pretty well. Here they are after emptying just over half the can of clear coat on them. I also took care of my horn cover and air cleaner cover at the same time (not pictured). The can of SprayMax 2K is covered with warnings.  I did my spraying with my garage door fully open, wearing a proper respirator and wearing nitrile gloves and goggles.  I wasn't messing around with this stuff and yo...

The Bearded Lady Motorcycle Show (aka Bearded Lady Motorcycle Freak Show / Bearded Lady Motorcycle Freakshow) is on again this year. I had a blast last year and can't recommend this show enough.  CT sent me a flyer to post so here you go. If you have any doubts on whether or not to attend, check out all my posts from last year's show and then GO ! 7/24/10: Bearded Lady Motorcycle Show 2010 - Part 1 7/25/10: Bearded Lady Motorcycle Show 2010 - Part 2 7/26/10: Bearded Lady Motorcycle Show 2010 - Part 3 7/27/10: Bearded Lady Motorcycle Show 2010 - Part 4 7/28/10: Bearded Lady Motorcycle Show 2010 - Part 5    1/14/11: Bearded Lady Motorcycle Show 2010 - Part 1 - Color 1/15/11: Bearded Lady Motorcycle Show 2010 - Part 2 - Color   1/16/11: Bearded Lady Motorcycle Show 2010 - Part 3 - Color    1/17/11: Bearded Lady Motorcycle Show 2010 - Part 4 - Color   1/18/11: Bearded Lady Motorcycle Show 2010 - Part 5 - Color    1/19/11: Bearded...

The Road King was way overdue for a wash, especially after all the sanding and painting I've been doing in the garage.  I'm definitely not one of those guys who cleans their bike more than they ride it.  My bikes are lucky to get a couple of proper washes per year.  Riding in rain counts, right? Anyway, I washed and waxed the Road King on Saturday and took it for a ride to The Joint to air dry it thoroughly.  The bike looked great and the weather was about 40 degrees warmer than last weekend so I even popped the windshield off.

More pics from First Thursday at Duluno's Pizza... It's no secret that I really like Sportsters and here is a great pair of hardtailed ironheads... ... and here's a pair of evos with apes: If you can take your eyes off the Softtail, there's a 48 and a Nightster behind it: Here's an interesting bike with what appears to be a lot of custom machined parts.  I didn't get a pic of the other side but there was a lot of work around the belt guard too. Check out this boardtrack racer style bike.  I really like it.  It's difficult to tell what's old and what's new on it.  It was also difficult to get photos of it as it drew quite a crowd. I'll end with a sport bike that really surprised me.  At first the graffiti graphics caught my eye but when I got closer, I realized it wasn't paint.  It's fleece... or something similar.  It might be the world's first machine washable paintjob. Mark your calendar and don...