Somewhere in here I painted the tank. There were some small dents I had to take care of and the whole thing got sanded down to metal through several layers of none original paint. I’m a rattle can painter. Slow buildup of lots of layers and lots of fine sanding and I really believe to can get a really nice result. I also have a secret weapon, a clear coat made for those gas powered remote control cars that has really good fuel resistance and I’ve never had problems with paint incompatibilities either. I had simpler ideas for the tank as I remember when I started but as the masking tape goes on sometimes plans change. I love how it came out and defines the character of the bike. Its not stock but pays a little tribute to the original paint schemes and adds tasteful customization that make it mine. The logo is just a decal available from lowbrow customs but never understood emblems. After finishing the tank paint I completely screwed it up with the clear coat running. So whole thing will get redone at some point but think in the end it was necessary to get “rough” draft of it down.

That engine intimidated the hell out of me for a while. A 750cc bike was never in my scheme. I like small bikes that you can manhandle a bit if you have to. Its because of this I think I avoided the engine itself for awhile. But I did manage to pull that chopper apart and sell off most of it in the end pretty much making my engine free. Well before the rebuild. Selling off the parts was really less about making money than it was about making room enough to work in the shed. With some money back though some parts collecting started. Some of the first things were the forks, rims and hubs. The forks came pretty complete and dictated the front hub a 71 conical with that big scoop facing strait into the wind. With that the rear needed to be a drum conical to match no disks for me. That meant switching the swingarm so my brake stay was on the right side. Going this route I think really simplified some things for me. Although finding rearsets for right side shift and left brake wasn’t easy, overall the simplicity will be of benefit in the build plus I just love the weirdness of the conical drums. Slowly the shed is becoming more functional at this point. Peg board up, a couple shelves, and lots of screws driven in to hang stuff on. Probably had my first camp lantern in there to work in the evenings by now also.