Fender Up

Fender is coming together. Bungs are in place. Top, bottom and sides are cut. Looks like the side radius does not match the tire from the pictures. It is an optical illusion as the radius was traced with a jig that fit very snugly on the axle and had an equally tight hole to hold a sharpie. The radius of the fender looks better the closer you get to looking dead down the center of the axle. So I sat and stared at the lines before I cut them. Standing up, bending down, sitting down, in from the front side of the axle, a little behind the axle, measured it with a tape measure, a big set of calipers as I knew that I laid out the radius exactly 10" from the axle center and just couldn't figure out what the hell was going on. Then it came to me, every bike that you see in magazines and pictures, the bike is on the kickstand. So you are looking much closer to dead in the line with the axle than when it is on a fat jack and sitting straight up. I will look at it again tomorrow, but I am convinced it is right mathematically. But as I have come to learn, it is how it looks that matters, and that is how you really 'measure' it's fit.

Mock Up Full Bike

Lookin' good, I am diggin' the proportions and the feel of it. It is starting to look like the vision I have always had in my head. Chad helps me with certain stuff, like CNC lathe stuff, but I also wanted to include him to show the proportions of this bike. The bike overall, is 8'6" long. A big bike and much longer than a my H-D Softail. Chad is 5'9" and about 160 lbs, he is all kinds of stretched out sitting on the bike, but I look just right and it feels good. Not too small and I like my legs as close to 90 degrees as possible. When people ride with their front legs all stretched out, they can not make quick reactions to cars the pull out in front of you, or a deer or a bike eating pothole. Plus, that is not comfortable to me either.

Rear Fender

Fender work, you can see in the top pictures that the fender has a peak to it around the seam. Well this is much less than I started with. It sucked and looked like shit. I tried to pound it flat with a T-Dolly and body hammer, but it was so thin at the raised seam the the welds started cracking. It the fender was not shaped right and ground too much before I got it. I welded the entire inside, which also helped to suck in the sides a little. Now it is real close to being the finished left to right shape. I have some low spots on the seam and a few spots that need touch up welding fill. I am going to get the fender bolted to the bike before I finish the shape.

The grinding of the side shape ends and general work will move it around a little. So I will do all of the finish metalwork at the same time.

Filler Neck

Gas tank is done for now. Onto the rear fender and mounting the seat. Still have to put the petcock on the tank, but I want to get the new rocker boxes on the motor, and see where the air cleaner lies before I decide where to put the petcock and attached fuel line.

Filler Neck Going Together

Measure twice, cut once. Knocked out most of the hole with a cut off wheel. Then finished it with a carbide burr on a die grinder and a file. Took probably 30 mins from start to finish, layout to a good hole with the neck in it.
Added the stainless mesh to the bottom of the filler neck. The longer than needed neck will help to reduce splashing up into the vent and will also help to keep crap out of the gas. Fly's, ear plugs, anything you can think of. Never hurts to have as many layer of filters as possible, because being stuck along side the road sucks because the gas line is plugged.

Mount Me

Tank mounts welded onto the frame. Check that off the list.

Petrol Vessel

Tank, in it's finally resting place. Aligned it solely by sight, then sat on the floor, ran the TIG pedal with the back of my leg and tacked it into place.